Written by Blandine Savetier and Waddah Saab (France)
Translated from French by Taylor Gaines
Directed by Blandine Savetier

When Ka, a respected poet and journalist living in exile in Germany, returns to his homeland in Kars, Turkey to report on the increase in suicides among young Muslim women, he is swept into a cascade of conflict, corruption, and zealotry among competing factions of the region. This stage adaptation of Nobel Prize Laureate Orhan Pamuk's acclaimed novel captures the great conflicts of our time: Western versus Eastern culture, secularism versus religion, and the lives lost in these struggles.

Waddah Saab is a French dramaturg. He has collaborated with Blandine Savetier’s theatre company since 2001. Together, they wrote a theatrical adaptation of Orhan Pamuk's novel Snow, as well as L'homme qui voulait être une île (The Man Who Wanted To Be An Island), an adaptation of a short story from an adaptation of Pamuk’s Black Book that has been performed at Théâtre National de Strasbourg and Journées Théâtrales de Carthage in Tunis. Snow has been presented in China, France, and the United States.

Blandine Savetier is a French actress, director, and playwright. With Waddah Saab, she has written theatrical adaptations of works by Orhan Pamuk. A recipient of the Critic’s Choice Award for her production of The President by Thomas Bernhard, her work has been performed in Théâtre du Rond-Point and Théâtre National de la Colline in Paris, Théâtre National in Brussels, and Théâtre National de Strasbourg, where she an associate director. Following her 2017 production in the Théâtre National de Strasbourg and a tour in France, her theatrical adaptation of Pamuk’s novel Snow drew international attention and praise, with television reportage by ARTE, TV5 Monde, and the BBC. It toured for a month and a half in national theaters in China. She will direct Odysseus at the Avignon International Theater Festival in July 2020. Savetier has taught acting for over ten years.

Organized by Carol Becker and David Henry Hwang, Theatre, this marquee festival presents readings of three plays by living international playwrights alongside conversations with the playwrights and translators.

The Second Columbia University School of the Arts International Play Reading Festival features:

Snow, written by Blandine Savetier and Waddah Saab, France
The Sickness of Stone, written by Blanca Domenech, Spain
You Shall Love, written by Pablo Manzi, Chile

Blandine Savetier, writer © Jean-Louis Fernandez

Waddah Saab, writer