On Thursday, Bowdoin hosted three internationally recognized playwrights in collaboration with the Portland Stage Company's "From Away" program.
The Portland Stage Company performed readings of the recent works of Salomat Vafo of Uzbekistan, Vincente Groyon of the Philippines and Marius Ivaskevicius of Lithuania.
"Vafo's work concentrates on human rights and women's rights," said Production Coordinator of the Theater and Dance Department Joan Sand.
Groyon is the recipient of the Manila Critics Circle National Book Award, and Ivaskevicius has directed three documentaries in addition to his plays.
The playwrights drew noticeably from their cultures of origin.
"Ivaskevicisus wrote a domestic farce very much in the style of Gogol, while...Salomat Vafo, was clearly influenced by another Russian, Doestoyevsky. Vincente Groyon...beautifully captured the personal turmoil that the huge class and political divide of that country engendered in him," said Chair of the Department of Theater and Dance Roger Bechtel.
The International Playwrights reading is the first among a sequence of events in the Theater Department, and Bechtel expressed hopes that it "reinforced" the "strong interest in original work and playwriting here at Bowdoin."