Join us to celebrate the launch of our very special new publication, Staging Cultural Encounters: Algerian Actors Tour the United States by Jane E. Goodman. Staging Cultural Encounters tells stories about performances of cultural encounters and cultural exchange during the US tour of the Algerian theater troupe Istijmam Culturelle in 2016. Goodman follows the Algerian theater troop as they prepare for and then tour the US under the auspices of the Center Stage program, sponsored by the US State Department to promote cross-cultural dialogue and understanding.

Goodman takes readers on tour with the actors as they move from the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, to the large state universities of New Hampshire and Indiana, and from a tiny community theater in small-town New England to the stage of the avant-garde La MaMa Theater in New York City.

Staging Cultural Encounters takes up conundrums of cross-cultural encounters, challenges in translation, and audience reception, offering a frank account of the encounters with American audiences and the successes and disappointments of the experience of exchange.

Jane will be joined in conversation by Michelle Bigenho of Colgate University.

Staging Cultural Encounters is published by Indiana University Press, and is available in October 2020.