Štěpán Šimek
Prague
Štěpán Šimek was born in Prague.
- Four Chekhov plays, newly translated
- Authorized translator of Václav Havel
- PEN America Translation Award
- More than forty productions
- Chairs Lewis & Clark theatre
“If you read the plays in Russian, Chekhov's language is unbelievably simple.”
Upcoming events
He directed in Swiss theatres, the Zurich Schauspielhaus among them, before moving to the United States in 1987. He earned an MFA in directing at the University of Washington and has staged more than forty productions in Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Portland and Europe. He is one of the authorized translators of Václav Havel, and his translations of two Czech plays won the PEN America Translation Award.
He retranslated Chekhov's four major plays from the Russian, convinced that American Chekhov had gone slow and mournful when the original is direct, fast and funny. Portland's PETE spent a decade staging those translations, from Three Sisters in 2014 to a seagull in 2024. He has taught at Lewis & Clark College since 2001 and now chairs its theatre department.
With his wife, Esther, he runs The 2509, a small stage in Northeast Portland, and directs shows with the early-music band Musica Universalis.
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