My friend Rod Wooden in el Teatro La Concha, Cali, Colombia.
La Concha is one of the few theatres in the world which has a
tree growing through the middle of the auditorium and is where
Rod mainly works with his group of actors, El Grupo de Madera.






Rod Wooden's stage plays include YOUR HOME IN THE WEST, which won the
1990 Mobil International Playwriting Competition and the 1992 John Whiting
Award. It was premiered at Manchester Royal Exchange in 1991 and was
subsequently performed by Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, by Cirkus Tigerbrand
in Stockholm, and by Live Theatre in Newcastle upon Tyne, who also took it on a
national tour. His one-act play HIGH BRAVE BOY, first performed in 1990 by
Northern Stage in Newcastle, has been seen at Theatre Studio in New York, at
503 Theatre in London, and at Cheviot House, Edinburgh as part of the 2003
Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Other plays include an adaptation of Herman Melville's
MOBY DICK, which was produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company in
Stratford, Newcastle and London, ANTI / GONE for the RSC Education Department
(The Other Place, Stratford), SMOKE (Manchester Royal Exchange and Amsterdam
Toneelschool), MEDIA MEDIA / CHORUS (Northern Stage, Newcastle),
SCENES FROM LEVIATHAN (Colchester Mercury), and an adaptation of
WOYZECK (Northern Stage, Newcastle). Most recently his co-translation of José
Sanchis Sinisterra's THE LENINGRAD SIEGE (2006) was premiered by Out of the
Box Productions at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow, and played in London at Wilson's
Music Hall. Radio plays include MEDEA MEDIA and adaptations of Saint-Exupéry's
FLIGHT TO ARRAS and WIND, SAND AND STARS, all for BBC Radio Four.
Rod was writer in residence at Manchester Royal Exchange in 1991-92 and at
Colchester Mercury / University of Essex in 1996-97, and served as a member of
English PEN's Writers in Prison Committee from 1994 to 2000. His work is published
by Methuen Drama and by Harwood Academic Publishers, and has also been the
subject of a Granada Television documentary. Since 2000 he has lived in Colombia,
where he has worked as writer, director, and actor with El Teatro Experimental de
Cali, and more recently on productions of Spanish translations of his plays with his
own group of actors, El Grupo de Madera.

A show of Rod's recently in Teatro la Concha
The overall title of the show is Night Encounters
the two individual pieces are The Buddha on the Road and A Dead Cat in the
Rain
Encuentros nocturnos: Ensayo general de obras cortas de Rod Wooden
Dirección y dramaturgia:
Rod Wooden
Coproducción del Teatro La Concha y el Grupo de Madera
Próxima función:
17 de Octubre de 2020
HORA: 7:30 p.m.
FUNCIÓN PRESENCIAL CON INVITACIÓN PREVIA
Sinopsis
Obra corta: EL BUDDHA EN EL CAMINO
Dos hombres desconocidos se encuentran de noche en una zona baldía en las
afueras de una ciudad. Uno de ellos anda buscando algo. Pero ¿Qué es lo que
busca? ¿Puede dárselo el otro?
Obra corta: UN GATO MUERTO EN LA LLUVIA
Una joven habitante de la calle nos cuenta su historia. A través de un
monólogo poético, ella nos relata la llegada de sus antepasados al continente
americano y su espantoso presente.
Ficha Técnica
Director: Rod Wooden
Elenco: Jason Ramírez, Marco Ocampo y Liana Lucumí
Escenografía: Rod Wooden
Iluminación: Jorge Luis Zabrain Castillo


The overall title 'Encuentros Nocturnos'
In English the title could perhaps be 'ill met by night', a paraphrase of the line
from A Midsummer Night's Dream and of the title of the 1950s war film, 'ill met
by moonlight'.
Here's a translation of the titles of the individual plays and of the brief
descriptions of them:
In THE BUDDHA ON THE ROAD, two strangers meet at night on a deserted
piece of ground on the outskirts of a city. One of them is searching for
something. But what is he looking for? Can the other man give it to him?
In A DEAD CAT IN THE RAIN a young homeless person tells us her story.
Through a poetic monologue she relates the arrival of her ancestors in the
American continent and her terrifying present.