HOW TO GO
What: The Most Beautiful Cemetery in Chile
Where: Springfield Museum of Art Bosca Gallery, 107 Cliff Park Road, Springfield
When: 2 p.m. Sunday, June 26
Admission: Free
More info: 937-325-4673 or www.springfieldart.museum
Terry Hermsen’s love of language and theater inspired the 1972 Wittenberg University graduate to co-translate a Chilean poet’s award-winning book into English, and create a stage version.
The book, “The Most Beautiful Cemetery in Chile,” is the work of Christian Formoso.
The Springfield Museum of Art’s Bosca Gallery will host the Readers Theater presentation of “The Most Beautiful Cemetery in Chile,” at 2 p.m. Sunday.
Admission to the presentation and the Museum are free that day.
The genesis began when Hermsen, an English professor at Otterbein University, was a visiting teacher in Chile and was surprised to find the students were bilingual in Spanish and English.
He aspired to become bilingual as well. That’s how he discovered Formoso’s work.
“The Most Beautiful Cemetery in Chile” contains poetic monologues and reflections inspired by 500 years of Chilean lives and won a prestigious literary prize in 2010.
Hermsen was determined to translate the book, which took him and co-translator Sydney Tammarine nearly three years.
“It’s a book about a cemetery, but about life and love,” Hermsen said. “That’s what changed it for me.”
Hermsen claims only about three percent of foreign language books are translated into English in the U.S. So he started his own publishing press, Green Fish Press, to share Formoso’s work, and plans others in the future.
The translation came out in November. The next step was bringing it to an even wider audience through the stage.
“We did a smaller version at Otterbein and liked it so much we thought we’d take it further,” said Hermsen.
Hermsen will be joined by another Otterbein professor and three former students during the performance. Most of the readings will be in English and three will be bilingual.
“You’ll be hearing from people on the other side of the hemisphere and meet people from other time periods,” he said. “We have things to learn from them.”
He said it will appeal to anyone who loves language, poetry and the chance to discover a part of the world many don’t know a lot about.
Hermsen has long considered Springfield a second home, which is why he wanted to share the presentation here.
“It was a transformative town for me. I discovered myself here,” he said. “Wittenberg brought me to the arts: theater, music, literature. The arts create community.”
While studying here, Hermsen also reviewed plays for the Springfield News-Sun, bicycling his reviews to the former office on Limestone Street. He also saw numerous Summer Arts Festival shows during that event’s formative years.
He would later teach in area schools such as Springfield’s St. Joseph Elementary, Tecumseh High School and North High School and Mills Lawn Elementary in Yellow Springs.
“It has really come full circle for me,” said Hermsen.
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