Wikipedia

Sedef Ecer

Sedef Ecer (born 1965) is a Turkish-French playwright, novelist, actress and screenwriter. She began her career as a child film actress in Turkey, and later moved to France. She has written a number of plays in both Turkish and French, which have been widely translated, and her first novel was published in 2021.

Sedef Ecer
Born1965 (age 58–59)
Istanbul, Turkey
Occupations
  • Playwright
  • novelist
  • actress
  • screenwriter
WebsiteOfficial website

Biography

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Ecer was born in Istanbul in 1965.[1][2][3] She attended Boğaziçi University.[3] She was a child film actress,[4] and says that she appeared in around 25 Turkish feature films between the ages of three and 10.[5][6] She continued to act as an adult and appeared in the 1994 Turkish drama Yengeç Sepeti.[7]

In 2008 she wrote the French play Sur le seuil, which she and a co-translator subsequently translated into Turkish as Eşikte.[8] It was also translated into Polish and into Hebrew and Persian radio adaptations.[8] It was performed at the Cent Quatre and the Maison des Auteurs in 2009,[9] and at the İstanbul Tiyatro Festivali [tr] in 2010.[8] In 2011 she co-wrote and appeared in the French television comedy film Comme chez soi.[10][11] In 2013 she was the artist-in-residence at the Maison d'Europe et d'Orient [fr].[12]

As part of a writer-in-residence programme in Île-de-France in 2010 she wrote the play A la périphérie, which in 2010 received a Guérande theatrical writing prize.[13][11] In 2014 it was staged at the Théâtre Jean-Vilar [fr] in Suresnes, directed by Thomas Bellorini.[14] In 2014/2015 it was translated into German as Am Rand and performed at the Theater der Stadt Aalen, directed by Tina Brüggemann.[15][16] The Turkish version, Kenardakiler, was performed at TOY Istanbul in 2016/2017.[17][18] In 2019 an English language version, At the Periphery, translated from the Turkish by Evren Odcikin, was performed at the Crowded Fire Theater in San Francisco (directed by Erin Gilley).[19] A review of a 2020 season (retitled On the Periphery) by Broadway World described the production as "hauntingly" presenting "the plight of social outcasts living on the periphery of 1990's Istanbul".[20]

In 2015 her Turkish play e-mülteci.com premiered at the International Izmir Festival. It was subsequently translated into French and English under the titles e-passeur.com and e.smuggler.com respectively. It was performed at a number of French theatres, and a staged reading directed by Lisa Rothe took place at the New York Public Library in 2018.[21] In 2016 her play Lady First, a French-language political satire, was performed at the Théâtre du Peuple, directed by Vincent Goethals.[22][23] An article in L'Alsace noted that it was based on a short piece Ecer had presented at the theatre in 2012; Goethals had worked with her to develop a longer piece.[22] It was subsequently performed at the Opéra-Théâtre de Metz Métropole in 2017 and 2018.[24]

Ecer's first novel in French, Trésor national, was published in 2021. It is about the narrator's relationship with her mother, a famous Turkish actress, and links the actress's rise and decline to Turkey's political fortunes from the 1960s to the present day.[25] The novel was inspired by her own experiences as a child film star.[5]

In 2023 she held the Randell Cottage Writers' Residency in Wellington, New Zealand. She spent her time on the residency writing a historical novel about New Zealand and Turkish women involved with the Gallipoli campaign.[1]

Selected writing

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  • Trésor national (French language novel, JC Lattès, 2021)
  • Lady First (French language play, 2016)
  • e-mülteci.com (Turkish language play, 2015, translated into French and English)
  • À la périphérie (French language play, 2014, translated into Turkish, German and English)
  • Comme chez soi (French television film, 2011)
  • Sur le seuil (French language play, 2008, translated into Turkish, Polish, Hebrew and Persian)

References

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  1. ^ a b Boyack, Nicholas (1 March 2023). "Turkish-born novelist in NZ to research women and Gallipoli". Stuff. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  2. ^ "Sedef Ecer, auteure franco-turque au festival Bussang". RFI (in French). 8 December 2016. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Sedef ECER". Le Dictionnaire universel des créatrices (in French). Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  4. ^ "Creation in Progress by Sedef Ecer". Memoire de l'Avenir. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  5. ^ a b "L'enfant-star à Istanbullywood". RadioFrance (in French). 21 March 2021. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  6. ^ "Retour à Istanbullywood". Sedef Ecer (in French). Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  7. ^ "Yengeç Sepeti (1994)". Radio Times. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  8. ^ a b c "EŞİKTE / MİZANSENLİ VE MÜZİKLİ OKUMA TİYATROSU". İstanbul Kültür Sanat Vakfı | Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (in Turkish). Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  9. ^ "Sedef Ecer'in Büyük Başarısı". RFI | Türkçe (in Turkish). 19 February 2009. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  10. ^ "Comme chez soi". France.tv (in French). Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  11. ^ a b "Sedef Ecer La Rochelle festivalinde". NTV (in Turkish). 29 August 2011. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  12. ^ "Le parc Gezi, île d'utopie, d'Istanbul à Paris : Carte blanche à Sedef Ecer". Le Courrier des Balkans (in French). 5 July 2013. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  13. ^ Draman, Meriem (11 November 2011). "PRIX D'ECRITURE THEATRALE - Sedef Ecer lauréate!". Le Petit Journal (in French). Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  14. ^ "A LA PÉRIPHÉRIE - Théâtre Suresnes - Jean Vilar". Theatre Online (in French). Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  15. ^ "Am Rand von Sedef Ecer" (PDF). Theater der Stadt Aalen (in German). Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  16. ^ "Am Rand: Deutschsprachige Erstaufführung". Theater der Stadt Aalen (in German). Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  17. ^ "Kenardakiler". Tiyatrolar (in Turkish). Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  18. ^ "İstanbul'un Yeni Sahnesi: TOY İstanbul". Vogue Türkiye (in Turkish). 30 January 2017. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  19. ^ "Crowded Fire Announces 2020 Season". American Theatre. 17 September 2019. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  20. ^ Murray, Steve (7 March 2020). "Review: ON THE PERIPHERY at Potrero Stage". Broadway World. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  21. ^ Cristi, A. A. (20 September 2018). "Playwright Sedef Ecer Debuts New Translation". Broadway World. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  22. ^ a b Woehl, Annick. "Théâtre du peuple. Lady First, une farce politique". L'Alsace (in French). Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  23. ^ "Lady first". Théâtre du Peuple (in French). Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  24. ^ "Lady First". Théâtre en Scène (in French). Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  25. ^ Evans, Jane E (December 2021). "Trésor national par Sedef Ecer (review)". The French Review. 95 (2): 261. doi:10.1353/tfr.2021.0330. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
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