Asian Playwrights Meeting first held in Tokyo, Japan in 2009, and then in Melbourne, Australia in 2013. After 6 year hiatus, Asian Playwrights Meeting is launched again on July, 26-29 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, organized and hosted by Indonesia Dramatic Reading Festival (IDRF), The meeting in Yogyakarta consist of panel discussions and public reading of the plays. We have six playwrights from six countries, and also we invite some observers to complete the group.

The event is celebration of plays, so we are thankful for the presence of the invited playwrights for the event, they are: Jean Tay (Singapore), Ibed Surgana Yuga (Bali/Yogyakarta, Indonesia), MC Pangan (Manila, Philipines), Nophand Boonyai (Bangkok, Thailand), Ridhwan Saidi (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), Suguru Yamamoto (Tokyo, Japan). We must also send our gratitude for the observers that sparks the discussions with their brilliant insight, they are: Aya Ogawa (Japan/New York), Jaa Pantachat (Bangkok, Thailand), Rebecca Kezia (Jakarta, Indonesia), Ugoran Prasad (Sydney/New York), Ikun SK (Yogyakarta, Indonesia). Last but not least, we are very thankful for Alfian Sa’at (Singapore) and Shinta Febriany (Makassar) our guest curator for APM 2019.

We are very grateful of the support we have from Asia Center, The Japan Foundation, Kalabuku, all playwrights and translators that supporting this publication. All of the translators from original language, to English. We hope that we can continue to promote Asian plays in the region, and this publication hopefully will be followed by another collection from the region.

Muhammad Abe
Director IDRF