Workshop for the reception of the spectacle

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I Hate Theater, I Love Pornography”, Zoukak Theatre Company

Workshop for the reception of the spectacle, YPAL 2022
© crédit photo : Vincent VDH

We started the time of exchange by a listening game consisting in counting together until 20, without indications of who takes the floor, and which obliges to be successful to be on the same tempo, the same moment. (If two people speak at the same time, you have to start again). I then took the time to recall what was for me a workshop of reception: “A time of horizontal exchange, which by “alternative” modes of exchange tries to break the vertical relations of a usual speaking: the fact that those who are more at ease with the oral, in English moreover, those having more culture and theatrical legitimacy are those who in normal time monopolize (in spite of themselves) the time of speaking.
The idea is to create a time of connection, even allowing one to feel legitimate in deciphering one’s feelings (which a usual time of exchange can prevent, the question of legitimacy can even prevent one from knowing oneself what one thought of the show).”
To do this, the reception workshop must organize a time of exchange evacuating the word: Each of the participants had to think of 3 words in their native language that had inspired “I Hate, I Love”, possibly adding music, dance movements, a rhythm, a drawing. We then split into two groups of 4, with the objective of collectively choosing 3 words synthesizing the opinions and around them begin to constitute a small art form to be returned to the other group.
Group 1:
The first group proposed a kind of choir more and more anarchic.
In a circle, each one in a row, to the tune of “à vous dirais-je Maman” sang a loop in French, English and Spanish. Then in the continuity resumed the first person and started in canon until arriving at a result more and more dissonant and chaotic. They then begin to move separately in the room, with the intensity rising, rising, the words becoming more aggressive, before, without concertation, gradually coming down as the fatigue rises. From my point of view: This proposal synthesized a cocktail of emotions, energies (the ritual side of the song in particular) that Zoukak diffused with I Hate I Love. The tune of “À vous dirais-je Maman” reminds us of the children’s songs of the show, with this particular irony. Moreover, the group decided to put themselves in the place of the actors who were deploying a mass of energy (banging on the floor, singing, blowing, for about twenty minutes at the beginning, about twenty in the middle).
Group 2:
After thinking about the terms inequality and truth and trying to represent these concepts with a chair as a base, we decided to create a small game of “inequalities”.
of “inequalities”. Each participant had a chair, which could be folded, and the 4 participants tried to create a structure with the 4 chairs, but finding it impossible to agree, they split up. The music starts, the game begins.
The rules: everyone is seated on a chair, when a seated person claps twice (at once, in succession, or with the clap of another seated person), the participants must change chairs and can when seated try to steal a second or even a third chair.
It is possible when you have two chairs to open the second and simply switch positions, but the “chairless” are on the lookout.
The chair here represented “a truth/voice”, which when accumulated (by a power, a state) constitutes a power, and when lost prevents one from expressing oneself, from acting (explaining why without a chair, the participant lost his/her power of rotation).
For those who have lost their voice, there are only small, risky windows of opportunity left, in which one must try to trick one’s way back to voice.
The idea was to highlight the inequality, the power, through the irony of the game (Emma pointed out that Zoukak used the same register).
We then took the time to explain the two proposals, to go back over them and finally to go back individually on our own words and their place in the common proposal. At the end of the workshop, I had the impression that I knew what the other participants had thought of the show, without at any point having had a real time for organized exchange.

Félix Vannarath

YPAL Encounters 2022 in Reims

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Interview YPAL led by Julia & Candice

Members of the Young Performing Art Lovers (YPAL) community had a long-awaited meeting once again in  La Comédie, CDN of Reims, immersing themselves in the theater and dance performances offered by the FARaraway- Festival des Arts à Reims. This weekend was all about the embraces of old friends and new acquaintances, exploring the topics of democracy, climate, tourism, dance and storytelling through and with each other, sharing different perspectives on familiar experiences. This year, we asked the members of the network, new and old, about how they see the community and what the future may hold for it.

YPAL Encounters 2022 in Reims
© crédit photo : Julie Greffin, La Comédie de Reims

Multiculturalism, various perspectives, and strong connections are at the heart of YPAL, as our interviews confirmed. The common passion for theater and arts as well as the open-minded, genuine spirit of the participants forms an immediate sense of community while the new experiences and viewpoints spur interesting thoughts, conversations, and projects. It becomes a safe space of free exchange, creativity, “keys that they may give back”, indeed a legacy to cherish and grow together and on our own when we return.

These connections transgress borders and are strengthened by the novelty of different cultures and ways of thinking, approaching theater. Hence all the members see how this meeting builds a sense of European community, respect, and solidarity. Theater and arts open up a space for open discussion and collaboration between the public and artists about public issues which may inspire engagement and activism in democracy. These experiences make us feel what others go through, thus cultivating awareness and sensitivity. What is more, it is an artistic, social, and political project which deals with cultural tourism and sustainability at its core.

Hence we wondered how to ensure that more young art-lovers get involved in such an exceptional community. Some emphasized that it is good for the community to grow naturally, by encouraging people to invite those they know and would share the spirit of the programme, while others highlighted that it would be good to do more communication on social media and maybe participate in Erasmus projects so that it could reach more people. Others had the idea of promoting it in universities, theaters, other cultural festivals and the places the participants are coming from. Certainly, if people saw our projects in process, programmes and activities, many would gain interest due to their accessibility and vibrance.

How do they see the future of the encounters? The majority of the response was to have more of it, make it longer, make it more intense with more workshops, maybe at different times so that they can attend more. Besides having more of what the programme is all about, many had interesting ideas and projects to make it grow. Some suggested having programmes in different cities, more projects throughout the year or a long-term common creation of an artistic piece. Keeping in touch could also happen online, on the blog or on social media by sharing reviews of shows we have seen and what we are working on at home. Others noted discussing more subjects, workshops led by the organizers, other artists, or even spending a night at least in Paris.

They would also be excited to extend the project with artistic residencies, maybe having meetings twice a year, or creating a long-term project on the same subject together and having a show at the end. Some would love to see projects about sharing cultural food or one participant had the idea of organizing a workshop about body awareness, listening to each other, and creating connections in movement. They would also be interested in learning about what is behind the scenes of the theater, how to organize it, and sharing expertise in the field.

This shows that YPAL is realized by people’s active engagement and creativity and it evolves through their imagination. What came through during all of these interviews was that participants already awaited the time they could meet and share their enthusiasm and good spirits once again. Perhaps letting the programme grow and having more young art-lovers participate will preserve what works so well, just it may be more intense, diverse, wherever their collective imagination takes them together.

Julia and Candice

The YPAL Encounters 2022

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From 04.02 to 06.02.2022 during FARaway – Festival des Arts à Reims

Pre-inscriptions are open until November 14, 2021 at 23:59 here.

The participation is free. The tickets for the spectacles, the food, the lodging as well as the transport costs are taken in charge.

For those who come from the Marne, Aisne, Ardennes, Aube, Haute-Marne and the Ile-de-France region, everything is taken care of except the transport costs.

For more information, please contact us : ypal@lacomediedereims.fr

Jalene Mbomba Mélia, in charge of the YPAL Encounters 2022

The YPAL Encounters are coming back to Reims in 2022 !

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Did you miss us? You too !

After two years without seeing each other, we announce that we will soon meet again. The human encounter is all we hoped for in this edition!

We are very happy to know that we will soon see each other again and meet for a weekend to live unforgettable moments together. Indeed, we are looking forward to being able to meet again outside of our screens from February 4 to 6, 2022. 

              What has changed since the 2021 edition?

During the 2021 edition, 60 participants were registered for the YPAL Encounters.  Among them, we had members of the Alter Ego (X) Company and those of the Giant Wolf Company, cultural professionals and students. They should come from all over Europe, and also from the world : Argentina, Belgium, Denmark, France, Georgia, India, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland…

As a result of the health crisis, the Encounter 2021 was quickly transformed into a virtual meeting held on the Zoom platform with 22 participants aged 18 to 30 years old from 5 different nationalities : Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy and Spain. This gave rise to workshops, the diffusion of a spectacle, an artistic meeting… 

                                 What about the 2022 encounters?

We will meet again from February 4 to 6, 2022 at the FARaway – Festival des Arts à Reims.

Some occasional meetings could be held before and after this festival weekend in order to animate the network as well as our Encounter of this year.

These YPAL meetings exist thanks to the support of La Comédie de Reims, Centre Dramatique National and FARaway – Festival des Arts à Reims. The latter gathers 7 cultural institutions of Reims La Cartonnerie, Césaré, La Comédie de Reims, Le FRAC, Le Manège, Nova Villa and l’Opéra de Reims..

We wish to make this YPAL 2022 Encounter a moment of reunification where we must all have a sense of contact.

                                 Where to register ?

Now that everything has been said, we hope to see as many of you as usual.

The online inscriptions are opening in the next few days…

The participation is free. The Comédie de Reims will pay for the tickets, the catering, the accommodation for the non-recipients as well as the transportation costs.

N.B.: The Comédie de Reims does not cover the transportation costs of those who come from the department of: the Marne, the Aisne, the Ardennes, the Aube, the Haute-Marne as well as the Ile-de-France region.

For any other information, please contact us at: ypal@lacomediedereims.fr

Jalene Mbomba Mélia, in charge of the YPAL Encounters 2022 and Anne Goalard, President of the YPAL association.

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New feature 2021 : Zoom Meetings YPAL


Collegiality is the watchword of YPAL Encounters 2021

We organise one Wednesday every 3 weeks a ZOOM YPAL meeting at 6.45 pm.

These times will allow us to work together to develop the 2021 Meetings, its programme, the workshops, as well as the progress in the YPAL network..

This practice of co-elaboration is, in our opinion, fundamental for the future of the YPAL network. 

An agenda will be sent out one week before each meeting, which can of course be modified according to the feedback from everyone. 
Recepts will also be sent one week after the meeting.  

Dates of upcoming meetings :

  • – Wednesday 4 November 2020 18:45.
  • – Wednesday 25 November 2020 18:45.
  • – Wednesday 16 December 2020 18:45.

if you wish to participate in these meetings: contact ypal@lacomediedereims.fr.

We look forward to seeing many of you,

Félix Vannarath

Young Performing Arts Lovers, YPAL Encounters, New features 2021 : What is it and how to join us ?

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If you are starting to read this article, it is that: You are already a YPAL, a friend has told you about the network, your day has been marked by one of our posters, you have received one of our calls for participation, seen one of our posts on social networks and/or you are intrigued by the terms YPAL, Rencontres de Reims?

First of all we wish you a warm welcome and a good read!

The purpose of this article is to introduce you to the Young Performing Arts Lovers network, and its YPAL Meetings, and to register you for the YPAL 2021 Meetings in Reims.


Contents

The YPAL network: what is it?

What is YPAL Encounters?

What’s new for the 2021 edition?

And how do I register?


The YPAL network: what is it?

Initiated in 2009 by Anne Goalard in the dynamics of the Reims Scènes d’Europe festival, the YPAL network: Young Performing Arts Lovers is a network of young Europeans united by a common interest in the performing arts.

The YPAL Network is based on the multiplicity of individual journeys and intercultural exchange common to Europe and the performing arts to create dialogue and conviviality between young people from all backgrounds.

YPAL is structured by the YPAL Encounters times, which are intended to be innovative proposals where the place of the young spectator is questioned. During these YPAL Encounters, the young spectator is not a simple target of cultural actions, he is the actor of his relationship with the performing arts.

The YPALs thus participate in the development of the YPAL Encounters, the weekend programme, the creation of workshops and the organisation of debates.

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OK, but what is YPAL Encounters?

The YPALs are amateurs, artists or accompanying artists who meet every year for the YPAL Encounters in Reims (and occasionally in other European cities: Madrid in 2019, Stuttgart in 2015, Hamburg in 2010-11-12, Brussels in 2011-12, Turin, Malmo, Sarajevo …).

These are 3 days of performances, exchanges of young people from different backgrounds, reception workshops, time to meet the artists, and conviviality:

The YPALs are invited to get involved in intercultural exchanges, after attending shows together:

to confront and share their experiences as spectators, their vision of current affairs and the place of living art, to debate on the place and role of creation in our contemporary societies,- to invent new formats for encounters between spectators, artists, accompanying artists, cultural institutions and political decision-makers, to invent new types of artistic experiences.

The performance reception workshops, developed by and for the YPALs, are at the heart of the YPAL Encounters.

These meetings in Reims exist thanks to the support of the Comédie de Reims, Centre Dramatique National and are hosted within the FARaway- Festival des Arts à Reims, which brings together 7 cultural institutions in Reims;(La Comédie, La Cartonnerie, Césaré, le FRAC, le Manège, Nova Villa, l’Opéra).

51 YPALs of 9 different nationalities (France, USA, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Greece, Belgium, Ireland and Denmark), aged between 18 and 30, took part in the Rencontres 2020.

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What’s new for the 2021 edition?

The 2021 edition will take place from 5 to 7 February 2021 in Reims and will breathe new life into the network and the format of the YPAL Meetings.

10 years of existence lead us to question the heart of the Rencontres YPAL.

In what way is it productive to see shows together and discuss them, whether you have a small or large audience experience, whether you have had access to a very contemporary or more academic theatre, whether you come from Poland or Italy, whether you are engaged in artistic research or are a mathematics student?

The reception workshops are the foundation of the network, the breeding ground on which participants are invited to invest and share artistic, political, social, professional, personal interests?

We wish to make the YPAL 2021 Meetings not the core of the Network’s activity but the culmination of an annual preparatory work leading to these times of exchange.

The participants draw up the programme of these Meetings and the workshops via regular Zoom meetings.

A journal dedicated to the 2021 edition will enable the work of the YPALs to be concretised and disseminated and will gather the reports, testimonies, interviews and games realised by the YPALs during this weekend.

The Rencontres de Reims can thus be an example for the organisation of other events in Europe.

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And how do you register?

You now know YPAL and the Encounters! (if you read this little article correctly!)

So if you want to get involved in the YPAL network and take part in the 2021 Meetings from 5 to 7 February, register by clicking on this link:

Participation is free of charge. The Comédie de Reims will take care of the tickets for the shows, the catering, the accommodation for the non-goers and part of the travel expenses, so why hesitate?

If you have the slightest question, do not hesitate to contact us at the following address:

Félix Vannarath, YPAL 2021 Meetings Officer and Anne Goalard, President of the YPAL association



Would you like to make my portrait? Olivia Hernaiz – By Amanda Vandyck

A review of Faraway festival shows by YPAL

The last thing I expected to do on a Sunday morning was draw a stranger’s portrait. Although I had been participating in the YPALs conference for a few days by then, my experiences had been mostly as an observer, only occasionally standing up to dance during performances (it was part of the show, of course). So, when I arrived at the FRAC, right next door to Sciences Po, and saw a whole bunch of easels set up in a semi-circle around the artist, Olivia Hernaïz, I was a little surprised and a little giddy. Giddy, because I hadn’t tried my hand in the fine arts in quite a while.

The fact that I hadn’t made a portrait of a live artist maybe ever definitely showed as I started putting pastel to paper. I sat between two children, although it was my portrait that looked like it had been done by a five-year-old. At one point, after I had stepped away from the easel, a kind old lady walked by and asked the two girls on either side of me where their younger sister was– my portrait was so bad the woman assumed that it had been the work of a younger sister, not a nineteen-year-old art lover. My friend entered the FRAC, and in showing her my piece I laughed so hard that I almost started crying, disrupting the peace of the room.

While my piece may not have been what anybody was expecting, it still felt good to create something. The sheer range of emotions, whether excitement and expectation that surrounded the clean slate of my paper, or the overwhelming embarrassment and ridiculousness of my drawing itself, shook me. And, if you ask me, I really like my piece. Even though my depiction of the model looks like a scary monster, missing many facial features (I almost forgot to to draw the model’s nose), it was genuinely fun to color in the dark green of the model’s sweater and combine browns to make a hair color that felt satisfactory. 

I am a Young Performing Arts Lover– and while this may have initially appeared to be a visual arts exhibition, it hit me as I left that this was a performing arts experience. The feel of interacting with the other artists, of looking at what they were doing, and being part of a micro-community, of interacting with the model, of discussing my work with the people around me, was interactive and almost performative. The model wanted to make a point. She was the orchestrator of this experience, of this interaction, and, although she was silent, she was the center of it. She reverses the creative process, so that the observers are the creators, with a focus on dialogue. I appreciate the opportunity that Hernaïz gave me. I only hope she doesn’t take offense at my truly abhorrent portrait of her.

La Présent qui déborde O agora que demora Notre odyssée II, Christiane Jatahy – by Amanda VanDyck

The Lingering Now, Christiane Jatahy, FARAWAYfestival2020

I really had no idea what to expect when I sat down in my seat. After walking with the other YPALs to the theater at l’atelier, I realized that I really had not done my homework. And while normally that would bother me somewhat, I genuinely believe that my complete unawareness of what I was about to see made my experience even better.

I was confronted with a very large screen, and I shuffled into my seat with a pocket full of lollipops and no expectations whatsoever. Christiane Jatahy, the artist, introduced the piece, discussing it as a work about borders, about the border between cinema and plays, about the borders that separate people from countries, about the borders that separated people from their friends. And then I sat back and watched.

It took me a while to catch on that members of the cast were hidden throughout the audience. A man sitting near me loudly poured water into a cup, and my initial reaction combined annoyance with being impressed that somehow the sound of the water fit in with the rest of the show so well. It hit me when he began making popping sounds with the help of a prop. Again, I felt annoyed, but a sea of other popping sounds joined his, to make a sea of sounds that felt like splashes or intense, heavy rain.

The show was almost always surprising me, whether by the effectiveness of the director’s comparisons to The Odyssey, by the impromptu dance party just over halfway through, or by the bravery that it must have taken cast member Yara to tell a room full of strangers about her experiences being imprisoned in Syria just for trying to see her family.

I really liked the performance. I’ve studied The Odyssey before, and loved it. As a student of Political Science, I was very captivated by social commentary about humanity and the walls and institutions that separate us from one another. Although I was initially confused by the stories being told on screen, which combined lines from the Odyssey with refugees telling their own stories. But I guess that’s the point– Jatahy wanted us to be confused at first, to recognize her main point that everybody has their own odyssey. That odysseys were not just ‘things that happened’ over a thousand years ago, but people’s experiences and stories that are still taking place today.
As the first performance I saw while attending the YPAL conference, I was forced to think critically. The show really did make me rethink my own experiences and those of my friends, and really brought together the worlds of theater and society, setting the stage for a whole weekend of thought-provoking art and experiences.

Hate Radio: La Banalité du Mal – by Sophie Harrington

For as long as I can remember, a common theme of my history classes has been atrocity. Atrocity,  whether described by way of a particular historical moment or in a theoretical perspective, is often  linked to the failure of democracy and the ways in which the organization of a society favors certain  groups and discriminates against identities which are “inferior” to the norm.     Walking into the main stage of the Comédie on Saturday night to see “Hate Radio: La Banalité du  Mal”, I thought I had a grasp of what to expect. While I am no expert of the genocide that took  place in Rwanda from the 7th of April, 1994 to July of that same year, I knew that the stories,  actors, and main events of the mass slaughter were not foreign to me—this past fall I had even  studied the role of the ​Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines ​for a project on hate speech.  However, what I did not know, what I could not have expected, was the weight that would quickly  fall onto the room once the lights were dimmed and each individual of the audience had placed  their headset over their ears. Throughout 110 minute production, which was a combination of  screened testimonies from witnesses of the genocide and live acting, I sat speechless, feeling like I  was suffocating under the pressure of the stories I was listening to. While I can acknowledge that  not one single viewer in that theatre could have taken any part of the show lightly, it was  particularly difficult being a woman in that room.    Sitting in the audience I listened to the four testimonials, all stories of people with various  backgrounds and relations to Rwanda. In the third of the four depicted my hand I watched and I  listened in horror, the entire time my hands covering my mouth. In his story, the young Rwandan  man who spoke recounted the moment during the genocide when he was forced to flee from his  home with his mother and siblings. The family took shelter in a school protected by the United  Nations blue helmets, however, at one point a hutu militia broke in and began to massacre the  tutsis hidden within. The man speaking on the screen, who must have been less than 10 years old at  the time of the genocide, detailed how the women in the school building pleaded with the Hutu  men, begging them for mercy.    “Please take me as your wife instead of killing me. Please kill me quickly, I am pregnant. Please  don’t rape me. Please don’t hurt my daughters, kill me first.”    He took a pause before recalling how the officers responded: “the women’s breasts were cut off.  The officer sliced open the stomach of the pregnant woman, letting her bleed. The woman was  raped.”    Sitting in the audience I felt paralyzed. As never before had I heard this version of the genocide,  one that focused on the femicide. One that so graphically detailed how these women were raped,  tortured, bodies abused and chopped up as if there was no life inside. The stories of atrocity we  learn in our history classes often skip over these details; it should be remembered in history though,  the deconstruction and humiliation of the female body. It should be remembered how the female 
body is tortured and abused, and the role that women suffer in atrocity is in many ways, a story of  its own.    This theme continued in the next narrative, shared by a Rwandan woman who came from a  township in a rural area; this women who looked so tired though she couldn’t have been older than  35 years old. She told the story of the day where Hutu militias stripped her mother down naked in  front of her and her siblings, and murdered her right before their eyes. This was the same day where  the same militants chopped off the legs of her two younger sisters and left them out to bleed. I  remember squeezing my legs, making sure they were still there.     This version of history, this narrative, the one of women, the one that we are rarely told in school  will be the version that I will not be able to forget. The strength of storytelling in a theater, that  sometimes we miss in the classroom or the academic scene, is that of empathy, compassion, and  pain. In the theatre the artists are allowed to cross boundaries and borders, explore topics that  might not be explored in academia, as a way to serve as an education, or sometimes a re-education,  of the public. The exploitation of the female body in times of atrocity, particularly in the case of  Rwanda, is the history that I will not be able to shake.     *It is to note that none of the above is a direct quote from the narrator as I was unable to write  done his precise phrasing in the theatre. The content is paraphrased but put in quotation marks for  emphasis.