The first Rencontres took place in Grenoble, from the 1st to the 9th of July 1989.
They were born from the “halo” of the European Theatre Festival which, since 1985, has presented, every year in Grenoble, the plays staged by European professional companies and performed in their original language. Besides, young people wish to have their own event in order to live a great theatrical time and to meet other young people from different countries.
There is a double request. On the one hand, there is a request from young people who live in Grenoble and who practice theatre either in our Centre workshops or in their schools theatre courses. On the other hand, there is also a huge request from young foreign people who do not belong to any professional company but who are attracted by France, by the famous splendour of the French Revolution bicentenary and by Grenoble and its Festival. In order to answer this request, Grenoble has its resources. AGATHE (Theatre Action Education Association of Grenoble) prepare, related to Stendhal University, the academic Cultural Mission (MACA), and of course the THÉÂTRE ACTION CRÉARC and its FTE, a Summer University opened to adults in charge of youngsters’ theatre companies or theatre leaders at schools. All these powers are reunited to create a new event destined for youngsters. Thus, the 5th FTE, the 1st Summer University and the 1st Rencontres of THÉÂTRE ET JEUNESSE POUR L’EUROPE (Theatre and Youth for Europe) will take place in Grenoble, last one beneficing of the two others support resources.
The program suggested includes on the one hand the participation to the conferences at the Summer University and at the FTE shows, and on the other some specific activities: every day; a “public repetition” is done in the afternoon by one of the companies. Youngsters and adults have lunch together, and adults appreciate being also invited to the youngsters’ shows. The “public repetitions” are conceived as “theatre workshops” where discussions play an important role. The program gives space for enjoyment among young people. Shows’ presentation, workshops, debates and exchanges: since the first improvised edition, the founding elements of the Rencontres are already settled.
Two other data confirm this first impression:
- The objectives expressed before are preserved today in all their sense. It is a matter of discovering the European Theatre’s heritage, its contemporary aspects, of practicing the “theatrical language”, “of discovering the sensitivity and culture’s plurality and of practicing the multiples languages.”
- The group composition, who participates in this first adventure, gives us a significant vision of a pluralist outward-looking Europe: two companies of Grenoble; two Polish ones, one company from Germany (Physically disabled people most of them needing a wheelchair), from Italy and from Algeria. Staying together at Lycée Jacques Prévent de Fontaine, Germans and Poles meet, they help each other and they will leave Grenoble with a completely transformed perception of their own countries.
The resources available to the Rencontres are modest and similar to the resourcefulness. Many foreign youngsters are hosted in families and the Théâtre Action Créarc has to appeal to people from Grenoble for solidarity as well as foreign associations for help.
Modest but promising debuts
The Rencontres quickly met a growing audience and they extended their field of action. Between projects and their realization, last minute defections, which we can forget to keep them in mind for the statistics, can intervene. The members of the evaluation audience are an approximate number. However, if we keep the reserves in mind, the number of them reveals a huge growth which does not seem to be disturbed by the split of Théâtre Action Créarc in 1993 and the restarting of CREARC with few resources.
The number of young people who participated in it (68 in 1989) was doubled the following year and triplicated in two years. In only four years it is stabilized around 250 people. The number of groups (7 in 1989) raises to a dozen among 1990-93 and to 17-18 the following years, except for a decrease to 13 in 1999, a difficult year due to the sudden drop in subsidies. Its peak is 20 in 1997. French companies stay steady (from 6 to 8 since 1992, especially from the Grenoble’s agglomeration) as well as the growth of the huge number of foreign companies. All the other figures are increasing: the number of “countries” represented (5 in 1989, 10 in 1995, 13 in 1997 and in 2002). The number of the members of the audience, assessed at 480 in 1989 has increased since the following year from 2 200 to more than 5000 in 1995, 10 800 (1997), 15 800 in 2001 and 16 600 in 2002! These last figures were inflated due to the Parade’s success and the increase of the number of street shows. Note that, in order to be accurate, “country” is not “state”: to CREARC, Scotland and England are two different countries, whereas Catalonia is considered to be Spanish...
Therefore, the mixing and dialogue among cultures is being enriched.
From the very beginning, the Rencontres duration is not limited. An exchanges proliferation starts to live in many forms – correspondence, visits, co-productions, twinning. Invited by families, foreign youngsters have been spending their summer in France since 1989. Some people from Grenoble have been invited to our travels since 1990 to Gdansk, Casablanca and Prague. In April 1991, two producers of the Deaf’s Pantomime (Pantomime des Sourds) (Poland) came to lead a training course in IFTS in Echirolles. Foreign companies also come to present their shows in the region (Vercors, Trièves).
This movement focuses on duration. In 1992, a Franco-Polish co-production is undertaken and in 1993, 3 co-productions gathered French, Italian and Russian companies. Note that these exchanges are especially oriented between Grenoble and foreign countries. However, “transverse” bonds are established as well (among Italian, Polish and English companies in particular). The exchanges among the companies, French or foreign ones are not centralized by Créarc since they are autonomous. Soon, Grenoble became an international crossroads to the young European theatre and thanks to Créarc, centre of a real international exchanges network which represents a constituent element for its activities and influence. Having become a NGO of Young people Exchanges since 2003, Créarc gets henceforth members from other countries. The Rencontres are a very important time for the exchanges which every year are prepared, prolonged and dynamising. Since 1998 the number of exchanges among youngsters seems to be less high (or may be less visible?). On the contrary, the relationships among people responsible for establishing the common projects are intensified. We cannot name all the collaborations we had, but we remember at least three: the ephemeral presence of ZARINA KHAN’s company composed of French, Tunisian and Bosnian youngsters for the show “Life’s Dictionary” ("Le dictionnaire de la vie") created in July 1995; the common hard work between Créarc’s company and the Studio Novecento from Milan (co-podruction of “Euménides”); and the project “Tolerance Village” (“Village de la tolerance”) which has allowed French, Israeli and Palestinian youngsters to meet since 1999, for ten days of theatrical work in Palestine, Israel and France.
Growth, source of constraints, contributes to transformations.
Around 1992, the Rencontres reached their cruising speed. They are autonomous in relation to Summer University and FTE, keeping the tradition of offering young people the possibility of attending to some FTE shows, as it has been done so far. In 1995, AGATHE’s collaboration disappears and CREARC becomes the only prime contractor.
The financial needs increase. CREARC seeks and obtains more support from ministries (Foreign Affairs, Youth and Sports, Culture), from DRAC, from Grenoble’s town council, General Council and Regional Council. Abroad, embassies, the Franchise Alliances seek for contributing to financing the young foreign people’s travels. The huge growth of the number of groups and their participants poses many material problems: finding an accommodation vast enough to assemble everybody (at University Campus of Saint Martin d’Hères, after the Theological Centre of Meyland) and rooms for the workshops and shows are needed. Numerous MJC (community arts centre and youth club) and associations lend their places at the centre of the town as the Librairie Le Sphinx or the Centre Universitaire G. Dumas. Starting from 1996-97, shows are represented at Villeneuve district (Espace 600) and at Village Olympique district (Prémol). Overcrowded with foreigners who speak all languages, the tramway, such as a conductor thread from one point to another, is an important key for the Rencontres! Being integrated with local community and cultural life, the Rencontres THEATRE AND YOUNG PEOPLE FOR EUROPE, who adopted a new designation in 2000: YOUNG EUROPEAN THEATRE Rencontres, became an inescapable event into Grenoble’s cultural life. A great echo is made by local and national press, local radios, regional TV.
Extract of a produced number from the Rencontres’ History, wrote by Thérèse Cousin on the occasion of the Young European Theatre Seminar of 2004.
French version
