SESSION 2 - The impact of the cultural exchanges made through theatre on young Europeans based on the testimonies gathered by the participants of the Seminar

As an introduction to this part of the Seminar, I propose to listen to some testimonies from   participants in the Rencontres, which were published in the review “Reportages”. It is an arbitrary and subjective choice among dozens of testimonies gathered all along the years by the team in charge of this workshop (Suzon Charbonnier, Thérèse Cousin, Jocelyne Jolibert and Michèle Marché).

Interview with Christina Hohmuth and Daniel Heinz (Theater Frankfurt-Germany).

What were you expecting from the first Rencontres you have participated in? What memories, what mental pictures do you keep in mind?

-  Christina : “I was 18 and I was still in high school. I remember how excited we were while reading the booklet, when we had to choose a workshop among the list. We discussed it for hours. We had worked a lot to put on our show (“La Tour” from an idea by Peter Weiss)  especially  created for those 11th Rencontres. So I was filled with huge expectations when I arrived in Grenoble and I must say I was not disappointed. I was immediately impressed by the number of participants, the efficiency of the organization, the warmth of the welcome: helped by people, we were not “lost”. Since those Rencontres, we have developed a lot of relationships with other groups. I took part in the “Singing and Dancing” workshop. Jean-Cyril taught us a song for the Parade: “Le verger du roi Louis”, that I sing now to my daughter.

What was the influence the Rencontres in your personal and theatrical education?

-  Daniel: “It was a very important step on the path that led us to make theatre our profession, not only because every Rencontres, in itself, has brought us something, but also because of all the contacts we have established with people living with the same passion of theatre.  They have allowed us to discover that there is an alternative to Classical Theatre. In Germany, to become a professional actor requires a lot of time, and a long training.  In Grenoble, we met people who have become actors without going through this long and conventional training. That encouraged us, the Theater Frankfurt company, to create a school of dramatic art where we practice innovative methods. During three and a half years, young actors are trained in drama, according to the requirements and spirit of a European theatre; at the same time, they are formed as teachers and can bring the youngest what they have received. Christina and I are in charge of workshops. And moreover, there is all the emotional part whose durability is hard to tell: there have been of course, love stories to take into account; we have travelled and acted on stage with groups from Scotland, Milan, Poland; friendships were born from this collaboration during the Rencontres.”

-  Christina: “The participation in the Rencontres creates very strong links. There are people I only meet here, so quite rarely, but every time, it’s such a pleasure to see them again. A paradoxical but rather important example: when we first met here for the first time, we, the German group from Frankfurt, coming from the former East Germany, and the other one from Heidelberg, that’s from the West, we first  looked at each other from a distance, both of us very reticent. But by focusing on theatre and acting together, quickly our suspicion disappeared and everything became very simple between us.”

(Interview by Thérèse Cousin-translation by Monika Funke – 2008).

The” last party” by Myrto Kastrisiou (Grece) – extracts from a text written in 2009.

On July 12th, the last party, until dawn, on Fauré Residence parking lot, was fantastic! ... Not many persons had stayed until the end... When I noticed the weak light at 5 a.m., I couldn’t believe it...

During that evening, then that night, I didn’t almost drink anything... I didn’t want either to dance or groove on. I was too sad everything had to end! Yet I don’t think I cried when I said goodbye... The most intense moment wasn’t the one of the last embraces and promises, nor the long path back to the campus residences. It wasn’t either the weight of those moments we know as the last ones. Nor the regret of the words not yet said, of the bodies not yet touched, of the eyes not dared to look at... The most intense moment came to find me when I was standing in front of my mirror, alone in my room, a bit later on that very same morning. I didn’t choose it because I was all alone or because I was looking at myself smiling at the reflection of me crying a flood of tears... I wasn’t wearing my glasses, so I had to come closer to the mirror to discover the makeup for the show hadn’t gone yet. And I was particularly surprised with its good quality ...

And it’s only at that precise moment that” I was able to be everywhere at the same time and travelled all around the world”. Around my own world, of course: Grenoble and its small streets, that had so nicely welcome my dances, my dreams, my hopes, and my passions; that long week whose magic was all gathered for me in one image, full of thousands of words and feelings- the image of the Final Parade.

Suddenly, I understood why theater has its place in my life. And above all, in which personal desire and need, it has its source; and why these desire and need are timeless, and why I still feel them alive inside myself. Theatre which includes in itself not only joy and escape but also escape and pain. And which gives at the same time the boldness and courage to come back to daily life.(with the desire to turn it into something worth living.

This life called “theater” NON E MORTO-SIGURO. At least not in myself! Not inside those who have met  for ten days, around my  17 years, those days which are going to accompany me during all the years coming and along the different events of my life...

And, following my thoughts as in a wink, my hand was slowly wiping my face, taking off the makeup. Contributing to make magic disappear and turning my image into Myrto again. The only thing that made me busy was the freshness of the cleansing cotton on my face and the fact that the makeup had made me beautiful.

There is no melancholy in this past tense. Because it’s you who had made me more beautiful. And your beauty and all our common creations have not been drawn with a pencil! All is indelible and it suddenly gets mixed up with all that magical moment has offered me.

Carlotta’s interview (Studio Novecento-Italy)

What do the Rencontres mean for you?

I find there a lot of very different experiences, various approaches due to the great diversity of directors and I keep very attentive to the possibility of acting in another language than my own one. And moreover, it’s a pleasure to meet again people who, without being friends, are persons  I remember.  Other ones are not here anymore but I keep a very good memory of them.

What strikes you the most?

It’s variable according to each show, sometimes the staging, sometimes the acting. But the strongest and the most extraordinary thing, is that, though you don’t know the language, those shows get into your head and stay in you.

Have these participations to the Rencontres influenced your artistic work as a comedian?

Yes! To attend a show in a foreign language for the first time makes you think! That’s why in our company, every time we put on a show for acting in Grenoble, we ask ourselves how to make it understandable for people not Knowing Italian. Moreover, during workshops, I have learnt technical means I use today...And preparing  the final show is also a good experience.

My “Rencontres”

Testimony by Walid Guenoun (Fox Company- Annemasse- France) in 2005

I was about 14 when I discovered Grenoble and its “Rencontres”.. . I fell in love with them. We had immersed in a world where artists from all Europe were in contact with each other. For me as a   teenager it was wonderful to be able to exchange and live for a bit more than a week, so many things, feelings, sensations, and happy events with other teenagers coming from various parts of the world. At the Rencontres, no more social classes, no integration problems. Just have to attend shows in foreign languages. Very quickly, the Rencontres have become an inevitable place for artistic adventures. Those Rencontres have seen the birth of a lot of friendships which, many years later, are still very strong...

The Rencontres are also those famous sleepless nights spent to discover the other one, his or her story, passions, and questions, in endless discussions at the end of which we finally realized that we were the other one and vice versa.

Yes indeed, the Rencontres have made me, an English, an Italian, an Ukrainian, a Scot, a Norwegian in a word, a European! 

Documents

Intervention in french : Click on this link to open this document.

Intervention in english : Click on this link to open this document.