Current Grantees

Selected Projects in the United States

Henri VIII (Saint-Saens)
Jean-Romain Vesperini

Fisher Center at Bard College
https://fishercenter.bard.edu/
July 2023

In 2023, the Fisher Center will produce Henri VIII, a reinterpretation of Saint-Saëns’ 1883 opera with a team of French  artists that includes the stage director Jean-Romain Vesperini, an expert of operatic projects that investigate relationship between people and power to create poignant experiences. The other members from the creative team from France are  Olga Paliakova (Assistant director), Bruno de Lavenère (Set designer), Alain Blanchot (Costume designer) Christophe Chaupin (Lighting designer) and Thomas Ocampo (Video Projection Designer).

The Henri VIII opera , conducted by Leon Bostein, will be presented for five performances (July 21-30) during the acclaimed SummerScape festival. Later in fall 2023, the opera will be released as a free digital recording to the public, through Upstreaming.

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Augustine machine ou encore une nuit d’insomnie
Marie Darrieussecq and CNSAD, Paris

California Institute of the Arts
https://centerfornewperformance.org/
August – September 2023 

Using the history and origins of hysteria as an entry point, Augustine machine ou encore une nuit d’insomnie is realized by an international creative team: directed by Travis Preston (Los Angeles), and featuring creative contributor Marie Darrieussecq, the Prix Médicis-winning author (Paris). The ensemble highlights actors who have emerged from both CNSAD and CalArts, and includes an international cast—half of whom are French, with others from China, Croatia, Nigeria, Turkey and the U.S. Additional collaborators include cinema and media scholar Tom Gunning and educator, as well as author and dramaturg Amanda Shank.

This collaboration between CalArts Center for New Performance (CNP) and Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique (CNSAD), builds upon the successful premiere of the work in Paris. For the U.S. premiere, we reassemble its international cast of young professionals and remount the work for presentation, and future touring. In a joint commitment to exporting this French production, and to rich exchanges with artists and audiences in Los Angeles, Augustine Machine will have a month-long period of rehearsal, including translating aspects of the work’s multi-lingual script for primarily English speaking viewers.

One of the greatest benefits of this extended residency is the presence of Marie Darrieussecq in Los Angeles— allowing robust opportunities for talks, interviews, lectures and other engagement activities, within and beyond CalArts’ community.

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Fa
Amoukanama Circus

Anima
Noémie Goudal and Maëlle Poésy

PS21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century
https://ps21chatham.org/
August – September 2023

Presentation of two projects part of PATHWAYS 2023 by PS21: FA, a work by Amoukanama Circus, a troupe of nine Guinean acrobats, dancers, and musicians, and ANIMA, an immersive multidisciplinary installation-performance by French visual artist/photographer Noémie Goudal, theater director Maëlle Poésy, and circus artist Chloé Moglia.   PS21’s PATHWAYS’23 is an  annual series of free and low-cost performances with installations, environmental & education programs, and site-specific participatory events across our grounds and in the region’s communities.

Amoukanama Circus’s residency and engagement will culminate with the North American premiere of FA, co-presented by PS21 and the Town of Chatham, as part of PS21 PATHWAYS, at the annual Crellin Park Day, on Saturday, August 19, 2023.

The production ANIMA centering on the history of the Sahara and its transformation from a lush forest to the most arid place on earth is presented early September and then go to New York

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Anima
Noémie Goudal and Maelle Poésy

FIAF (French Institute Alliance Française)
https://fiaf.org/
September 2023

As part of the 16th edition of FIAF’s Crossing the Line Festival (CTL), ANIMA, the installation performance by Noémie Goudal and Maëlle Poésy This would be the New York City premiere of ANIMA, as the production is first introduced to the United States at PS21 in Cheatham, NY during the first week of September before coming CTL for its New York City premiere.

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Exit
Cirque Inextremiste

ArtPark & Company
https://www.artpark.net/
August 2023

Rochester Fringe Festival
https://rochesterfringe.com/
September 2023

The show, titled Exit, includes elements of clown, music, acrobatics, and a hot air balloon. The performance will headline a Cirque mini-festival planned for August 27th, at ArtPark, a multidisciplinary performing and visual arts space located within Earl W. Brydges Artpark State Park in Lewiston, NY.

The company will then go to Rochester, NY, to perform mid September for the opening of The Rochester Fringe Festival, an annual, free, festival presenting outdoor performances by international artists. The free grand-scale outdoor headliner Exit show will take place in Parcel 5, a large public space in the heart of the city.

Artpark is partnering with Rochester Fringe Festival, about 75 miles east of Artpark, in supporting Cirque Inextremiste’s North American tour.  Travel and visa costs to be shared by our organizations. A third stop in Ithaca, NY, has been confirmed with dates between Lewinston and Rochester.

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Support for New Artists at Seuls en Scène 2023
Lionel Lingelser, Penda Diouf, Marie Bachelot Nguyen, Karima El Kharraze

Seuls en Scène, Princeton French Theater Festival, Princeton University
https://arts.princeton.edu/frenchtheater/
September – October 2023

Princeton French Theater Festival, Seuls en Scène, brings new artists at Seuls en Scène 2023,  never invited to the festival. With Munstrum Théâtre, Lionel Lingelser will come present his monologue “Les Possédés d’Hillfurth,” With Association Display, Fanny de Chaillé will come direct ten early career actors in two projects presented at Festival d’Automne with Talents Adami in 2020 and 2022: “Le Choeur” & “Une autre histoire du théâtre.” Penda Diouf, Marine Bachelot Nguyen and Karima El Kharraze will come perform “Soeurs” a staged readings of three of their individual texts. Audrey Bonnet will come direct Mathieu Genet in “Sur les chantiers de l’éternité.” All performances have been created in recent seasons (20/21 & 21/22)

Seuls en Scène brings celebrated French actors and directors, as well as promising early-career artists, to Princeton University and the local community to present their work, introducing American audiences to dynamic and engaging French productions.

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Portrait de Ludmilla en Nina Simone
David Lescot

Compagnie du Kairos
U.S Tour: MIFA, Holyoke, MA,  Princeton University – Seuls en scène Festival, NJ,  and Chopin Theater, Chicago, IL
September 2023

A three city tour for the performance of Portrait of Ludmilla en Nina Simone, a portrait of the iconic singer and activist,  interpreted by the actress Ludmilla Dabo who perform either in French (with English titles) or in English,  with David Lescot (for the music) full of  blues, jazz, and soul.

Seul en scene at Princeton University will present 2 performances at the Wallace Theater;  MIFA (Massachussetts International Festival of Arts): 6 performances, and The Chopin Theater in Chicago, 2 to 3 performances

Author, stage director and musician, the stage work of David Lescot, an associate artist of Théâtre de la Ville, Paris,  mixes theatre with non-dramatic forms, in particular music.

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Mailles
Dorothée Munyaneza

California Institute of the Arts dba REDCAT
https://www.redcat.org/
October – November 2023

REDCAT will present three performances of the West Coast premiere of Mailles by Dorothée Munyaneza as part of REDCAT’s Fall 2023 influential international visiting artist program. Located inside the iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall complex in Los Angeles, REDCAT houses a 200-seat theater, a 3,000-foot gallery space and lounge.

In Mailles, a choral and sculptural show in which costume provides a common thread on the stage, a group of women are inhabited by a collective force that makes their encounter possible.

The presentation of Mailles is part a larger tour that includes a stop in New York and Chicago. It is part of the Albertine Dance Season: A year-long celebration of the art of dance from inception to performance in 2023.

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Selected Project in France

Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge
Elevator Repair Services (ERS) at Festival d’Avignon-IN

Elevator Repair Service Theater, Inc.
https://www.elevator.org/
July 2023

The ERS Company whose production Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge (BBAC) was presented at The Public Theater, NY, during fall 2022, is invited to perform at the festival d’Avignon-IN.

Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge (BBAC) is a theatrical embodiment of the 1965 debate between James Baldwin, one of the most powerful figures of the civil rights movement, and William F. Buckley Jr., a proeminent voice of American conservatism. The subject of the debate – “The American Dream is at the expense of the American Negro” – is as relevant today as it was nearly 60 years ago.

Baldwin who lived in France and engaged with French culture and politics spent a portion of his speech in the debate discussing his experiences while living in Europe. The ERS company and Festival d’Avignon plan to collaborate with La Maison Baldwin, France.

Contact

Nicole Birmann Bloom
Program Officer, Performing Arts
nicole.birmann-bloom@frenchculture.org