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École Nomade, Oxford 2015

2015 press-release from Théâtre du Soleil: During two weeks in September this year, we will develop together a collective practice using improvisation, masks, music, dance, and movement. The sessions of the École Nomade, which will all take place in English, are not drama classes. They constitute, rather, moments of practical reflection, in which we seek to set out, explain, and clarify our methods and our collective way of working.

About the École Nomade

Actors, like all artists, are explorers; an actor is someone who makes their way along a very long, very deep, very strange and sometimes very dark tunnel, and, who, like a miner, gathers up stones: amongst these stones, he might hope to find a diamond, and the work of cutting it into shape begins.

I believe that this is what actors mean when they talk about being on an ‘adventure’. In any case, this is what the adventure means to me. Travelling deep into the human soul, the soul of society, and then making your way back; that is the first stage of the adventure.

- Ariane Mnouchkine, cited in Béatrice Picon-Vallin : Ariane Mnouchkine (Actes sud papiers), 2009.

For a long time now - in fact almost since the very beginning - the thinking which animates the Théâtre du Soleil has associated, whether consciously or not, creation and transmission, production and apprenticeship: theatre and school.

Every time we start preparing a new show, we begin by running a ‘grand stage’ – a great big workshop –  in our theatre in Paris, during which we try to bring together more than 300 actors or aspiring actors, from all over the world, to foster connections between their work and ours. At times we have been able to offer similar workshops elsewhere, in different countries, when we have been invited on tour.

These encounters are, we hope, nourishing for all involved; they certainly have proved to be so for us, and we now wish to multiply them, by setting up our École Nomade, or Travelling School. The sessions of the École Nomade will not simply be drama classes; they will, rather, constitute moments of practical reflection, in which we seek to set out, explain, and clarify our methods, and to share our collective way of working. And the point of all this? Because this is how we, at the Théâtre du Soleil, explore, try, fail, and begin again. In short, this is how we work.

Over the last fifty years, thanks to its diversity, its mixed character, combined with its constant sense of purpose – and, of course thanks to both public funds and good fortune – our troupe has been able to grow, to renew itself, and…. to survive. This is why we believe that it is the collective nature of our work as a troupe that we should be explaining to others and trying to pass on. 

Who can apply?

Anyone over the age of 18 years old is free to apply. It does not matter whether or not you have studied theatre before; but you must want to engage in the experiment of collective theatre-making. And, of course, you must be able to make yourself free to attend both the auditions and the two weeks of the École itself.

When?

The École Nomade will last two weeks; animated by Ariane Mnouchkine, together with five other members of the Théâtre du Soleil, it will take place between the 14th and the 25th September 2015. Our working day runs from 10 am to 5pm. The venue will be open from 9am and participants should be ready to start work at 10am.

All applicants will be invited to one of a number of selection days — group auditions — run by two members of the Théâtre du Soleil; these will be held in the first week of June, 2015

How do I apply?

The selection process will involve two stages.

First, please send us a letter explaining why you wish to join in this workshop and attach a passport-style photo to your application letter. The deadline for receipt of all applications is midnight on Sunday 24 May 2015. Applications should be sent to the following address: ecolenomade@classics.ox.ac.uk 

Second, please ensure that you are free to come to one of the selection days (group auditions); these will be run by two members of the Théâtre du Soleil. These sessions are a necessary part of the process, and only candidates who attend these workshop auditions will be eligible for a place at the École. At the end of these workshops, around sixty people will be offered places in the École.

How much does it cost?

There is no application charge for the auditions. We will ask for a registration contribution of £40 from all those who are offered a place in the École Nomade; there are bursaries available for those who cannot afford the registration fee. We cannot pay expenses, so you will be responsible for your own meals, travel, and (if you are coming from outside Oxford) accommodation.

2015 Programme

Our first port of call is in Chile, where we have been invited by the Fondation Teatro A Mil who hosted our show, Les Naufragés du Fol Espoir, at their festival in 2012. Here, the École Nomade will run from 29 June to 24 July 2015. For four weeks, Ariane and ten actors will meet and work with more than a hundred actors and apprentice actors from across South America.

The École will then travel to Europe. To Sweden, first of all. Here, at the invitation of the Bergman Center and the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Stockholm, Ariane and five actors will offer a workshop for two weeks, from the 10th to the 21st August, 2015, on the mythical island of Fårö, where Ingmar Bergman lived and worked. Sixty actors and apprentice actors, drawn from all over Scandinavia, will take part in this workshop.

Then, at the invitation of Oxford University and the Maison française d’Oxford, the Ecole Nomade will make its way to the UK, and to Oxford. Here, from the 14th to the 25th of September, 2015, Ariane and five actors will run a workshop bringing together a mixed group of around sixty people.

Image:
A group of around 30 students, some in costume, in a theatre's stalls listening to director Ariane Mnouchkine
École Nomade, Oxford 2015
Ariane Mnouchkine (right) talks to École Nomade students in the North Wall Arts Centre.