Register now for a three week workshop with Ariane Mnouchkine and the Théâtre du Soleil in Pondicherry

__________

Apply to the Théâtre du Soleil’s École Nomade

During three weeks in January next 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.

Who? Anyone over the age of 16 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 three weeks of the École itself.

When? The École Nomade will last three weeks; animated by Ariane Mnouchkine, together with eleven other members of the Théâtre du Soleil, it will take place between the 9th and the 26th of January 2018. Our working day runs from 8am to 5pm. You should be ready to start work at 8am sharp, with a warm up organized in the gardens of the Colombani house, kindly made available by the Alliance Française de Pondicherry, which we would like to warmly thank for it. Please do bring with you two outfits: one very light attire for the warm-up, and another one, without flashy designs, from any plain color except green.
All applicants will receive, in late December, a letter of convocation, inviting them to one of a number of selection days — group auditions — run by two members of the Théâtre du Soleil; these will be held at the Lycée Français de Pondichéry between January 5th and January 7th .

How? 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 passportstyle photo to your application letter. The deadline for applying is on December 20th. Applications should be sent to the following address: ecolenomade.pondichery2015@gmail.com
-Second, please ensure that you are free to come to one of the selection days (group auditions). 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 one hundred people will be invited to join the École.

How much? This workshop is free. You will be responsible for your own meals and travel. Just inform us if you are able to accommodate yourself in Pondicherry.

Where? Selections: at the Lycée Français de Pondichéry 12, Victor Simonel St, Pondicherry, 605001. The workshop: at Indianostrum – N°7 Romain Rolland street, Pondicherry, 605001.

Thanks to? This 2018 École Nomade is supported by the Institut Français in India, in the framework of Bonjour India !, the Consulate Generale of France in Pondicherry, the Lycée Français de Pondichéry, The Alliance Française of Pondicherry and the Government of Pondicherry (Department of Tourism).

_________

The Théâtre du Soleil

Ariane Mnouchkine, born 3rd March 1939 at Boulogne-sur-Seine, is the director of theatre company, the Théâtre du Soleil, which she founded in 1964 with her fellows of the ATEP (The Theatre Association of the Students of Paris). In 1970, the Théâtre du Soleil created 1789 at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan, where Giorgio Strehler warmly welcomed the young company and gave them his support. The company then went on to choose its home at the Cartoucherie, a former bullet-making factory, in the Bois de Vincennes on the outskirts of Paris. The Cartoucherie enabled the troupe to expand on the notion of the theatre simply as architectural institution and allowed them to focus on the concept of the theatre being a place of haven rather than just complying with the traditional architectural notions of a theatre building, and all this at a time when urban change and development in France was transforming the place of man in the city and the place of theatre in the city. In the Cartoucherie, the Théâtre du Soleil found the necessary tool to create and present the type of popular yet high-quality theatre dreamed of by Antoine Vitez and Jean Vilar. The troupe invented new ways of working and privileged collectively devised work, its aim being to establish a new relationship with its audience and distinguishing itself from bourgeois theatre in order to create a high-quality theatre for the people.

From the 1970s onwards, the troupe became one of France’s major theatre companies, both because of the number of artists working in it (more than seventy people a year) and because of its glowing international reputation. Attached to the notion of the theatre troupe as tribe or family, Ariane Mnouchkine established the ethics of the group on certain basic foundations: everyone working at all levels, everyone on the same wage, and on stage, the definitive casting only decided upon once many different actors have tried out many different roles. Today, the Théâtre du Soleil is one of the last theatre companies in Europe to continue to function in such a way.

The adventure of the Théâtre du Soleil has been continuing for more than fifty years, thanks to the faithfulness and affection of a large audience both in France and abroad. Its development is marked by a ceaseless questioning of the role it has to play, of the place of theatre in society and of its capacity to represent its own times. The Théâtre du Soleil’s commitment in treating the great political and human questions from a universal angle goes hand in hand with its research on the great theatrical forms and the convergence of Asian and Western arts.