L’acteur sacrifiant, staging of texts by Valère Novarina
Staging: Valéry Warnotte
Performance: Théâtre du Rêve
On the table on stage, the first sacrificed is the character, the second is the actor, and the third is you, audience member.
Valère Novarina, Lumières du corps.
He was speaking to no one. He thought he was hearing the language when no one was speaking anymore; he was entering into the language when there was no one left inside; he was hearing without speaking; he was hearing men when no one was speaking.
Valère Novarina, Entrée dans le théâtre des Oreilles.
The Artistic Project
Contemporary writer, playwright and director, Valère Novarina has created words, gestures unique to humans and a script that is living, burning, visceral and free. The author of numerous theatrical works (Le Drame de la Vie [The Drama of Life], la Chair de l’homme [The Flesh of Man], La lumière du corps [The Light of the Body], L’acte inconnu [the Unknown Act]) he has staged his plays in such mythical places as the Comédie Française (Paris), the Théâtre de la Bastille (Paris) and the Court of Honor at the Palais des Papes (Festival d’Avignon), among others.
To bring to life the words of Valère Novarina in the language of Shakespeare, such is the plan of the Théâtre du Rêve.
L’acteur sacrifiant, produced through a joint initiative of the Franco-American playwright Amin Erfani and the director Valéry Warnotte with the support of Emory University, will first be performed in Atlanta on March 3, 2009, in the presence of Valère Novarina.
The production L’acteur Sacrifiant, which brings together excerpts translated by Allen Weiss from La lettre aux acteurs [Letter to Actors], L’entrée dans le théâtre des Oreilles [Entry into the Theater of Ears] et Notre Parole [Our Word], is based on the desire to bring to life a language void of any utilitarian dimension, freed from all rational necessity linked to the imperatives of a daily and immediate communication.
In a remarkable “mise en abyme” (story within a story) evoking the role of the actor, three actors – one French and two Americans – intersect, mixing languages, creating trouble to all the better make the unconventional remarks of this original author resonate, and come to a full understanding of Novarina’s theater.
The play is performed either in French or in English, and is routinely sub-titled in the other language.
Valère Novarina will join this artistic tour, depending on his availability.
Length of the performance: 1 hour 10 minutes.
The Performers
The only French-speaking theater in the United States, the Théâtre du Rêve, established in 1995 by Carolyn Cook, has provided a venue for the performance of a vast repertory of French plays, both classical and contemporary, by professional American actors who are completely bilingual (La Leçon [The Lesson], Huis Clos [No Exit], Voir un Ami Pleurer [Seeing a Friend Cry – song by Jacques Brel], etc.).
Amin Erfany is a doctoral candidate in French Literature at Emory University. He holds a Master of Arts in Literature from the University of New York at Stony Brook. Very early on, he became fascinated with the work of Valère Novarina, which reassesses in a singular way the literary and dramatic a priori through the simple word and the body of the actor.
Valéry Warnotte is an actor and director. After studying art history, he enrolled at le Cours Florent where he staged Court-circuit [Short Circuit] by Olivier Coyette and Partage de Midi [The Break of Noon]by Paul Claudel. Since 2001, he has staged more than twenty plays, the most recent of which are Voir un ami Pleurer by Olivier Coyette at the 14th Street Playhouse in Atlanta, and Microfictions by Régis Jauffret in collaboration with Charlie Windelschmidt, at the Théâtre du Rond-Point in Paris as part of the Nuit Blanche [the “All-Nighter” yearly cultural event], and at the Quartz in Brest.
The play Voir un ami Pleurer was performed to a sold out house for a week in Atlanta in January 2008 and in Paris at the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles in November 2008.
Park Krausen is artistic director of the Théâtre du Rêve and professional bilingual actress. She has worked with French directors Arthur Nauzyciel, Andrzej Sewyern, Simon Abkarian, and performed in more than twenty theater companies in the United States and France. She has received two Suzi Awards (the Molière Awards [national theater awards] of Atlanta) for the best musical creation for Vive la Fontaine! and for the best actors ensemble for the play Métamorphoses.
Chris Kayser is a member and co-founder of the Théâtre du Rêve and an actor. He was elected Best Actor by the press (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta Magazine and Creative Loafing), nominated five times for the Suzi Awards (for the prize of best actor and best company). He is currently in his 19th season as an associate artist with Georgia Shakespeare.
Cast
Valéry Warnotte, actor/director
Chris Kayser, actor
Park Krausen, actress/ production director
1 Technician
Link to the Compagnie du Théâtre du Rêve’s website : www.theatredureve.com
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