” How are you ? “… If the question has a particular resonance in this long period of health crisis, Édouard Penaud nevertheless asked it, through a play thus entitled, long before the Covid-19 came to disrupt our daily life. .
The work of the actor-director was written in summer 2019 to be presented during his director’s diploma at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art (CNSAD) in Paris. Its genesis had started several months earlier in Montluçon (Allier).
A project initiated by the hospital center
At the beginning of 2019, Édouard Penaud had come for an internship at the city’s national drama center, the Théâtre des Îlets, as part of his studies at the CNSAD. Very quickly, he adheres to a culture and health project wanted by Béatrice Fauconnet, senior health manager at the psychiatry and mental health center of the Montluçonnais hospital center.
The artist, who had already worked in prison at the Montluçon remand center and with migrants in Paris, then got involved in this project which takes place at the Jean-Billaud child and adult psychiatry center. There animates theater workshops with adult patients, but also stays during other workshops and informal times such as meals or breaks in the garden of the center.
The actors became their characters first and foremost in their bodies through postures, ways of moving and silences.
Immersion in the life of the psychiatric center
Édouard Penaud therefore immersed himself completely in the life of the center and its patients:
“I wanted to invite myself to the Jean-Billaud center as a documentary filmmaker. To make my presence accepted, I participated in the meals, in the other workshops. I wanted to collect information to make a show and this immersion made it easier. “
Edouard Penaud (actor and director)
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In the midst of patients, he discovers the importance of silences and permeates personalities, emotions. From this dive into the day hospital, the artist draws a realistic, surprising and sensitive play.
The four patient characters of How are you ? are in fact a summary of several personalities that the author has worked with. He thus avoids pitfalls and stereotypes for give true humanity to its characters.
Édouard Penaud and Béatrice Fauconnet worked very closely together in the theater workshops of the day hospital.
A co-production between the Theater and the hospital
After his director’s diploma and performances at the CNSAD, Édouard Penaud wanted deepen this work started with the Jean-Billaud center. The hospital center and the Théâtre des Îlets then set up a co-production in partnership with the Regional Health Agency (ARS), the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region and the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs (Drac).
Result, in addition toa subsidized residence by the departmental council of Allier, to refine How are you ?, Édouard Penaud also relaunched the theater workshops at the Jean-Billaud center with Béatrice Fauconnet.
Center hospitalier Sainte-Marie in Clermont-Ferrand, the great forgotten psychiatry of the health crisis
Deepen the work with a second cycle
“This second cycle of workshops is both a continuation and something new. There was positive feedback and we wanted to see if we could push things further. We wanted to be surprised, ”says the artist. Béatrice Fauconnet adds:
We wanted to show on stage the magic and poetry that emanate from the theatrical workshops of the day hospital. We see moments of pure beauty.
Béatrice Fauconnet (Jean-Billaud center)
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Édouard Penaud then chose to make patients work on the theme of myths. And in order to underline the continuity with his piece, the work carried out began with the stage on which How are you ? ends.
The final scene of How are you? (our photo) is the premiere of the show with patients from the Jean-Billaud center.
A time greatly disrupted by the health crisis
This theater-psychiatry highlight, which took place from October 2020 to April 2021, was to end with two performances of How are you ?, a possible restitution of theater workshops with patients, as well as a round table and a conference. But the health crisis prevented all of this. Alone professional representation from How are you ? could take place on Monday April 26th.
Video recordings of the workshops at the Jean-Billaud center and rehearsals at the theater were also carried out. ” We have the possibility of making a film on the theatrical object and to make a report, a documentary work. We have the material for both types of assembly, ”concludes Édouard Penaud.
In Montluçon (Allier), the Îlets theater invites amateurs to participate in two shows being created
Florence Farina: text
Florian Salesse: pictures
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