Mont-Saint-Aignan. Even private, Espace Marc-Sangnier affirms its support for artists by welcoming seven companies.
«C‘is a paradox: even closed to the public, without representation, we have never worked so hard, the light has not gone out in Marc-Sangnier ”, notes Laurent-Martin Schmit, director of the city’s cultural service.
Like the CDN with which he shares these places, he is eager to resume a 2020-2021 season interrupted in its tracks. “We are preparing for the future. We constantly undo and redo, but we are ready to restart as soon as possible, ”summarizes the director, hoping for a clearing up after Easter.
A la carte support
For the past few weeks, he has been focusing on hosting artists who rehearse and refine shows whose performances are canceled due to the Covid. “For the technical team, it is also important to stay in touch and keep the sense of this profession,” adds Laurent-Martin Schmit.
Behind the scenes, Marc-Sangnier is a beehive. “To mark its financial support, the City has chosen to pay for the sessions that have been canceled, but also to support the companies by offering them to use the rooms and technical elements to rehearse, regain the creative energy and keep the link with young audiences, ”continues Cécile Grenier, cultural assistant.
In total, seven regional or national companies (theater, dance, hip-hop, music) benefit from the system. In this à la carte formula, the troupes offer “master classes” open to young students of municipal artistic workshops.
Example with the company of Golden Sands which invested last week the intimate room of the Workshop for the rehearsals of Letter from an unknown woman, initially programmed Friday February 19. “Instead, we did a recording and invited the professionals. Because the current difficulty for all theater directors is to build a future season without having access to creations. Me, I am in the 17th version of the 2021-2022 season ”, explains Laurent-Martin Schmit jokingly.
This free adaptation of Stefan Zweig’s short novel, written and performed by Sandrine Delsaux, directed by Sophie Thebault, was premiered at the Festival d’Avignon off in 2018. “We had played it about thirty times, but since Covid crisis, everything has been canceled, ”indicate the two artists who have been accomplices for ten years.
“A breath of freedom”
“This possibility of being in the action again gives us perspective and allows us to deepen the play. We are like stonemasons, always digging. Finding the path to a plateau, without any objective of result, it is enormous ”, affirms Sophie Thebault.
For her part, the actress explains that she wanted, “without going into melodrama, to give first place to the words of this stranger who loved in secret and chose her destiny”.
Adepts of a theater of the purity, to touch the spectator, both appreciated their intervention with a group of the theater workshop on the acting: “Sharing is crucial. We create to give to others. We saw lights coming on in the eyes of these young people. Finally, there was a breath of freedom. “
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