Littérature scientifique sur le sujet « Festival d’Avignon »

Was kann und muss ein künstlerisch ambitioniertes, zeitgenössisches, engagiertes und volksnahes Theater? Antworten von Tiago Rodrigues, dem Festival d’Avignon und eine These von Ariane Mnouchkine Von Andreas Klaeui

Mit dem neuen Direktor Tiago Rodrigues geht das Festival d’Avignon auf Entdeckungsreise: Neue Arbeiten von Philippe Quesne, Julie Deliquet, Bintou Dembelé, Tim Crouch und vielen anderen Von Andreas Klaeui

De nos jours, nombre de villes ont développé leur propre festival. Un festival est un événement qui transforme la ville et constitue un atout qui contribue à la distinguer. Dans cette situation, l’analyse d’une ville ne peut ainsi faire abstraction de l’événement festivalier et de la relation qui l’unit à la société de la ville. Cette relation est examinée à partir de la notion de festivalisation et conduit à envisager conjointement deux points de vue, celui des habitants et celui des visiteurs. On analyse ainsi ce qui se passe autour des habitants qui vivent au rythme du festival et autour des visiteurs, à la fois pendant le festival et pendant le reste de l’année. A travers ces points de vue dits « endogène » et « exogène », la festivalisation amène à se poser la question du « rassemblement » au niveau international à l’ère du numérique en privilégiant l’approche de l’anthropologie de la communication. Dans cette thèse, on analyse la festivalisation en s’appuyant sur la société avignonnaise : le Festival d’Avignon, les Avignonnais et les visiteurs asiatiques avec, en miroir, le Festival d’Édimbourg et les Écossais
Nowadays many towns have developed their own festival. A festival is an event that transforms the town and establishes an asset which goes towards distinguishing it from others. In this situation the analysis of a town cannot ignore the festival event and the relationship which links it to the community of the town. This relationship is examined from the notion of festivalisation and brings about the consideration of two points of view simultaneously, that of the inhabitants and that of the visitors. We thus analyse what happens around the inhabitants who live to the rhythm of the festival and around the visitors, both during the festival and throughout the rest of the year. Through these points of view called « endogenous » and « exogenous », festivalisation leads us to ask the question of « gathering » on an international level in the digital era, favouring the approach of the anthropology of communication. In this dissertation, we are analysing festivalisation based on the community of Avignon : the Avignon Festival, the inhabitants and Asian visitors, in comparison with the Festival of Edinburgh and the Scots

Cette thèse repose sur une triple démarche éditoriale, génétique et littéraire. Jean Vilar appartient à l'histoire sociale et théâtrale en tant que fondateur et directeur du festival d'Avignon, de 1947 à 1971, directeur du Théâtre national populaire, de 1951 à 1963, comédien, metteur en scène et chef de troupe. C'est aussi un polygraphe dont l'ambition initiale était de devenir écrivain. Cette thèse réfute l'idée de concurrence entre la vocation littéraire et théâtrale. La pratique de l'écriture nourrit celle de la recherche scénique et sa position de directeur alimente une correspondance et un journal de travail au sein desquels s'expriment un style propre, un ton reconnaissable et une vision du monde. La démarche éditoriale repose sur la constitution d'un corpus de 328 lettres, pour la plupart inédites, transcrites, classées et commentées. Elles témoignent des échanges avec les personnalités théâtrales, littéraires, politiques et intellectuelles, de la sortie de guerre aux années 1970. Le journal de travail de Vilar, intitulé « mémento », est transcrit et annoté dans son entièreté, de 1952 à 1970. Il se compose de trois carnets dont seuls le premier et le début du deuxième avaient été publiés. Nous présentons et étudions le troisième, inédit, que Vilar a tenu de sa démission du TNP à sa mort. La démarche génétique consiste à comparer les différentes versions du « Mémento » : du journal de bord initial à sa réécriture. Quel regard l'artiste retiré porte-t-il sur le passé et comment le transforme-t-il ? Quelle image de son œuvre et de lui-même construit-il pour la postérité ? Comment la réécriture de soi hybride-t-elle le journal entre carnet de bord et autobiographie professionnelle ? L'analyse littéraire du corpus consiste enfin à étudier les caractéristiques de la plume d'un Vilar épistolier et diariste pour en dégager la spécificité, fondée sur un mélange de d'exigence professionnelle forte et d'amitié tendre
This PhD thesis follows a threefold editorial, genetic, and literary approach. Jean Vilar holds a prominent place in social and theatrical history as the founder and director of the Avignon Festival (1947–1971), the director of the Théâtre National Populaire (1951–1963), as well as an actor, director, and troupe leader. Additionally, Vilar was a prolific writer whose original ambition was to become an author. This thesis refutes the idea of competition between literary and theatrical vocations. The practice of writing enriches his theatrical research, and his position as director fosters a body of correspondence and work diaries where a distinct style, recognizable tone, and vision of the world emerge. The editorial approach focuses on the creation of a corpus of 328 letters, most of which are previously unpublished, transcribed, classified, and annotated. These letters reflect Vilar’s exchanges with theatrical, literary, political, and intellectual figures from the post-war period to the 1970s. Vilar’s work diary, entitled "Mémento", has been fully transcribed and annotated for the period from 1952 to 1970. It consists of three notebooks, of which only the first and the beginning of the second had been published. This study presents and analyzes the third, previously unpublished, which Vilar maintained from his resignation from the TNP until his death. The genetic approach compares the different versions of the "Mémento", from the initial logbook to its later rewritings. What perspective does the retired artist take on the past, and how does he transform it? What image of his work and of himself does he construct for posterity? How does this self-rewriting blend the journal between a logbook and a professional autobiography? Finally, the literary analysis of the corpus aims to study the characteristics of Vilar’s writing as a letter-writer and diarist, highlighting its specificity, based on a combination of high professional standards and tender friendship

“Madness is contagious” ponders Amalfitano, one of the many characters in Roberto Bolaño’s 2666, posthumously published in 2004. Indeed, madness is one of the many recurrent motifs that are woven into the very thick fabric of the novel; and, as the reader is about to discover, madness spreads easily once it is unleashed. It might have affected Àlex Rigola and his collaborator Pablo Ley because they decided to adapt it for the stage. Such a feat would be considered an act of pure madness for anyone who has read the monumental work. Bolaño’s five-part, thousand page plus novel is a confusing, verbose, palimpsestic, disturbing and tangential opus. However, Rigola and Ley successfully, both artistically and commercially, achieved the unconceivable in a five hour-long production. More surprisingly, two more theatrical adaptations of the novel opened in 2016: in Chicago at the Goodman Theatre directed by Robert Falls and adapted by Seth Bockley and in France (Festival d’Avignon and Paris) adapted and directed by Julien Gosselin. For this chapter, having seen the three productions and after reviewing the different ways Bolaño’s novel was adapted, the author inquires into the nature of modern theatrical adaptation based on the creative desire of these three prominent directors to adapt Bolaño’s magnum opus.

In my doctoral research, even though I chose the scientific route and not the professional one, I sought to expand the theoretical discourse in various applicative areas. In order to understand the springs of clowning and the psychosomatic structure of the clown actor, I conducted a non-verbal monologue study about the trickster, I participated in physical and online workshops with clowning teachers from the UK and Spain and, last but not least, I conducted together with an interdisciplinary team a niche theatrical laboratory with the theme: the clown condition of some dramatic characters. After all these practical extensions of the research, it was my turn, this summer, to undertake a documentary visit to the Avignon Festival. I had planned to watch shows that clearly contain a clownish expression, but also shows where I could identify it based on criteria defined in my research. Thus, I discovered that getting to Avignon during the festival is an adventure in itself. You risk yourself into a heterogeneous theatrical dynamics that is difficult to assimilate. The diversity of events that take place both in the courtyard of Palais des Papes and in several hundred other locations in the old town, but also in five other neighbouring towns – Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Monteux, Courthézon, Vedène and Noves – surpasses any other festival approach from Europe. This fact complicates the options for any viewer, competent or not. This year, in the official section (July 7-26), there were more than 40 events, some resumed in consecutive days, resulting in several hundred performances, all of them sold out. The “Off” section of the festival had a longer duration (July 7-30) and 1570 performances, each show having multiple performances, some even running the entire duration of the festival. No mathematical calculations are needed to get an idea of the artistic effervescence of those summer days in the south of France.