Michelle Parent, director
“I had funding to create, do residencies. [À l’étape de] production, a refusal arrived, in February, for the show scheduled for June. We couldn’t get the money that was missing in three months,” said Michelle Parent a week ago, in an interview with Duty.
“What saved the show at the last minute was the snake that bit its tail: another production, not yet announced [du Théâtre des Trompes], did not have its funding. They canceled. I took their place in the season, and I was able to resubmit a request to try to get some money. »
“Postponing it for six months means I lost half my team, not available for the new dates. I had 12 actors, there were ultimately 6 on stage. THE show is made from improvisations, everyone plays themselves. So, I threw away February’s work and rewrote the entire show. »
“I lost my sound designer. I found myself doing this myself, even though I don’t know that much about it. I had to double up without paying myself more. I reduced what makes up the aesthetic of the show, by removing bits of scenography, accessories, advisors. »
“I become a kind of octopus who does everything at the same time as she rewrites the show, and I don’t know if I’m going to be able to afford these thousand hats, where I would have paid different professionals whose expertise is really better than mine. My show would have been really better. »
Andréane Leclerc, conceptual and performance artist
Of the three parts of
“It’s a piece that we created during COVID, which toured in Argentina, Mexico, France, Repentigny, which we did in Rouyn. Who has proven himself. I was excited to come back to Montreal, and honor my COVID contracts, because the creative artists did not perform the play. It’s an ethical question for me: that those who created the play also perform it, finally, in front of an audience. »
“I want to work on degrowth, to propose another model, more ecological. I always work with local artists. The idea is to stay longer in a territory, to be in a more human meeting space, to use less transport. But it requires a little more rehearsal time. »
“We didn’t even ask for such a big budget, for specific programming, and the refusal had an impact on all our activities for the year. The creative budget arrangement included a personal trip for an internship that I was going to give abroad, and thus the production of independent income. There, the whole year of my company is at stake.”
“By doing the solo instead of the triptych, I will have a deficit of $3,000 instead of $30,000. It’s not ideal, but it’s absorbable. »
“We have not played in Montreal since 2018. We have been talking, with Théâtre La Chapelle, about doing this show together since 2019. It is the main partner of the play, and I would have liked to fully honor the support of this long-standing partner by presenting all the show. »
“We didn’t think about canceling. We were the first Parcours Danse show, where foreign presenters also come to shop for shows. It’s really important to have this showcase. »
Isabelle Bartkowiak, director, and Alice Tixidre, playwright
“I’m 33 years old, I left school in 2021,” says Isabelle. Alice was released in 2021. It’s a pivotal moment to establish ourselves, to be seen. All our performers left theater schools less than five years ago. If we don’t get our bearings, we will have fewer prospects later, because we will soon be more part of the next generation, which gives more chances. »
“If you don’t produce, you don’t practice. You are forgotten, you lose control, you become less in demand. We are in a gear. »
“Our goal,” said Isabelle, “was to make a show of the next generation, with just people who could get pregnant. We talk about the exploitation of more vulnerable people, particularly women who may have a child. »
“We don’t need much to do the show, but there is an impact on quality. The living arts are also the poetry of the eyes, of looking, of listening. »
“We wondered if we were cutting it. If we bring it back show to a monologue. If we pay the interpreters just $17 an hour. If I did the scene myself, there would be less support from my artists because I’m spinning wheels on a couch and skating on Saturday evenings. »
“That’s planned burnout. »
“It was not consistent with the text to continue at all costs,” said Isabelle. Yes, theater is political. I think the absence of theater must be too. »
“To exist, in the theater, you have to play,” says Alice.