For more than thirty years, Quebec adolescent theater has been continually renewing itself, showing interest in and adapting to constantly evolving youth. As proof, the Teen Theater Meeting (RTA), which is at 23e edition, opens on April 14 with a diverse program, strong subjects anchored in reality, notably depression in Pink, a Bluff Theater production. At the same time, at Factory C, the Junction Theater offers The Concorde greenhouse a privileged place for adolescents. In a short tour of the table, three actors involved in youth theater demystify the means undertaken to reach young people constantly solicited by the society of the image and its thousand attractions.
If thirty years ago the idea of offering mirror pieces to adolescents, proposals that reflected exactly – or at least as much as possible – what they were, was part of a trend, this frontal approach has evolved over time and is available differently. Mario Borges, co-artistic and general director of the Bluff Theater, remembers that time when “that was all it was. It was a passage. The theater began to come out of the gymnasiums in which the young people were seated on their little blue carpet – for the spectator’s experience, we will return [rires] — and, suddenly, everything began to evolve and even their position as spectators evolved. Today, we have reached a moment where this teenager is considered a person in his own right, a human to whom we offer a work of art. He must stand in front of this work of art and question himself, let himself be impregnated by it. Without it being important to understand its totality, but just to open up what meaning and possibilities it awakens.”
From this perspective, the desire to reach adolescents involves less of this obligation to reflect their lives than to reflect their environment and above all to offer them a true artistic experience. Sylvie Lessard, director of the Teen Theater Meeting, agrees, emphasizing openness to current, social issues that go beyond the teen’s navel. “This year, at the RTA, we are talking a lot about mental health […] Years ago, we found the environment a lot in our themes. Others [années] where we talked about identity […] It’s current affairs and we need to be open about it. I think that when we propose certain up-to-date themes in the form of art, it goes down much better than if we just hit the nail on the head. »
Raphaële Thiriet, co-director of Théâtre Junction, who is presenting at Usine C these days The Concorde greenhouse — a proposal played by amateur adolescents – is also part of this approach, in this need to embrace collective and social themes in which adolescents can find themselves. “Prioritizing the social aspect, involving them in the process is important. There is the whole question of identity and gender which is at the heart of concerns [de la pièce]. The issue of the environment is also important; the ecological emergency and the world that we leave to these future adults who will have to negotiate with a deteriorating environment. It is together that we can find solutions, alternatives to the mechanics of the world in which we find ourselves,” she explains.
Extremely porous, Mario Borges will say, today’s adolescents are preoccupied with many subjects, “they are in an extremely effervescent period where they have their skin pores open to the maximum and this porosity means that it raises a multitude of questions and they are looking for answers. They are in a moment where they want to position themselves […] From that moment on, we must address questions in all their truths. You have to dig into them, get to the bottom of things.” In a nuanced approach, Borges also underlines the importance of presenting a creative theater not about adolescence, but “about” adolescence, a theater which “is interested in this period and which puts it in relation to other generations and to the society that surrounds it.
Meet teenagers
Talking to them as being part of a society whose costs they pay remains one of the ways to attract them. But there is also a commitment to deploy means to introduce them to theater from the inside. The Teen Theater Meeting festival is one of these initiatives. To make known creative theater, more particularly, offered in a language that is specific to them, explains Sylvie Lessard, “theater that speaks to them more, theater that is a little more contemporary with authors who are not very far from the adolescence “.
The various cultural mediations undertaken with young people in schools for more than 20 years are also part of this approach which aims to open the valves of theater and above all to take the pulse of this youth who has a lot to say. For Mario Borges, meeting teenagers and hearing what they are is just as essential.
“Yes, we may say that adolescence passes through our lives, but we are getting older. Our point of view changes, so it is important in the process to have moments where we go to meet young people. Where we will go to hear them first on a subject. See how they position themselves. And then, we arrive with portions of fiction that we have imagined and we confront these matters with them […] We always start from the point of view that we must trust the intelligence and sensitivity of adolescents. They have this ability to open up and reflect. We don’t have to give them all the answers, but our responsibility is to open as many doors as possible. It’s important to keep one foot in adolescence all the time,” explains Mr. Borges.
Raphaële Thiriet could not be more in agreement with this vision of things, particularly with regard to the project The Concorde greenhouse, piece in which adolescents participate in the creation. From the translation carried out by Olivier Sylvestre in collaboration with young people from Laval in order to offer “an updated text that resembles young Quebecers” to the game – eleven young people reflecting cultural and gender diversity who take the stage – in going through behind-the-scenes work, the adolescents are intimately involved in the creative process of the project. A story in which teenagers meet in an abandoned greenhouse, destined to be replaced by a Cineplex, to discuss, talk, celebrate, discover each other, exist.
“All the interest and artistic approach around The Concorde greenhouse,it is to produce, to work on this text with real adolescents […] It’s really the whole idea of committing to trying to find a place so that there is visibility and listening to the words of young people. What they have to tell us about our present, about the decisions we make as a society, to open up questions about the future, because it is after all they who will inherit the world we inherit. their legacy,” concludes Raphaële Thiriet.