The curtain falls on the International Festival of Arts for Young Audiences, Les coups de théâtre. The organization announced the cancellation of its 19e edition, scheduled for September 2023, as well as the end of all its activities.
It was the chairman of the board of directors, Jean-Rock Gaudreault, who made the announcement on Tuesday morning. “The difficulty in bringing together the staff and the financing necessary to properly ensure the realization of the next edition of the Festival, joint[e] the announcement of the retirement of its founder and artistic director Rémi Boucher, forces the cancellation of the next edition and the complete cessation of the Festival’s activities next June with the dissolution of the Corporation”, can we read in a press release sent to the media.
“We salute the remarkable commitment of Rémi Boucher. He was at the heart of this great adventure that was the festival Les coups de théâtre. Thanks to his artistic vision, his flair, his perseverance, he has greatly contributed to the influence of creation for young audiences in the world. He was also the founder of the Les 400 coups festival, the first international film festival for young audiences in Quebec,” said Jean-Rock Gaudreault.
Between now and its closure, the festival corporation will fulfill its commitments to its staff, contractors and suppliers and will digitize and deposit its archives in the National Archives.
“For 30 years, the Festival Les coups de théâtre has allowed children to explore the field of possibilities, to grasp that life offers fantastic openings to elsewhere, that the unknown is a source of curiosity and that the pleasure of Discovery is at the heart of life. I had a great pleasure working for them. […] It is now up to the new generations to determine the form and content that international exchanges in theater and dance for young audiences will take”, declared Rémi Boucher, who created the festival in 1992, with the support of artists such as Monique Rioux, Reynald Robinson, Jacinthe Potvin and Claude Poissant.