The rare reception of the Black Theater Workshop (BTW) by a French-speaking theater is an event in itself. This is even truer when it comes to a production that will be played successively, by the same cast, in English and then in French. “It’s something a little crazy! But it’s Montreal, it’s our reality,” says Philippe Lambert.
This unprecedented collaboration between La Licorne and the English-speaking theater company, present in the black community since 1971, was originally to be presented last spring, during the first season scheduled by the (relatively) new director. Philippe Lambert frankly admits that he didn’t really know the Black Theater Workshop before meeting Quincy Armorer, its ex-artistic director, in a jury. “And when I found out they were celebrating their 50and birthday, I fell out of my chair. How is it that, as a Montrealer in the theater world, I don’t know this company better? It doesn’t make sense. Speaking with Quincy, I noticed his desire to create links with the Francophone community. »
The discovery, by his assistant Pascale Renaud-Hébert, of the piece Pipeline, created off Broadway in 2017 sealed the project. The occasion, with this text by the African-American Dominique Morisseau, who had “very great success in New York”, was perfect, recognizes the designer Lydie Dubuisson, artistic associate at the BTW. “It’s a fine achievement for 50 years of existence in Montreal. Quincy [Armorer] has always wanted to marry the English and French sides. Because, yes, the Black Theater Workshop has taken root especially in the Little Burgundy area [la Petite-Bourgogne], with the Trinidadian community that made this theater group grow. And he is really well anchored in the English-speaking community. However, we know that in Montreal, the black community exists in both languages. So there has always been the desire to associate the two communities. This is something we already do with the mentoring program. So a piece like that, which allows us to explore bilingualism, is really exciting. »
The company is trying to forge more partnerships with French-speaking houses, she adds. “Working in French is more and more attractive for the BTW. Many of our artists live in both languages. Previous initiatives have included a reading in translation of the play Angelic by Lorena Gale at the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, in December 2018.
In half a century, the Black Theater Workshop claims 140 productions. To what do we attribute the impressive longevity of the oldest black theater company in Canada among the companies still in existence? Lydie Dubuisson explains it by the need for the institution within the community she represents.
“I think it’s because the need is even greater when you’re a minority within a minority within a minority. In a province that is already a minority [au sein du Canada], we find a black culture, and in addition English-speaking. So for that population, the Black Theater Workshop is the place to go for any dramatic expression, from poetry jam until the production of a part. This is the place to go to present his texts, meet other artists. We are here to meet a very present need. Me, I am French-speaking, but I have the impression that, if the BTW disappeared, we would become even more invisible. It’s important to know that there is a place where we can bring our equipment, without having to constantly explain ourselves. It’s more than just a space where we develop pieces. We develop artists there, we develop [leur] trust, we develop a network there. And there, we feel that the network in the community is starting to feel cramped, so we are ready to start extending it further and reaching out to each other. »
Education
Pipeline seems appropriate for a troupe that offers its shows on tour in English-language school networks every year. It addresses “very strong social subjects, such as education, notes Philippe Lambert. And the author deals with human relationships with great sensitivity, great intimacy, great delicacy. It’s very well spoken. “It’s even a little funny, too!” adds Lydie Dubuisson. This allows the viewer to breathe and be even more touched, according to the director.
The title refers to the expression “school-prison pipeline”, by which American sociologists qualify this phenomenon where young people excluded from the school system tend to end up quickly in the prison system. As if they were forcibly sucked into a pipe. All this because of a regime “very punitive, ready, at the first lack of control, to lock up, to file a legal complaint. Just a first complaint already enters our name into a system. “This” intolerance towards the emotions of a young black man, continues Lydie Dubuisson, can lead directly to a criminal record, which automatically brings down the rest of his life. The BTW artist plans to take his eight-year-old son to see the French premiere. She sees in it “a kind of equivalent to TheTalk. The conversation that, as a black mother, I have to have with my boy about his reactions, his behavior, the way people will perceive him. Whether it’s right or not, there are certain codes that you have to know. »
Pipeline depicts a single mother, a teacher in a public school. Valuing education, Nya makes sacrifices to send her teenage son to a private school. The day Omari experiences an emotional event with his father and a teacher asks him insistently to explain the violence of a character, he makes a gesture that risks excluding him from school. “Where the author is clever is that there are somewhat dreamlike scenes, where Nya is inhabited by the presence of her son while she is teaching, doing something else, says Lambert. And by the pain of feeling that she might be dropping it in this pipeline. »
Is this phenomenon American or does it take place here too? “It’s purely personal, but I think we’re in a very punitive system,” replies Lydie Dubuisson. It would be impossible for us not to be affected in the same way. Thus, we are not going to ask a child why he is exploding, we are asking him to stop exploding. Is the school there to do therapy? In a way, it should. Because I already notice that, often, in situations, we don’t look for the story, we just want to get rid of the reaction. And unfortunately, that means that we hold our children in a kind of vice, hoping that it will work. »
In Mishka Lavigne’s translation, however, the story was kept in New York. Pipeline will be carried by a bilingual cast: Jean Bernard, Jenny Brizard, Gloria Mampuya, Anie Pascale, Schubert Pierre-Louis and Grégory Yves. Interpreters who “really have the ability to dream in French and in English”, in the beautiful words of Lydie Dubuisson.
The loyal BTW audience will be invited to follow him elsewhere than in the theaters he is used to visiting. “It’s one of our big stresses,” she laughs. People shouldn’t go to Montreal, arts interculturels (MAI)—our offices are above—one of the places we use most often. »
It is of course this welcome of new spectators that Philippe Lambert wishes. Diversity is not only meant to be on stage, but also in the halls. “The opening also means that: to invite, to make discover our place to the public of the Black Theater Workshop. And us, to discover their work. And that the public is mixed. »