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A Vancouverite in Avignon

In 2012, our Artistic Director, Craig Holzschuh, won the John Moffat and Larry Lillo Award. This award has allowed him to realize  one of his dreams this summer: to participate in the Festival d’Avignon in France. Back in Vancouver, he shares the story of his experience of being in the heart of one of the largest theater events in the world.

From July 13th to 21st, I attended, as an audience member, the Festival d’Avignon and the Festival Off for the first time.  With the financial support of the John Moffat and Larry Lillo award, I crossed the Atlantic in search of memorable experiences at the grand-daddy of all French theatre festivals.

I went to Avignon to pursue my goal of participating in some professional development experiences.  After 15 years at Théâtre la Seizième, it was important for me to see the different trends taking place in theatre around the world.  During my eight day stay, I took full advantage of what Avignon had to offer me.  I attended 20 events between the two festivals.  Other than the performances I saw, I attended talkback events with artists, conferences on performance trends as well as documentaries on theatrical production and the creative process.

For those of you who have never visited Avignon in July during the two festivals, imagine yourselves surrounded by thousands and thousands of theatre goers buzzing around the city 24 hours a day.  With their programs in hand, people navigate through Avignon’s narrow streets (of which few are well marked) towards the next show they are off to see. The cafés, bars and restaurants are filled with people discussing what they have seen, what they are going to see, their can’t misses and their must misses (people in Avignon are not afraid to speak their mind).  I was told that just the Off Festival has over 1300 productions, described in their over 250 page program, and each one of them is performed every day.  When you add all those audience members to the thousands of people who are attending the “In”- which is what people there call the Festival d’Avignon- you have enough audience members to have yourself quite the theatre celebration.

I have brought back many wonderful memories with me but the one that sticks out the most was the performance I saw at the Pope’s Palace.  To be in the same place as 2000 audience members to see a performance under the stars in this 13^thC architectural monument is something that I will not soon forget.  Faced with its impressive stage under a clear evening sky in Avignon, I counted my lucky stars for having had such a wonderful opportunity.  I come back home more confident than ever that theatre deserves our fullest support and that the place it can occupy in our daily lives will enrich all of our experiences.

 

[market_web]Craig[/market_web]