The aim of this Permutation was to question our artistic approaches at the time of COVID-19). It brought together Arlette Desmots (director, Cie Ekphrasis, performer and founder of the Théâtre au Jardin festival), Anne-Sophie Juvénal (director, Cie Anticlimax and performer) and Clyde Chabot (author, director and performer).
Permutation #17 (digital)
As part of her Sujet NOUS project, Anne-Sophie Juvenal tested her multi-hand writing device via the web. Using questions as a starting point, the participants responded live, in a double movement of interiority and listening to each other’s answers, with image and sound cut off.
Arlette Desmots tested a technical protocol for reading into a microphone in preparation for her ‘in the countryside’ reading project in partnership with the parks of Seine-Saint-Denis. She usually gives these readings live, using microphones and loudspeakers, ‘in the dark’, indoors for media libraries and festivals, or ‘under the stars’, outdoors, with the public stretched out in deckchairs. In this case, it was a question of deploying this reading for spectators equipped with telephones and headphones.
Clyde Chabot tested a technical protocol for bringing her text Childhood Friend to the microphone, in preparation for a theatrical reading that she plans to give on the move and during stations, for 10 people equipped with headsets on their phones. She was coached to adapt the rhythm and volume of her voice. She also tested her solo A Soldier’s Daughter against the computer camera.
More generally, there were discussions about theatrical art in the context of (de)confinement. It seems essential that artists demonstrate their ability to adapt to this new situation while reaffirming the high standards of their work and the continuity of their aesthetic. It is also vital that these innovative approaches are supported, sustained and remunerated.
