The rooms are reopened, the spectator gauges larger, the artists more numerous on stage… The performing arts are making their comeback! It feels (almost) before the pandemic! Performers and the public will be able to meet, share a moment suspended in time and recreate this so privileged link which is embodied only by presence, in dance as in theater.
Cross-talk with director Edith Patenaude and choreographer and performer Sébastien Provencher, who will be back on stage this fall and with whom we talk about this very special, but no less exciting, comeback.
“There are a lot of shows on the starting line, the artists have not stopped working, they are just waiting to be able to find the public ”, rejoices the director Edith Patenaude. For her part, she hopes to be able to reveal Witches of Salem next November at the Denise-Pelletier theater, a play that was initially due to be shown in March 2020. “I can no longer imagine a thousand scenarios for the same show, I prefer to work on the initial plan by putting my head a little in the sand” , she expresses.
Same observation on the side of Sébastien Provencher, who will present What Will Come with Julia B. Laperrière next December at Tangente. “I think we have to let go a little, we will see day by day and we will adapt if necessary”, he adds.
Indeed, for more than a year and a half, the two creators have had to digest several cancellations, postponements and postponements of postponements of their shows. Today, with the reopening of the rooms, many creations are stamping their feet on the stage and this creates offers for artists, who sometimes have to accept at the last minute.
“A lot of people quit projects because it’s not compatible with their schedule in other productions. It is part of the vagaries of the pandemic, we learn flexibility, ”explains Mme Patenaude.
Most artists, in order to meet their needs, work on several pieces and with different companies at the same time, both in theater and dance. An additional difficulty in a period when “a stable team”, “a bubble” allows the reduction of health measures.
“It’s a bit unrealistic,” laments Sébastien Provencher.
In addition to the way of working, the pandemic has shaped the programming differently, favoring since last spring creations in solo, in duets or in very small groups to have more freedom, in particular in the contact between the performers.
There are a lot of shows on the starting line, the artists have not stopped working
Artistic choices that are easier to make during a new creation, according to Edith Patenaude. “It is not a cross to make on a decision which was dear to you and which you had matured for years”, explains the director, who signs in the fall Rose and the machine at the Jean-Duceppe theater, a documentary show embodied by a duo.
“There was no compromise since the subject does not lend itself to the actors and actresses touching”, she adds. However, Edith Patenaude explains that her play Witches of Salem is neither imagined nor conceived in distancing.
“We talk about oppression, violence, it is touched abundantly. If we have to live with new scenic realities, I don’t know what I’ll do, ”she says.
According to the designer, it is important to know how to adapt as an artist, but there are still limits. “What is painful, and where we shouldn’t go in my opinion, is when we step on our artistic integrity to bring in a show within the constraints imposed. We have to be sure that we stay in agreement with what we are proposing, that it creates meaning ”, thinks M.me Patenaude.
“We want to save our jobs”
The two artists also note that the pandemic has somewhat shaped their way of creating. Sébastien Provencher, for example, adapted his play Children of Chemistry by adding dancers, but working on the geographical layout.
To keep the distance between the performers, the latter will be presented through the windows of 2.22 at the end of September, a rehabilitation for the choreographer.
“Of course, that formats our work a bit, but I try to see it as research stages: it’s okay, we’ll dig in and we’ll change the structure and the possibilities later”, explains -he.
Sébastien Provencher also experimented with digital technology in the spring to keep some contact with the public. “The digital compensates and fortunately we had it, all the same! »He expresses. In addition, this digital shift will allow, according to Mme Patenaude, better archiving in the future, a “positive” element in this whole crisis.
“It is also good that television has taken charge of the broadcasting of works. This allows better democratization of access to the performing arts, but also the discoverability of works. I hope it will stay, ”she says.
However, she believes that digital works, although they will last over time, will take up less and less space.
“Although the creation of a digital object is interesting, it is still very expensive. Ultimately, seeing on a screen is not that, the performing arts, ”she says.
Same speech from Sébastien Provencher, who hopes that the funds set up for digital projects can be found in scenic projects later. “We need the means to bring our works to life on stage,” he explains. In addition, digital “will never replace the stage”.
“It’s incomparable! The work comes to life in contact with the public, ”says Sébastien Provencher. Edith Patenaude adds that such a meeting is “essential” for the performing arts.
Far from worry
It is therefore with relief and enthusiasm that the two artists are preparing to find the public, far from the anxiety they may have felt at the start of the pandemic.
“When human encounters were no longer possible, I was afraid… Are our arts going to die? I fundamentally believe in the performing arts, they always find a way to exist, but all the same… concludes Edith Patenaude. If we choose the performing arts, it is because we want bodies in the same space, which share the same energies and vibrate in the same tuning fork. “
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