En chemin
a collective theatrical project
by and with Zoé Druelle, Arthur Gaillon, Fanny Luyton, Saidou Sey, Chloé Wasselin and Orielle Zribi
04.21
'En Chemin' is a collective project about the desire to travel and the need to flee. This project finds its origin in our collective vision of theater: to tell stories and bring experiences into dialogue. The themes of the project have been important to us as individuals for years. Now, due to the COVID19 pandemic, the urgency became stronger: we miss travelling and are aware that it became even harder to flee.
Moreover, we consider this project to be an experiment into the formation of a collective. We also consider all members of the collective as theater makers without predefined roles.
We made this play during a residency in Turbul', a 'circus factory' in Nîmes (France). Turbul' is an organisation which stands for popular education, an alternative place which exists out of the traditional institutions.
A lot of questions raised during and after the residency: How to work as a group? How to take decisions with so many people? Who takes decisions when we attempt to not have hierarchy? Should I have prepared more? How can I be more clear? Should I be stricter? Do we miss a director? What is my role in this group? Why did I ask these people to join me? Does it make me responsible for everything? How do I deal with the guilt of not doing well enough? How can we make artistic choices together when we have different frames of references? When we have different conceptions of what is and isn't interesting enough to be told on stage? When we have different ideas about what we are legitimate to tell, of what is cliché and what is poetic? What are our collective intentions? Why did we individually decide to join this project? How to share personal stories in only two weeks with people we don't know? How do we make sure that everyone understands each other? In French, in Spanish or in English? Or in Persian? How do we make a show in two weeks? Do we need to always take decisions all together? Do we always need to agree on everything and give our opinion? Do we miss an authority figure taking decisions? Should I have been this person?
You can have a look at our research here.
