What We're Doing...June 2022
Some things we've recently done in Paris (or will be doing) and recommend (or not)
Dear NWPL Friends,
The month of June is well upon us and that means we are coming up to the first year anniversary of our move from Akron, Ohio, to Paris, France. It’s hard to believe that it has already been one year! Here are some of the things that are making June a jam-packed month for us:
First of all—making jam. Apricots, rhubarb, cherries, strawberries, and other berries are flooding the local markets. The other day, when I returned from the Marché d’Aligre and unpacked my fresh bounty, I found that the friendly, fist-bumping, fruit and vegetable vendor had sneaked in a bag of overly ripe apricots. I’m still trying to figure out this relationship. Is he being kind to me or taking advantage of my novice shopping abilities? I always come home with several bags of items that he says are “un cadeau” (a gift), but I’m never really sure if I’ve paid for them or not. In any case, Jairo had recently mentioned making confiture and I quickly found a recipe for a small batch, low-sugar, apricot jam. The result: two jars of deliciousness. Those two jars will not last long, however, given the list of visitors we have lined up for the next month or so.
Apricots in the Marché d’Aligre Yes, visitor season has begun. Paris is once again a prime destination for folks looking to stretch their travel muscles after lockdowns and other restrictions. We had a lovely lunch with Lenore, an old high school friend of mine, who has lived in the Alsace region of France since shortly after our graduation. It was great catching up with her and reminiscing about playing hooky to explore downtown Chicago or meeting up in 1975 Paris as intrepid college students. We have several Grotowski-era work colleagues passing through the city this month, a variety of family members, as well as former students from The University of Akron, including one who is currently living in Tunisia. Matt was certainly one of the most talented MA students I encountered during my years teaching and he has followed an interesting route through life, from stage managing for Ringling Brothers Circus to an MFA in Theatre at Towson University to extensive global travel. I’m looking forward to learning about his latest occupations in North Africa. We will also be welcoming our Italian friends and colleagues, Franco Lorenzoni and Roberta Passone. Franco has generously hosted Jairo and me and our workshops at Cenci Casa-laboratorio in Umbria for the last 30+ years. Now it’s our turn to provide some hospitality in our newly adopted city—hospitality which will certainly include some of Paris’ interesting summer theatre offerings.
On the subject of summer theatre…When JT Buck visited us some weeks ago we attended Polish director Krzysztof Warlikowski’s L’Odyssée. Une histoire pour Hollywood, a four hour opus based on Ulysses’ wanderings as well as several works by Polish author, Hannah Krall. This sprawling, exquisitely acted and produced work is the epitome of European auteur theatre, in which the director is the creator and master of the event. Warlikowski takes the spectator on a rambling voyage through the Shoah and its aftermath. Along the way, we meet Barbara Walters, Elizabeth Taylor, Roman Polanski, as well as numerous Nazis and Jewish survivors, especially Hannah Krall’s Izolda, from her historical novel, Chasing the King of Hearts. Izolda stages her own arrest and deportation so that she can search for her husband in Hitler’s concentration camps. If theatre is the place we go to remember, this production viscerally provokes us out of our amnesia. Warlikowski’s theatrical poetry, visual and aural, scrambles the various narratives into a pastiche of war’s brutality. When Peter Brook speaks of Grotowski’s production of Akropolis in the introduction to the filmed version of the play, he remarks that Grotowski and his actors make the concentration camp come to life again in the theatre temporarily. Warlikowski’s production of L’Odyssée brings the “memory” of the Shoah to life again. In the age of Marvel movies and the rise of nationalism, that’s already quite an achievement. Oh, and long time Grotowski collaborator and member of the Polish Laboratory Theatre, famed film and theatre actress Maja Komarowska, also makes an appearance via video. The video clip below shows some scenes from the play and includes part of a riveting dialogue/meeting between philosophers Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt, teacher-student, former lovers—he, a member of the Nazi party; she, a Holocaust survivor.
Summer theatre in Paris includes a wide range of festivals and street theatre, with many smaller groups preparing to go to the big summer fringe festival in Avignon in July. Each neighborhood also organizes its own festival. Jairo and I took Léo to a dance circus show presented on the square in front of the city hall of our arrondissement, the 11th. For about 45 minutes, a young man and woman changed clothes and manipulated a scaffold while balancing on the various levels and batons. The very large crowd that had gathered, full of children, was enraptured throughout the rather rudimentary display of skill. One evening, we trekked to the 14th arrondissement to watch two actors sit cross-legged, staring at each other for 30 minutes, and then stand up and walk clumsily in a square pattern for another 30 minutes—all to the accompaniment of electronic droning and a recorded dialogue that (Jairo tells me) had something to do with Colombian shamanism. The event took place in the courtyard of an abandoned hospital that was full of trash and ragweed. On one hand, I was perturbed that the company had not taken the time to clean the space for the public and prepare an environment more conducive to watch their work. On the other hand, I found myself somewhat warmed by the fact that this kind of naive and amateur performance still happens in this complicated and overwrought world.
Theatre in the courtyard. Photo by Jairo Cuesta. What do I mean by complicated and overwrought? Well, several conversations over the past month or so have revolved around the theme of the Theatre’s current state. (That’s meant to be Theatre with a capital T). I know many friends who are questioning their place in the post-Covid theatre world and I, too, observe what is happening throughout the field, especially in the US, with both awe and concern. The effects of movements like #MeToo and Black Lives Matter, as well as the continuing efforts on many fronts towards more diversity, equity, and inclusion are creating great waves of change and uncertainty. I believe that the Theatre needed a good housecleaning and I am happy to let the younger generation of theatre artists redefine the field and the relationships within the field and construct a more healthy and sustainable environment in which one can work creatively and make a living. The New York Times is running a series of articles this summer about “The Reformation,” the Theatre’s altered landscape. The first article, “Is it Finally Twilight for the Theatre’s Sacred Monsters?,” reveals some of the same concerns that I have about how change is enacted and what to beware of while slashing and burning your way through a centuries-old art form.
Speaking of centuries-old…Friday, June 10, 2022 marks the 100th birth anniversary of Judy Garland. I have long been a fan of Judy and a “Friend of Dorothy,” as well. As a young teen in suburban Chicago, I would put a stack of Judy’s albums on my record player and sleep soundly all night long as one after the other dropped into place and Judy’s strong vibrato filled my tiny bedroom and reverberated through my dreams. I found this discussion on NPR about Judy Garland and her place as a gay icon very informative. And here is one of her best songs.
