Maxime Kurvers

Théories et pratiques du jeu d'acteur·rice (1428-2022) Une bibliothèque vivante pour l’art de l’acteur·rice – chapitres 1 à 28

Archive 2022
Répertoire
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Created and staged by Maxime Kurvers
Featuring Évelyne Didi, Camille Duquesne, Julien Geffroy, Michèle Gurtner, Mamadou M Boh, Caroline Menon-Bertheux, Yoshi Oida
Text and stage work, Maxime Kurvers and team
Lights, Manon Lauriol
Costumes, Anne-Catherine Kunz
Wig, Mélanie Gerbeaux
Sewing, Maria Eva Rodrigues Matthieu

Produced by La Commune CDN d’Aubervilliers; MDCCCLXXI (Paris)
Co-produced by The Saison Foundation (Tokyo); Festival d’Automne à Paris
With support from the Ministry of Culture – Drac Île-de-France, as part of its creative support scheme, and from the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan
With the help of Ménagerie de verre (Paris) as part of Studiolab; Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe (Paris); Tréteaux de France – Centre Dramatique National; Théâtre Saint-Gervais (Genève); Morishita Studio (Tokyo), which provided space for research and rehearsals Maxime Kurvers is an associate artist at La Commune CDN d’Aubervilliers Co-directed by La Commune CDN d’Aubervilliers; Festival d’Automne à Paris

Looking back at the foundational texts of theater, Maxime Kurvers takes a critical look at pedagogical tools for actors. By having his performers provide a loose rendition of theoretical precepts, he contributes to a real-life encyclopedia of these theories, which, in this case, are repurposed.

Kurvers began his research on actors’ imagination in La Naissance de la tragédie in 2018. Now, he invites actors to question the methods they learned by feeling out the gap between theory and the resulting practice. This is a journey through the theoretical foundations of theater, a renewed foray into Zeami, Diderot, Brecht, Meyerhold, Lecoq, Bogart, or Overlie, a literal reading of their texts as a basis to produce theatrical “precipitations,” to use a chemistry metaphor. In doing so, each actor makes both an intellectual postulate and a real-life demonstration on how to put their theatrical know-how into practice. These performative drills feed into a dynamic library, brought to life in contravention of every rule of dramatics. By intellectualizing the acting process, Kurvers anchors it back into its historical dimension in an effort to better understand how each actor inevitably subjectivizes speech, leveraging its plasticity. This sequence of enunciative scenarios, derived from each individual’s understanding of the text, is a chronicle of theatrical modernity. The actor is informed, free in their interpretation, potentially sovereign. Last but not least, by emphasizing actors’ role in modern society, Kurvers proves that dramatics is a tool, different in each era, used to depict the world.

In the same place

La Commune, centre dramatique national d’Aubervilliers
septembersept 20 – 28

Carte Blanche Dream City

Carte Blanche Dream City

The multi-disciplinary Tunisian festival Dream City is moving to Aubervilliers at the joint invitation of the Festival d'Automne and La Commune, with the shared desire to make this area rustle, resonate and dream through a dozen creations by international performing and visual artists. 

La Commune, centre dramatique national d’Aubervilliers
septembersept 20 – 22

Selma & Sofiane Ouissi
BIRD

Carte Blanche Dream CityDance
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Starting with ordinary everyday gestures such as feeding, living together and getting around, Sofiane Ouissi explores our relationship with birds. Passionate about encounters and the journeys they generate, this time he delves into the relationship with another species.

La Commune, centre dramatique national d’Aubervilliers
septembersept 21

Conference by Sophie Bessis
Tunisia in the turmoil of populism

Carte Blanche Dream CityConference
Free

After a decade of chaotic but richly experienced democratic apprenticeship, Tunisia found itself plunged into a new cycle of its post-colonial history from 2021 onwards. From that date onwards, Kaïs Saïed, who was democratically elected in 2019, assumed all the powers, transforming a fledgling democracy into an autocracy.

La Commune, centre dramatique national d’Aubervilliers
septembersept 21 – 28

Visual arts: exhibitions and conversations

Carte Blanche Dream CityVisual arts
Free

Artists Jumana Manna and Sille Storihle, Manthia Diawara, Michael Rakowitz & Robert Chase Heishmans will be in La Commune from 20 to 28 September to present five works and invite you to take part in two conversations.
The works of Nil Yalter will be on display in the public space of Aubervilliers.

 

La Commune, centre dramatique national d’Aubervilliers
septembersept 27 – 28

Sammy Baloji
Missa Utica

Carte Blanche Dream CityMusic
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The first black bishop appointed by the Catholic Church should have settled in Utica, Tunisia, but never did. His story is the starting point for Sammy Baloji's work.

La Commune, centre dramatique national d’Aubervilliers
septembersept 27 – 28

Winter Family
H2-Hébron

Carte Blanche Dream CityTheatre

Winter Family is an experimental music and documentary theatre duo founded by Israeli artist Ruth Rosenthal and French musician Xavier Klaine. They play minimal, obsessive, abrasive and political music. They created H2 Hebron, their 3rd show in 2018, a documentary piece in which the transcription of nearly 500 pages of testimonies, their translation, selection and reappropriation by Winter Family are the central element and the main dramaturgical material of the show.

La Commune, centre dramatique national d’Aubervilliers
novembernov 13 – 16

Lina Majdalanie, Rabih Mroué
Biokhraphia

Theatre Portrait
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These two one-person shows, Biokhraphia et Riding on a cloud, are an investigation into the self-portrait. In Riding on a Cloud, a man called Yasser speaks into a dictaphone, projects videos and broadcasts recordings, whilst expressing reservations about the extent to which these documents coincide with his true self. In Biokhraphia, it is Lina Majdalanie who becomes the subject of a very unusual interview.

La Commune, centre dramatique national d’Aubervilliers
novembernov 13 – 16

Rabih Mroué
Riding on a cloud

Theatre Portrait
Buy tickets

These two one-person shows, Biokhraphia and Riding on a cloud, are an investigation into the self-portrait. In Riding on a Cloud, a man called Yasser speaks into a dictaphone, projects videos and broadcasts recordings, whilst expressing reservations about the extent to which these documents coincide with his true self. In Biokhraphia, it is Lina Majdalanie who becomes the subject of a very unusual interview.