Directed by Mario Biagini
The members of the Open Program, directed by Mario Biagiani, invite those who are just like us, thirsty, to be part of a new phase of our research : a creative exploration based on A Night of Serious Drinking by René Daumal, as a group, in order to find what could quench us during those desert-like times.
Through some extracts of the book and with the help of an already begun work of our group, we will be looking for a collective creative process, which will emerge from the propositions, ideas, possibilities and imaginary of the participants.
The goal will be to sharpen our acting tools or to discover others, invent new ones, thanks to the joyful exploration of an art piece and a shared situation – this impossible thirst – and also through the collaboration between us, a collaboration and a contact that we are looking for every day like someone looking for water in the desert.
The music will also be part of it, thanks to songs from different traditions and cultures, developed by the Open Program, but the actors-musicians might also bring their instruments and contribute to the elaboration of a musical structure. And if you think that you are not a “good musician”, even if you like playing music, you are also welcome with your songs and instruments.
In addition, we provide, each day, a flow of silent games, based on isolation of some body parts, simple but precises – The Plastics Exercises. The participant will have the opportunity to engage himself In a continuous flow made of impulsion, to follow his own flow from associations and memories, and to wake up his imagination. It is a chance to explore concretely one of the essential’s paradox of performing arts : on one hand, the need for a composition, a structural boundary, and on another hand, the boost that comes from improvisation, from spontaneity and playful attitude.
The two weeks of the workshop will lead to a final event, which will takes place on the last night, A night of Serious Drinking, where some guests will be invited to watch – or participate to, if they want to – the work elaborated during the workshop.
We invite the participants to have read the novel from René Daumal, and to bring popular french songs from the XXth century – for example guinguette’s songs, or that inspire party, dance, love, drinking. The participants can brink songs from their own culture, with the same joyful qualities.
— The members of the Open Program