Nice-Premium: For those who don’t know the Théâtre de l’Impasse, could you tell us in a few lines how it was created and who created it?
Noël Duchêne: The Théâtre de l’Impasse is an association in every sense of the word. It is the Céliandre association, which aims to “promote actors and organize charity events” (some help others, who help others and help some…) and the willingness of a few volunteer actors who wanted to help their peers in finding places for creation or programming. Céliandre makes the tour of the “promotion of actors”: we help to create in a fixed place and we can program!
But it wasn’t so simple!
Even when you are a 10-year-old association that has already participated in or organized many charity events for many causes, cancer, AIDS, end of life, retirement, and of course telethon… it’s difficult to get subsidies… and therefore to open a theater and have a program.
You have to find a place that meets many criteria of safety, access, architecture, and is not too expensive… not so easy to make a theater, you need to put in an audience, a stage, a dressing room… and we searched and we didn’t find! I won’t keep you waiting: the day we stopped searching, we found it, of course!
It was love at first sight for the Tower, for the dead-end with this old big wall that should host the cinematheque and for this “metro station” that we discovered… 12 meters long and 3.5 wide… a vaulted tunnel… After much time, hammer blows, and paint, we are quite happy with the result: a red and black theater room, in a cabaret style, with its bar and a few tables… and: we feel good there!
And that is really the most important for us, the public feels it, and the artists tell us: “this place has a soul!”…
plus the qualities of intimacy, proximity between the artist and the public, acoustics… a real wooden stage… a cocoon…
Its name? It’s mnemonic! We are at the end of a dead-end… so as not to forget what we have to search and find: “THE DEAD-END”
NP: Movies, pubs, restaurants, concerts, TV: the people of Nice don’t lack activities to liven up their evening. Is it difficult to give them the idea of coming to sit in a theater and attend a show?
YES!!!… and you can add the sea and the nice weather… not easy to go to a theater when it’s so beautiful and nice outside!
Should I say more? … It’s difficult for several reasons… price, confidence in the program, and communication…
The theater is “expensive!”, we say… it ranges from €6 to €15, depending on discounts and shows… it’s true that you don’t leave with a full stomach or a spinning head… that it can be a “budget”… but you should not say it is expensive!… otherwise it means we forget the pleasure of seeing something alive, the sharing of the intimacy of a show with others, and especially the work of the artists… the public should know that the price of theater tickets hasn’t increased in years… that the work of the artists to create, rehearse for days and days, deserves a salary and a real one! And therefore we cannot make the theater free! We cannot operate only by invitation… at least as long as we are not subsidized and we are addressing professional artists (who live from their art!)
Then, everyone puts €50 to go see someone… well… that’s success… we can’t host Johnny, unless he wants to treat himself (a small pleasant and acoustic room!)… but what we can guarantee is shows by professionals, talented people, and good surprises… so yes, it’s hard to make people understand that at l’Impasse, a young theater (also in other theaters in Nice) you can discover artists who do not yet have a big name and who may never have a big name (and that can also be a choice!) but who already have a great talent, a real talent, and all the necessary work… and that discovering them before others is fun! Following them can also be a beautiful adventure… and here I think of all the artists who have passed through this 2007… for barely €6 to €15! Admit it, it’s not expensive!… how much is the cinema?
What we especially want is the trust of the public… and it’s starting! We have regulars who don’t know what they’re going to see or hear but who trust our choices and programming!… they like it or not… they always leave with an emotion… and tell us as they leave… but in any case are not disappointed because the quality of the work and talent were there! And that whether it is theater, one-person shows, or music!… currently, we are playing Tartuffe… if you expect a Tartuffe with grand costumes, beautiful old-fashioned sets, a very rigid staging, you will be surprised! And surprising with “Tartuffe” is great! We loved this adaptation because these “genderless” characters are terribly modern and seeing them in violent staging, dressed like you and me makes this “Tartuffe” completely come to life again, becoming a lesson, not just a costume intrigue! And the public loves it!
And we promise all of 2008, appointments like that…
As for communication… it’s the idea that for the public to come, they also need to know what’s going on… they need to be able to make a choice… we recently had problems with a communication medium, a major periodical from Nice, which didn’t think it was important that all shows appeared in its “show” section, permanently and not sometimes yes sometimes no… imagine if a plumber is in one directory and not in the other, one day yes and the next day, no! If we have a “show program” section, we must include everything, especially in writing… it’s valid for all media, radio, internet, TV… but honestly… we have made some very beautiful encounters with most journalists because we all love the same thing: the Show and the artists… and we want to make them known!… then, given that the small theaters in Nice have become numerous, it’s true that the public is more scattered… but there is a huge potential audience that doesn’t go to the theater at all and doesn’t think about it, doesn’t have this habit and it’s this audience that all small theaters should try to convince… perhaps by associating to do more communication… or my dream: a festival of small theaters in Nice!
NP: You have a varied program (concerts, one-man shows, and plays). Tell us how you build it and what you are primarily looking for to develop your schedule of shows?
ND: Being actors ourselves, we have already moved around a bit, met artists… since they know the existence of L’IMPASSE, they come to play or they give the address to others (our best ad for the program, it’s the artists themselves who do it, “the theater has a soul” and they tell each other!)… there are those caught in Avignon… those who discover us on the internet… we know them or not, we try to discover them… when we feel we have enough elements, we say yes or no… for sure, we say no to bathroom humor… to “I do like the other”… we say yes to novelty, to feelings, to emotions, grace, reflection… it is subjective but there are several of us to decide on a program… we work a lot based on a crush!
After these “meetings” with the artists, we try to find the right dates… we think that to better communicate, it’s easier to do it per month… so it’s a musical month (it’s January! I take this opportunity to mention them all: Muskar13, Eastern and klezmer music… ZAK, a great friend with huge talent with his “RUMORS”!… Sandrine DESTEFANIS, the friend who introduced us to ZAK, she has a golden voice and sings jazz, bossa… Naïs DAGUET who shares emotions through BARBARA’s universe), a café-theater month (February! with FLORENT PEYRE, ZACK NARANJO, JEROME HENRI, JEAN FRANCOIS SANTOLINI, all with excellent “one-man” and “VIVE L’AMOUR” also for a short weekend), a month for women next (the month of?… March, yes! with dance and THE EMOTIONS, as well as the famous “VAGINA MONOLOGUE”); a month of musicals (…end! “With voice and steam” by and performed by the 3VERSATILES, escapees from the CRAZY CARAMELS of Paris… they had just played this cabaret comedy in Paris, a year of performances… there will also be “PRINCE S” with CLEMENT, HARMONIE, and now MANU… we love them, what talents!).. a month of light comedy (finally “CUPIDON’S JEWELS”)… after that, it’s less certain… we’ll talk about it again! but in June again music with AUREN who will come back with her brand new album, superb!!… and then a little vacation in Avignon!
NP: You managed to bring Yvette Leglaire, whom we have seen a lot on TV and heard on the radio. How do you get her to come to the Théâtre de l’Impasse? Is it a simple phone call or months of negotiations?
ND: The chance does things well… know it… that’s all!
and then… Yvette wants to keep a little mystery around her and we only know about her what she wants to share… and she sues anyone who reveals her secrets to journalists… so my dear Vincent, allow me to remain silent about the contract that binds us to her!
We will simply say that our “negotiations” started more than 20 years ago, in Lyon… I have known her since then! … That her performance at INCROYABLE TALENT made us think she was THE godmother of our First Humor Contest last September… she has the talent, the energy, the humor, the self-mockery, the stage presence and also you can guess the fears, the anxieties, the bruises of this woman… this character, we love her… she’s magnificent… and it’s a show all the time… the rehearsals took a long time, I was rolling with laughter listening to her and as a result, I was doing nothing of what she asked, and we were repeating and starting over… it’s humor, natural comedy with Yvette and that’s why she attracts so many… she’s a bomb of energy and laughter and she gives and gives… and it went so well in September that when we suggested she come back for the New Year’s Eve: “Yes! I will come back!” and she’s doing it!
She felt at home at L’IMPASSE… and not at a dead-end!… let’s hope she doesn’t get too comfortable! … we’re joking! … we are super happy to welcome her again… and her fans too!
Otherwise, to bring this kind of show, it’s months of negotiations…
NP: Finally, what’s in Noël Duchène’s bag for the holiday season and the beginning of 2008?
ND: It’s Christmas every day with me! full of gift ideas for young and old….
or then imagine a musical comedy signed Molière, on music from elsewhere with Flamenco, jazz manouche… it would be called “LA LEGLAIRE” and the texts would be by ZAK, with a choir of 3 DESTEFANIS around a black eagle… and a big red ribbon… it’s pretty!
Website
Program
