Dear friends,

With only five weeks to go, the final countdown to our 50th anniversary celebrations in Malérargues has begun. While some of our workshops are full, there are still a few spots available in others so don’t miss the opportunity to be in Malérargues with the members of the First 49 to celebrate our jubilee anniversary.

We are also excited to offer the opportunity to sign up for a Festival pass allowing access to all 7 performance nights during this exceptional week.

If you can’t make it to the 50th anniversary festival week we invite you to peruse the other workshop and performance offerings throughout our summer season and we look forward to welcoming you to sing with us under the Mulberry trees again soon.

Warmly,
Siobhán
On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Centre Artistique International Roy Hart

For enquiries, feedback, to propose a contribution to our next newsletter, or to volunteer for the team, please contact Siobhán McCann at siobhan.mccann@centreroyhart.org

€50 Festival pass for seven shows in seven nights: 50th anniversary jubilee in Malérargues, 24 June – 1 July 2024.

During our week of celebrations the Magnanerie theatre will be open nightly for concerts and performances given by members of the original cast of 49 who moved from London to Malérargues fifty years ago. All performances are open to the public.

For information on the €50 festival pass or to reserve seats for the different shows, please contact jubilee@centreroyhart.org or call +33 (0)9 67 07 03 70

We look forward to welcoming you to enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience the spirit of the Roy Hart Theatre in collaboration with successive generations of artists.

THE “49ERS CHOIR”

Back in the day, members of the Roy Hart Theatre gave choral performances in the villages surrounding Malérargues as a way to connect with the locals and share the joy of singing. This year, as part of our 50th anniversary jubilee celebrations, founding member Stephen Rivers-Moore invites you to join the “49ers choir” (26-30 June).

This group will exist only during the 50th Anniversary week, and the aim of the class is to work towards creating beautiful music, bringing to life choral harmonisations singing spirituals, to express the varied emotions contained in this deep rooted and traditional music. For further information and to sign up free of charge, follow the link below.

The summer season is open!

The summer workshop season has begun with the unique opportunity to attend a series of three-day workshops taught by the founding members of the Roy Hart Theatre during the anniversary week.

If you’re unable to join us during that time, another thirty workshops over the next few months offer something for everybody, no matter what your level of experience. To explore the possibilities and to register please click the link below.

Dhrupad Concert
Friday, 19 July at 9pm

Classical music from northern India
With Ashish Sankrityayan, Mohan Shyam Sharma and Clément Gauthier
A concert with two exceptional Indian artists, an immersive sonic experience akin to pictorial art.

Loba
Friday, 26 July at 9pm

Poetry and musical performance by Viviane Gay, Cie Patte Blanche, in co-production with Théâtre de l’Oriental, Vevey, Switzerland. A sound performance based on the eponymous work by Diane di Prima, the leading poet of the Beat Generation, with original music by Laurence Crevoisier.

Agamemnon
Friday, 2 August at 9pm

Adaptation of the classical play by Aeschylus for a single actress
Performed by: Fia Adler Sandblad, Compagnie Adas Teatret (Sweden)
Director: lan Magilton
Costume and masks: Nonno Nordqvist
Original music: Jonas Franke-Blom.
In Aeschylus’ drama, violence has its own logic. How could one stop the madness of war by peaceful means without perishing oneself? Since 2011, Fia Adler Sandblad and Ian Magilton have had an artistic conversation on how to translate Roy Hart’s unique work with the human voice into a dramatic performance structure. Agamemnon is their first artistic collaboration.

Look me in the eyes or the nightmare of  Medusa
Friday, 9 August at 9pm

A contemporary tragic farce, based on mythology
With and by Eloïse De Nayer, Daniela Garcia and Axel Chiabrand, Compagnie des Chimistes
And what might the hero Perseus have seen in Medusa’s gaze, had he dared to look into hers, even for a moment?

Le Secret
Friday, 16 August at 9pm

Concert with Marion Rampal (voice) and Pierre-François Blanchard (piano)
Production: Les Rivières Souterraines – Label: ArtOvations.
A poetic daydream. Singer Marion Rampal and pianist Pierre-François Blanchard seamlessly transcend centuries, styles and geographies.

The invader’s fear of memories
Friday, 23 August at 9pm

Theatre
By and with Ben Rivers
Directed by Linda Wise
“With gorgeous, stirring songs in Ukrainian, Yiddish, Hebrew and Arabic woven throughout, The Invaders’ Fear of Memories confronts us with the tragic cycles of history in which we are still caught.” (Jo Salas, author)

Ilhaam Project Live
Friday, 30 August at 9pm

Trip-hop-world music concert
With Nina (vocals) and Omri (instrumentation)
ILHAAM PROJECT is first and foremost a meeting between Omri, an Israeli musician and instrumentalist, and Nina, a Franco-Lebanese singer and dancer, at the heart of a rally for peace between Israel and Palestine. These exceptional performers captivate audiences with their poetic, joyful and sensitive art.

For more information or to book tickets for the various shows, please write to  artcom@centreroyhart.org or call +33 (0)9 67 07 03 70.

THE 2024 MYTH & THEATRE FESTIVAL: GENII/PLURAL

The annual Pantheatre Myth and Theatre Festival, will take place from 4-14 July 2024.

Pantheatre and its Myth and Theatre Festival, founded in 1987, have been exploring, since 2017, the facets of MAGIC – considering Magic to offer the broadest and richest horizon of human agency and thought. This year we will explore the genial plurality of Magic, tackling the very notion of GENIUS and its phenomenology, through laboratories, lectures and performances.

We will also pay tribute to the figures of genius who inspired Pantheatre, starting with Roy Hart and James Hillman – including seminars under the title: Roy Hart: Myth and Theatre.

The following Festival, in 2025, will take on the abrupt and tragic death of Roy Hart, only months after the “miraculous” purchase of Malérargues. Magic can also be, and often is accompanied by terrible spells, and must not be confined to optimistic illusions.

A SPRIG OF LILY: THE DEATH OF DOMINIQUE DUPUY
By Marie-Paule Marthe

“Dance now. Dance forever.” Jean Weidt*

Dominique Dupuy — dancer, choreographer, teacher, researcher, and author — has recently died at 93. He, along with Françoise, his wife of 70 years, were pioneers, performers, and advocates of modern and contemporary dance in France, starting in the 1950s, which continued until Françoise’s death at 97 in September 2022.

I met Dominique at the Roy Hart Theatre, in the summer of 1981, during the first Rencontres de Malérargues, where he had been invited to dance. A few years earlier, in 1978, he met several members of the Roy Hart Theatre — Kevin Crawford, Vicente Fuentes, Elisabeth Mayer, Derek Rossignol, and Enrique Pardo. After this exposure to Roy Hart Theatre, Dominique sensed a possible link between his approach to dance and that of the voice work of Roy Hart. This resulted in many artistic collaborations, teachings, and friendships with members of Roy Hart Theatre and me for over 40 years.

I saw Dominique for the last time, in Paris, on October 19th, 2023. We had not seen each other for four years because of the pandemic. He greeted me and my husband, Jay, by exclaiming: “You’re still as tall as ever!” (Dominique was not that tall.) Then he said to my husband: “You have a magnificent skull, Jay!” (Jay sports a shaved head as does Dominique). With these words we were off to an hour of non-stop talk, when we had promised to stay at most for fifteen minutes. At one point during our visit, I said to him: “Your voice is as beautiful as ever, deep and grave!” He replied: “Yes, I could have been a singer. I’ve always loved singing. I sometimes regret not having sung more in my life.” Our visit ended in photos and good-bye bises.

I can still hear his voice from our last telephone call in February when the main topic was his Grands entretiens broadcast made in 2012 (a recording available online). This video is indispensable for discovering the life and artistic career of Dominique. He was an exceptional performer, he knew how to get to the essence of dance and gesture, what Dominique and Françoise called la dansée. In dancing, they knew how to “make theater”, an expression from Jerome Andrews, one of their great teachers, collaborators, and friend. Also, they knew how to be silent and listen. Ultimately, for them, dance was “a desire for life”.

I was fortunate to have had forty-three years of personal and artistic friendship and complicity with Dominique, which was rooted in the affinities of his philosophy and practice of the art of movement and dance. I was able to join those with the art of the human voice and singing of the Roy Hart Theatre. He supported and encouraged me to do this as dance, singing, the human voice, music, and theatre were all for him “a desire for life.”

Dominique, during the Covid pandemic, sent me a letter on 1 May 2021. In it he wrote: “It is the gesture that counts. Gestures count, like those of friendship.” Also in this letter was a sprig of lily of the valley, sent, in the French tradition, for the day. The grace and simplicity of this gesture went straight to my heart. And, sadly, Dominique passed away this year on May 1st, which also went to my heart.

*Dominique Dupuy’s first dance master, starting at the age of eight.

By Marie-Paule Marthe

Dominique Dupuy and Kaya Anderson. Photo © Ivan Midderigh.

Kevin Crawford and Domninique Dupuy. Photo © Ivan Midderigh.

The rain cleared just in time for the Tumultes festival held May 3 and 4 in Malérargues in collaboration with the collective “Ondes Sonores.”

It was hailed by all as another resounding success with listening, dance, exchange, visual arts, music and of course voice in the studios, on stage, and in the courtyard.