How does one become an artist when they come from a small village in the Hautes-Pyrénées?
I come from Lannemezan. It started far from theater because I studied auto mechanics. It was through animation that I came to theater. During advanced training courses, I went into drama without really knowing what it was. There were actors, musicians, acrobats, and then I began to realize that I really wanted to work in that field. But I continued my career as an animation artist with activities where there was always theater involved somewhere.
And how did you get into theater?
When I was a youth animation artist with neighborhood youth in Tarbes, I worked with a company called "Théâtre Tarbais hétroclite et campagnard" with Marc Lallement and Michel Gomez. They asked me to join the theater team. So I said okay. Host by day, actor by night. Weekends and nights spent rehearsing, setting up sets, building scenery, loading and unloading trucks. It lasted for a while. I stopped hosting and went to train in theater. In Commedia dell'arte with Carlo Bosso at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan. With Augusto Boal, who invented forum theater. Directing training too. And I continued to teach theater in primary, secondary, and high schools. I continued to perform with Michel Gomez and Marc Lallement, then with theater companies in Tarbes. I staged musical tales with Eclats, the children's choir directed by François Terrieux with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.
And now you're in Culture Son!
I worked like this for almost 40 years, and I wanted to move on. That's when Yvette from Culture Son asked me if I knew anyone who could work with them on shows. We'd been chasing each other for about fifteen years without knowing if we'd work together; maybe now's the time. Come on, let's give it a try, and since 2020, I've been with the Culture Son company with Manu Cachet and Yvette Ornière.
Does a rural area like the Hautes-Pyrénées change the way theater is done?
Things have changed a lot. Twenty or thirty years ago, we felt like we were bringing culture to the villages. Even though they also had their own culture. But it's much more open now. The opportunities to see shows, and culture more broadly, have multiplied. The Parvis is becoming much less concentrated, and local companies have expanded. The rural environment has also changed; quite a few city dwellers have settled here. Of course, there are shows that can only be seen in the city, because there aren't large venues everywhere, because there aren't 100,000 people within a ten-minute drive. If you want to see a symphony orchestra or an opera, you have to go to Toulouse. Or to the Parvis. But there are many more shows taking place locally. And there's a demand. Like here in Batsère, where residents have come together to ensure that culture exists here. Theater, opera, concerts in the church.
What are your current projects?
My projects are those of Culture Son. I devote myself to them full-time. We put on shows, we produce, we stage everything, and we perform everywhere. You can't be part of a company, not be there because you're performing elsewhere, and leave everyone behind. I just keep an adult amateur workshop, Arcal in Arreau, and a company in Cadéac in the 31st arrondissement. And I do productions.
Like the one of Don Quixote we saw at the Jardin Massey last Saturday
There are two shows I've always wanted to stage: Cyrano de Bergerac and Don Quixote. The first, I did with the Pari in Tarbes and the Théâtre de Mazamet 10 years ago with a company from the Tarn and local actors. And it went very, very well. And with Marc Lallement, we wrote the adaptation of Don Quixote as a street performance, wondering what he would be fighting against in our time.
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