36 MONKEYS
AN ORGANIZATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ALTERNATIVE ART & CULTURE
ProText 2
ONSTAGE
IN NON-THEATRICAL SPACES
36 Monkeys is a non-governmental organization established to launch and implement innovative projects in the field of culture and art focused exclusively on experimenting with and promotion of alternative and unpopular art forms. Its long-term strategy is justified by the idea to extend and diversify the non-institutionalized and informal art making environment in
The ProText Project (that is either “For Text’s Sake”, or “In support of the Text” at your pleasure) is now launched with the aim to promote some high-grade and non-conventional samples of contemporary drama of various countries. While looking for adequate means to stage such texts the team attempts to study and further develop the form of on-stage reading performance. Plays have been selected by a variety of criteria, such as whether they focus on the topics of the day, experiment with traditional playwriting, set up paradoxical situations, question the expressive potential of both language and theatre performance.
After the reading performances of four German texts for theatre delivered in the fall of 2007 in
The second edition of ProText goes under the heading LA LUTTE CONTINUE [The Fight Goes On] as team’s explicit insistence on the direction taken by the first edition. At the same time, localizing the venue of the performance events in the
The second edition of ProText was made possible thanks to the financial aid granted by the Ministry of Culture and Institut Français de Sofia and the assistance of Centre de ressources francophones, University of Sofia and @lma @lter University Theatre Company.
Two plays will be staged as reading performances: Intrusion, by Frédéric Sonntag and Pas Bouger, by Emmanuel Darley.
At the age of 30, Frédéric Sonntag has rich background of texts, performances and prizes. Written in 2004 Intrusion sets up a paradoxical situation in which four participants are subjected to a strange test. A couple of friends who have decided to retire to a remote mountain villa for a couple of months find a strange girl who does not speak. One of the central questions explored by Intrusion is: is there still a place in the world where one can have some rest from their thoughts? Is there a place where we can be free from the fear of death?
In its author’s account the play Pas Bouger was written during a playwriting workshop where all participants were given a scale model with the task to write a story about it. Proceeding from model’s minimalist image Emmanuel Darley got to the situation in Pas Bouger. The play depicts the clash of two fundamental worldviews: the urge to constantly move forward and the duty owed to the place and to order of kinship. The ambition to attain one’s long-term objectives is opposed to the rigid desire to relax and be idle. In the characters we can easily identify our own conflict of people who live in a dynamic world of incessant struggle to get recognition and results and who desperately desire to get their point of rest, to let themselves drift and “stand still”…
Here is the bill of ProText 2:
Intrusion, by Frédéric Sonntag
When:
Friday, November 21, 6:30 pm and 8:00 pm
Saturday, November 22, 6:30 pm and 8:00 pm
Where:
Floor 4, Northern Wing of
15,
Centre de ressources francophones
St. Clement of
Pas Bouger, by Emmanuel Darley
When:
Saturday, November 29, 7:00 pm
Sunday, November 30, 7:00 pm
Where:
Floor 4, Northern Wing of
15,
Centre de ressources francophones
St. Clement of
