Parisian Theater Professionals Consider Collaborating With Maine Playwrights
Contact: Jean Fried, Margaret Chase Smith Center, 207-299-6979 (cell)
Nick Houtman, Dept. of Public Affairs, 207-581-3777, houtman@maine.edu
Note: An itinerary is available from Nick Houtman, Dept. of Public Affairs, at the number above.
ORONO, Maine — Three theater professionals from Paris, France will spend July 25 to August 1 in Maine to lay the groundwork for future collaboration in drama production. The visit of co-directors Marc Legrand and Lee Fou Messica and Serge Lannes of Les Dechargeurs, a theater located in the heart of Paris, is being coordinated by Jean Fried, a senior policy fellow in the University of Maine Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy.
Fried’s fellowship is supported by UMaine’s International Affairs program.
The directors will meet with playwrights and theater professionals in Bangor, Machias, Saco, Biddeford and Lewiston. During their trip, they will perform a scene from a play at St. Mary’s Church in Lewiston, a performing arts, museum and learning center.
Gregoire Chabot, a Maine playwright, will join them for the performance that will precede the annual Festival de Joie in Lewiston.
Fried notes that the collaboration is part of an effort at the Margaret Chase Smith Center to foster sustainable development in Maine. “This is only one part of the larger project that is also concerned with economic development, scientific research and other areas,” he says.
Collaborative theater could occur through productions of Franco-American and French plays in Maine and France. Differences in interpretation and audience reaction could be used to highlight how French culture has evolved differently in North America and in France. “We would use this to understand cultural changes based on geography and social history,” says Fried.
The group will also meet with John Rohman of Bangor, chair of the Maine Arts Commission, to exchange ideas about cultural exchanges between France and Maine.