by MARITES CARINO
After 20 years of existence, the Festival de théâtre des Amériques (FTA) is days away from assuming a new identity. On May 23, the theatre festival will make its debut as the Festival TransAmériques, a revamped, annual fest that maintains both the FTA acronym and its focus on contemporary theatre, but now gives equal weight to contemporary dance.
“When I opened the FTA in 1985, I was concentrated on a theatre festival, but shortly after, travelling and seeing so many fantastic productions, it was clear that the stage should not be limited to one discipline,” says Festival artistic director Marie-Hélène Falcon. Since the beginning, Falcon says she’s always wanted a dance and theatre festival.
Fast forward to 2003, when Montreal’s vibrant Festival International de Nouvelle Danse (FIND) goes belly up after running for longer than 15 years. “When the FIND disappeared, the question rose again,” explains Falcon. “We felt it was our duty to take the opportunity and do it.”
A year ago, she officially announced the Festival TransAmériques, a new FTA that would spotlight contemporary dance and fill the void the FIND left behind. “Now we clearly have a theatre and dance festival,” declares Falcon. “And it’s here to stay.” The 16-day fest has funding from all three levels of government, with a budget of $2.7-million.
For the Fest’s inaugural year, Falcon retains her past programming philosophy: “I’ve always been interested in what breaks the conformity of what we know and what should be. As a festival maker today, I am more interested in what breaks the rules. This is what the festival is all about.”
Falcon’s programmed works-with-an-edge include renowned French choreographer Maguy Marin’s festival opener Umwelt, which Falcon describes as dance, but assures a theatre audience will be “perfectly at home with it.”
Similarly, Falcon calls Brussels choreographer Brice Leroux’s hard-to-classify production Quantum-Quintet “an experimentation that’s extremely clever.” She adds, “Everyone is disoriented with it. It’s a strange object.”
Last but not least, concerning homegrown talent, Falcon is quick to name rule-breaker Robert Lepage and his new multimedia work Lipsynch that revolves around the theme of the human voice and the ideas of physicist Stephen Hawking.
Festival Transamériques runs
from May 23–June 7. Info:
(514) 842-2112, www.fta.qc.ca.
