Theater of the City
The Théâtre of the City is a theater Paris IEN located 2, Place of Châtelet in the 4 {{E}} district. In the past called Theater Sarah Bernhardt, it became starting from the beginning of the Années 1980 a major place of promotion and international recognition of the Contemporary dance and its young creators.
History
Built by Gabriel Davioud between 1860 and 1862 at the request of the Baron Haussmann, on the same plan as the Theater of Châtelet which faces him, the Theater of the City was built to replace the old room of the historical Theater of the boulevard of the Temple. It offers a capacity of 1.000 places.Set fire to during the Common , the building is rebuilt in 1874 by the City on identical levels, except for interior installation. The theater bears the names of Opera house, then of Theater of the Nations, before taking the name of the actress Sarah Bernhardt who produced there as from 1899. The theater changes its name into Theater of the Nations during the German occupation, because of the Jewish origins of Sarah Bernhardt. Charles Dullin, which is director of the theater in 1941, presents the first part of Jean-Paul Sartre: the Flies .
The Company Renaud - Barrault occupies then the theater until in 1967, date on which the sudden building of important transformations which destroy its interior space completely and install a modern structure in steps accommodating 987 places. It then takes the current name of Theater of the City, under the direction of Jean Mercure.
The current foundations of the theater were installation by Jean Mercure of 1968 at the beginning of the year 1980. The theater is restructured by Valentine Fabre and Jean Perrottet in 1967-1968. The great time of the Theater of the City starts with Gerard Violette, which takes the direction in 1985 of it, and reorientates the programming. The theater opens then with the Contemporary dance, which occupies from now on a major place, like with the musics of the world. It becomes in particular the essential institution of promotion near the general public of new forms of dances. It will be in particular the place of blossoming and dedication of the Nouvelle French dance and the Belgian contemporary choreographers of which many choreographies Co-was produced by the Theater City. In 1996, the Theater of the City increased, with one second room of 400 places open to the Theater of the Abbesses, a place rehabilitated by the Belgian architect Charles Vandenhove, and the artists Daniel Buren and Olivier Debré which painted the interior mural frescos.
In 2008, Gerard Violet, in agreement with the Town of Paris, will leave the direction of the Theater of the City to his successor. Four successors were had a presentiment of: Yorgos Loukos, Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota, Michel Orier, and Jose Manuel Gonçalves. September 25th, 2007, Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota is named director of the Theater of the City as from June 2008.
Programming
The Theater of the City programs a hundred different spectacles per annum for approximately 400 representations. In its room of the place of Châtelet, like in the second room built to the 31, Street of the Abbesses in the 18 {{E}} district known as Theater of the Abbesses, the institution which depends on the town hall of Paris develops at deliberately accessible prices (from 10 to 30 euros the place), programming according to four axes:- contemporary dance, for which the Theater of the east City probably since more than 20 years the great place in France and Europe where the international companies are seen definitively recognized;
- theater, with a party taken modern either in the texts (several programmings each year of alive authors) or by the setting in scene;
- music of the world, whose this theater was a pioneer in France and develops programming of more high-quality;
- chamber music.
Great names associated with the Theater with the City
In theater
The great period theater of the room dates from the time of Sarah Bernhardt when the place bore its name. After war, the company of Jean-Louis Barrault and Madeleine Renaud adapted the room until 1967. The theater, in a place become Theater of the City then, lost then its preeminence, to make place with the other forms of the Live performance. During the contemporary time, a name however is associated with the Theater of the City because of many posthumous creations of the parts of Bernard-Marie Koltès, which is practically programmed each year.
In contemporary dance
In contemporary dance the theater is very closely associated with the success of Pina Bausch that Gerard Violette went to seek in Germany at the end of the years 1970 when it met a mitigated success. The decade of the years 1980 saw the theater becoming the seedbed and the place of dedication of the great names of the Nouvelle French dance like Maguy Marin, Dominique Bagouet, Daniel Larrieu, of the quartet of the large Flemish choreographers who are Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Jan Fabre, Jan Lauwers and Wim Vandekeybus, of the large American choreographers like Merce Cunningham, Carolyn Carlson, or Lucinda Childs, and finally of the Japanese company Sankai Juku. More recently the new generation of the choreographers was essential on success of the years 2000 with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Akram Khan, or Rachid Ouramdane.
In music of the world
The Theater of the City will have allowed the discovery in France of many Indian artists and Pakistani such as large the Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan completely unknown in occident before his revelation places of Châtelet, Zakir Hussain, but also Angélique Ionatos.
In classical music
Accustomed room of Châtelet are Andreas Staier, Fabio Biondi, Miklós Perényi, or the Kronos Quartet.
Administration and budget
Direction
- Jean Mercury of 1968 to 1985.
- Gerard Violet of 1985 to 2008.
- Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota of 2008 to 2013.