Tag Archives: french institute alliance francaise

CELEBRATING SERGE GAINSBOURG

Jane Birkin, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Rebecca Marder will celebrate the life and legacy of Serge Gainsbourg in live FIAF event

Who: Jane Birkin, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Rebecca Marder, Michael Cooper
What: Virtual talk
Where: FIAF online
When: Thursday, June 10, free with RSVP, 6:30
Why: Thirty years ago this past March, French singer-songwriter, actor, filmmaker, and bon vivant Serge Gainsbourg died of a heart attack at the age of sixty-two, leaving behind a beloved legacy that has only grown since. On June 10 at 6:30, FIAF will host the live online discussion “Celebrating Serge Gainsbourg,” with the engaging model, actress, and singer-songwriter Jane Birkin, his personal and professional partner from 1968 to 1980; their daughter, actress and singer-songwriter Charlotte Gainsbourg; and actress and musician Rebecca Marder, one of six performers in the concert film La Comédie-Française chante Gainsbourg; the event will be moderated by New York Times deputy culture editor Michael Cooper. Admission is free with advance RSVP.

The hourlong film, adapted from Stéphane Varupenne and Sébastien Pouderoux’s Les Serge (Gainsbourg Point Barre), directed by Julien Condemine, and featuring Varupenne, Pouderoux, Marder, Benjamin Lavernhe, Noam Morgensztern, and Yoann Gasiorowski, will be streaming exclusively by FIAF from June 10 to 30; virtual tickets are $15.

VIRTUAL HD SCREENING & LIVE TALK — THE PARIS OPERA & BALLET: PLAY

FIAF will fly in the Paris Opera & Ballet’s playful Play this week, with a live talk March 11

Who: The Paris Opera & Ballet
What: Virtual screening and live discussion
Where: French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) online
When: Thursday, March 11, $15, 12:30 (stream available on demand March 8-14)
Why: Swedish dancer, choreographer, and director Alexander Ekman’s first commission from the Paris Opera & Ballet was the wild and woolly Play, a 2017 work that featured women dressed as deer, a furious rain of green balls, large blocks floating in the air, and other dreamlike scenarios. “We thought of life by analogy with the journey, with a pilgrimage, which had a serious purpose at the end, but the thing was to get to that end, success or whatever it is, or maybe heaven after your death, but we missed the point the whole way along,” a disembodied voice explains. FIAF will be streaming a recorded version of the production, with music composed by the Harlem-based Mikael Karlsson, from March 8 to 14; each $15 ticket also gives you access to a livestreamed Zoom talk with Ekman (Cacti, Tuplet), Karlsson, and theater critic Laura Cappelle on March 11 at 12:30.

MOLIÈRE IN THE PARK: PEN/MAN/SHIP

Who: Molière in the Park theater company
What: Livestreamed performances and Q&As
Where: FIAF Facebook and Molière in the Park YouTube
When: Saturday, December 12, free with RSVP, 2:00 & 7:00 (show will be available for viewing through January 3)
Why: After staging Zoom adaptations of three classic seventeenth-century plays by Jean-Baptiste Poquelin — better known as Molière — Brooklyn-based Molière in the Park is getting significantly more contemporary with its latest live, online production, playwright, TV writer, and educator Christina Anderson’s new work, Pen/Man/Ship. Following The Misanthrope, Tartuffe, and The School for Wives, Molière in the Park moves into the late nineteenth century with Pen/Man/Ship, which takes place in 1896 aboard a ship heading for Liberia shortly after the US Supreme Court decided in Plessy v. Ferguson to uphold the constitutionality of racial segregation under the concept of “separate but equal.” The cast features Crystal Lucas-Perry, Kevin Mambo, Jared McNeill, and Postell Pringle; the parable is directed by Molière in the Park founding artistic director Lucie Tiberghien using Liminal Entertainment Technologies’ StreamWeaver software, which takes actors out of Zoom boxes and puts them in front of backgrounds that more resemble indoor and outdoor sets while also allowing the tech crew to work together regardless of where they are. Copresented with the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) in partnership with the Prospect Park Alliance and the LeFrak Center at Lakeside, the play will be performed live twice on December 12, at 2:00 and 7:00, followed by Q&As with the creatives; a recording will be available for on-demand viewing through January 3.

LE PETIT GALA: OUTSIDE THE BOX

FIAF’s virtual gala on November 16 features live music and dance from Florence Gould Hall

Who: Jonah Bokaer, Isaiah João, Nadia Khayrallah, Hala Shah, Rourou Ye, Cal Hunt, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Bryan Wagorn
What: Virtual gala
Where: FIAF online
When: Monday, November 16, free with RSVP, 7:00
Why: The French Institute Alliance Française will be holding its gala on November 16 at 7:00, featuring livestreamed performances direct from the stage in Florence Gould Hall. The soirée “Le Petit Gala: Outside the Box” will include the live world premiere of Jonah Bokaer Choreography’s Softer Distances, a dance solo and quartet with Jonah Bokaer, Isaiah João, Nadia Khayrallah, Hala Shah, and Rourou Ye; FlexN specialist Cal Hunt’s solo dance Gliding: From Brooklyn to Paris; and France en chansons (“L’invitation au voyage” by Henri Duparc, “J’ai perdu mon Eurydice” from Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice, “Sous le ciel de Paris” in honor of Juliette Gréco) with opera countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and pianist Bryan Wagorn. The limited in-person dinner in the FIAF Skyroom is sold out, but you can also participate by bidding in the silent auction, where you’ll find jewelry, wine, art, perfume, a Frédéric Fekkai experience, a private piano lesson with Wagorn, furniture, food, luxury bags, and more. All proceeds benefit FIAF’s cultural, artistic, and educational programs.

LIVE THEATER STREAM AND Q&A: THE FALL

Ronald Guttman stars as Jean-Baptiste Clamence in Albert Camus’s The Fall at FIAF

Who: Ronald Guttman, Dr. Stephen Petrus
What: One-man show and Q&A
Where: FIAF Vimeo
When: Through Wednesday, October 28 at 11:59 pm, free
Why: On October 1, Belgian actor Ronald Guttman took the stage at FIAF’s Tinker Auditorium and performed the solo work The Fall for an in-person audience of twenty-five, in addition to many more watching the livestream from wherever they are sheltering in place. The sixty-minute piece is an English-language adaptation by Alexis Lloyd of Albert Camus’s 1956 novel La Chute, consisting of monologues by Parisian ex-pat former lawyer Jean-Baptiste Clamence, examining the meaning of the life he has lived as he hangs out in a seedy Amsterdam dive bar in the red light district. “Pleased to make your acquaintance,” Clamence says at the beginning, speaking directly to the audience before explaining a moment later, “There’s only one thing simple about me; I don’t own anything. I used to. I used to be wealthy back in Paris.” For the next hour, he shares stories about Holland, modern man, fornication, mysterious laughter, memory, and shame, describing himself as a “judge-repentant,” walking across the stage with an elegiac look, wondering what could have been. (The show is directed by Didier Flamand.) FIAF has made the stream available for free through October 28 at midnight, including a twenty-minute Q&A with the New York-based Guttman, moderated by Dr. Stephen Petrus. Guttman has been performing The Fall in different iterations for more than twenty years, so his familiarity with the existential material makes this well worth watching before it disappears forever.

MOLIÈRE IN THE PARK: THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES

Who: Tonya Pinkins​, Kaliswa Brewster, Cristina Pitter, Tamara Sevunts, Mirirai Sithole, Carolyn Michelle Smith, Corey Tazmania
What: Molière in the Park virtual presentation in association with French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)
Where: Molière in the Park Zoom
When: Saturday, October 24, free with RSVP (donations accepted), 2:00 & 7:00
Why: “Don’t worry, friend; I’m not a fool,” Arnolphe tells Chrysalde at the beginning of Molière’s The School for Wives in Richard Wilbur’s translation. “I shan’t expose myself to ridicule. / I know the tricks and ruses, shrewd and sly, / Which wives employ, and cheat their husbands by; / I know that women can be deep and clever; / But I’ve arranged to be secure forever: / So simple is the girl I’m going to wed / That I’ve no fear of horns upon my head. . . . No, keep your smart ones; I’ve no taste for such. . . . / In short, I want an unaccomplished wife, / And there are four things only she must know: To say her prayers, love me, spin, and sew.” Molière in the Park, following their popular virtual presentations of The Misanthrope and Tartuffe online over the summer instead of in Prospect Park, their usual home, is now taking on Molière’s 1662 five-act comedy, reinvented for Zoom, copresented with FIAF. And in a casting twist that would terrify Arnolphe, all the roles will be portrayed by women, with Mirirai Sithole, Kaliswa Brewster, Cristina Pitter, Tamara Sevunts, Carolyn Michelle Smith, Corey Tazmania, and Tony winner Tonya Pinkins (Jelly’s Last Jam; Caroline, or Change) as the lead cad. (The play ran on Broadway in 1971 with Brian Bedford as Arnolphe, Joan Van Ark as Agnes, and David Dukes as Horace and was made into a 1983 film by Ingmar Bergman with Allan Edwall as Arnolphe, Lena Nyman as Agnes, and Stellan Skarsgård as Horace.)

The troupe has employed unique technical elements in their virtual plays, courtesy of director Lucie Tiberghien, video engineer Andy Carluccio, set designer Lina Younes, costume designer Ari Fulton, composer Paul Brill, sound designer Daniel Williams, and animator Emily Rawson, so it should be fun to see what innovations they will bring this time around. The School for Wives will be performed live on October 24 at 2:00 and 7:00, followed by a Q&A with members of the cast and crew; French and English subtitles are available, and the show can be viewed through October 29. Next up for Molière in the Park is a rare contemporary play, Christina Anderson’s pen/man/ship, on December 12.

MOLIÈRE IN THE PARK: TARTUFFE

tartuffe poster

Who: Molière in the Park theater company
What: Livestreamed performances and Q&As
Where: FIAF Facebook and Molière in the Park YouTube
When: Saturday, June 27, free with RSVP, 2:00 & 7:00 (show will be available for viewing through July 1 at 2:00)
Why: Molière in the Park follows up its virtual staging of two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Wilbur’s English-language translation of Molière’s The Misanthrope with another seminal work by the French playwright, also translated by Wilbur. On June 27 at 2:00 and 7:00, the Prospect Park-based troupe, in conjunction with the French Institute Alliance Française, will present Molière’s 1664 favorite, Tartuffe, known in French as Le Tartuffe; ou, l’imposteur. The story of a beguiling scoundrel who charms some and infuriates others will be performed by an outstanding cast, featuring Raúl E. Esparza as Tartuffe and Samira Wiley as Oronte, joined by Kaliswa Brewster, Toccarra Cash, Chris Henry Coffey, Naomi Lorrain, Jared McNeill, Jennifer Mudge, Rosemary Prinz, and Carter Redwood. The piece is directed by company founder Lucie Tiberghien, with production design by Kris Stone, video programming by Andy Carluccio, sound and music by Paul Pinto, and animation by Emily Rawson and Jonathan Kokotajlo, as Molière in the Park pushes the envelope in its use of online technology.

“We are disturbed and appalled by the corrosive and dangerously divisive nature of religious double standards and the questionable moral righteousness we are currently witnessing,” Tiberghien and producer Garth Belcon said in a statement. “Turning to Tartuffe with this company of actors and creative team has been healing. Our goal is to reinforce the power of faith, love, and respect for every human life, versus religious posturing for economic or political gain.” Admission to the ninety-minute comedy is free, but advance RSVP is required; donations are gladly accepted. The livestreamed show, which will be available with English or French closed captions, will be followed by a Q&A with members of the company; if you miss either of the live productions, a recording will be available for viewing through July 1.