This week, we had the opportunity to sit with Lambert Pounel, our international facilitation intern, to talk a little bit more about the workshop he is offering through Mixed Company Theatre on August 18th and 19th.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background in theatre?
My name is Lambert Pounel. I come from France with eight years of work in theatre as an actor and director. After being engaged in physical theatre and a founding member of various theatre companies like Théâtre du Balèti, the company 4éléments and the company Paupières Mobiles, I am now completing a professional certificate program at La Sorbonne University in Paris to become a facilitator in dramatic arts. I have always been interested in working with both professional and amateur actors to explore personal stories, and the process of transforming them into universal messages. In particular, I’m curious about the dark side of our human experience and how we can use this as a creative tool for positive change.
What will be explored in the workshop you will be facilitating on August 18-19th?
Participants will learn to devise theatre; transforming their personal experiences into creative theatrical materials, build a collective and under the umbrella of collective creation, share their personal narratives. We will learn to change our perspectives, using our past experiences and our histories to tap into ourselves.
What will participants gain from the workshop?
We will learn to build community. This workshop will allow participants to assume their individuality in the group while learning how to be part of a collective. They will also develop their presence on stage. They will build confidence in using their voices to speak directly in order to be authentic.
What are some of your theatrical obsessions?
Truth is a big one. Coming to the stage with what you are and using your own truth, what you’re feeling that day, to inform your performance as opposed to shying away from that truth, or faking your way through a character. I’m interested in authentic work, how can we use our own experiences to fuel our characters? Reacting in the moment not only as your character, but as yourself, to what is being presented in a scene.
Discomfort is another one. The theatre for me is a place where instability and discomfort is palpable. Actors give a part of themselves when they’re onstage, and the public being provoked by that is asking them to be active in the participation of what they’re watching. Theatre for me is an opportunity to put the performers and the public in a place of vulnerability with one another and seeing what comes out of that. It is not however in opposition with pleasure or the joy they might experience, but allowing for discomfort allows for the audiences to go even deeper into the sweeter moments.
Lambert’s workshop will take place Thursday August 18th-Friday August 19th 6-9pm.
157 Carlton Street, Toronto. Call us at 416-515-8080 or e-mail us at info@mixedcompanytheatre.com to book your spot!