Outings – Leisure | Avignon: in eight months, the Capitol will become La Scala Provence
Capitol, Pandora, re-Capitol. And soon, therefore, “La Scala Provence”, from June 2022. Since 1935, he has known, eclectic sequences, this “Art Deco” cinema transformed into a theater every July, and located a few meters from the Republic street. New step: the premises have just been bought from René Kraus (Capitole Studios) by Mélanie and Frédéric Biessy. A Parisian couple who successfully put into orbit in 2018 a place of multidisciplinary creation (theater, contemporary and classical music, dance, new circus, visual arts …): La Scala Paris, which programs just as much Alexis Michalik, Jonathan Lambert, the stand-upper Jason Brokerss, the choreographers Kaori Ito and Yoann Bourgeois, the electro and classical musician, Francesco Tristano, or the innovative circus artists of “Circus Machine”. Words chosen with Frédéric Biessy.
Crossing genres
“Françoise Nyssen and Jean-Paul Capitani, to whom we are close (his wife and him Editor’s note), called me recently, telling me about the Capitol, which was for sale in Avignon. I discovered the place six months ago, I fell in love with it, I saw all the potential. We come to Avignon with a proposal that adds to the abundance of here, but certainly not as a lesson-giver. Our DNA at La Scala Paris, from the start, has been the emergence and crossing of genres: theater, dance, music, but also new circus, stand-up, visual and digital arts. We bought the Capitol 1.5 million euros and the work, which has just started and will continue until the end of May, will also cost 1.5 million “.
Open year round
“Our ambition is for “La Scala Provence” to live all year round, and not just in July. The place will work with shows created entirely during creative residencies in the four rooms: the large one (around 600 seats), the two lower rooms (220 and 120 seats) and a fourth, very small, upstairs. . The residency outings (which could last a month on average) will make it possible to offer performances, previews that will have a fairly permanent program “.
What works?
“The old cinema is very beautiful in its structure and there is no question of changing. On the other hand, in the two lower rooms, we will put the stage (the scene Editor’s note) on one level, with retractable bleachers, which will be large rehearsal spaces, but which, in ten minutes, will be flexible to accommodate the public. .
On the second and third floors, we will build studios to house the artists who will be in residence. Finally, on the visual level, we are showing in Avignon what we did for the creation of “La Scala Paris”: the place was thought out and designed by Richard Peduzzi (scenographer who signed the sets for the plays and films of Patrice Chéreau , not “La Reine Margot” Editor’s note). For example as in Paris, the armchairs of “La Scala Provence” will be all blue, “Scala blue” (registered color), which is made of 17 pigments and which reacts differently depending on the lights “.
A musical label
Within “La Scala Provence” will be installed the recording studio of a new label, “Scala Music”, directed by Rodolphe Bruneau-Boulmier, composer, producer and host on France Musique (Radio France). The ambition is to support the emergence and blur the boundaries between classical, contemporary music or electro. The label produces its artists from microphone installation to record release concerts. Finally, “Scala Music” will be distributed online by “Believe”.