The Off d’Avignon wants to make the city of the Popes a permanent theater
It will be one of the major attractions of the 56eAvignon Off festival which takes place from July 7 to 30: La Scala Provence opens on 1,800 square meters on the site of the former Le Capitole cinema, becoming the largest permanent theater in the city, apart from its opera.
At the maneuver, Mélanie and Frédéric Biessy (she, managing partner of Antin Infrastructures Partners, and he, producer with his company Les Petites Heures), already owners of La Scala Paris. “In Paris, we play a lot. Theatre, music, dance, stand-up, new circus, visual arts… In Avignon, we take part in the biggest theater festival in the world in the summer, and eleven months a year, we will create, we will rehearse, we will record for our Scala Music label. The two are complementary,” the couple explains.
Trials
“Our creations could be tested with a regional audience, the very one who sees our shows on tour,” continues Frédéric Biessy. La Scala Provence also allows him to welcome artists that he cannot show in Paris, because being under exclusivity with other rooms, such as Renaud Capuçon and the Labèque sisters for music.
Equipped with 4 convertible rooms with 600, 200, 100 and 60 seats, a restaurant-bar and five accommodations for resident artists, La Scala Provence represents an investment of nearly 4 million euros, of which 650,000 euros by the state and local communities. During the festival, 31 different shows will be presented there, from 10 am until late at night. Some 6,000 festival-goers per day are expected. The permanent team will grow from 10 to 70 people.
33,000 curtain levers in the Off
This inauguration goes in the direction desired by the association AF & C, which manages the Off. Its new two-headed governance – a theater boss from Avignon, Harold David, and a company manager, Laurent Domingos -, wants year-round support for the activity so that Avignon is not deserted outside the festival.
“The Off is one of the most important professional springboards for the 1,100 companies present, with 33,000 curtain levers, 1,570 shows offered in 138 locations. It attracts 300,000 fans and has generated the sale of one million tickets and more than 50 million broadcasts. It is an essential market for programmers, but we also want to make Avignon a factory of living art, which welcomes artists in residence all year round and works more on the aging public”, insist the co-presidents.
Aging audience
In fact, the average age of the festival-goer is 50 years old. And 38% of spectators come from the southern region, proof that there is a local appetite. “Imagine, if 200 to 300 companies worked year-round in Avignon, that would change the daily life of the city and its inhabitants,” they add.
To professionalise companies, a dedicated support fund was created in 2017. This has already provided 825 artists with a total of 823,000 euros. It is financed by a contribution of one euro per ticket, matched by organizations such as Sacem, SACD, the National Music Centre, etc. For the second year, a support system for creation residencies is in place, supplemented this year by aid for new writing. Finally, AF&C wishes to create a label, associated with specifications, not so much to regulate the abundant offer as to disseminate good practices.
The In festival has had its FabricA since 2013, a rehearsal room to prepare for the Cour d’honneur and a complex of eighteen accommodations: each year, around a hundred days are reserved for hosting artists in residence.
Théâtre 14 perpetuates its ParisOFFestival
Two years ago, in July, in response to the closures due to Covid, Théâtre 14 imagined the ParisOFFestival in support of 15 companies scheduled in the canceled Avignon OFF. The festival turned out to be a popular celebration bringing many inhabitants who had never passed the door of a theater to discover live performance. So its directors Mathieu Touzet and Edouard Chapot, renewed the adventure, this time in September, to celebrate the return to school, with free shows in the courtyards of buildings or on the balconies, a festive village on rue Paradol, parent- children, music… “In 3 days, we brought together 3,000 spectators around 40 proposals” they congratulate themselves. However, they will go to Avignon, in the In to “feed” on shows that are too necessary for their modest budget, and in the Off to follow artists. “It’s a crazy time saver, you have to move between the two to make good encounters” they believe.