Francophone African and Caribbean Theaters

Project Information

FACT

Grant agreement ID: 657877

DOI

10.3030/657877

Project closed

EC signature date 31 March 2015

Start date 1 June 2015

End date 31 May 2017

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 173 076,00

EU contribution

€ 173 076,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITE PARIS III SORBONNE NOUVELLE
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FACT (Francophone African and Caribbean Theaters)

Reporting period: 2015-06-01 to 2017-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The cultural and artistic expressions of Black minorities are still unknown, devalued, and understudied in France today where exclusion and discrimination keep growing. It is urgent to analyze and recognize the work of African and Caribbean dramatists who embody the diversity and multiculturalism of our global contemporary world.
FACT intends to:
- show that migrations following decolonization have transformed, nourished and enriched the French nation;
- challenge stereotypes and prejudices against Black minorities, as well as the conception of a homogeneous unique French identity
- evaluate the impacts of postcolonialism on today’s French society through plays written by Francophone dramatists
- explore the cultural, economical, and political aspects of theater production through the analysis of the possible difficulties faced by Francophone theater practitioners to stage, produce and promote their work on the public sphere.

FACT contributes to make Francophone African and Caribbean drama more visible in the field and create awareness among the general public of the reality of a multi-racial and multi-cultural nation born of a shared colonial history with the ultimate goal to encourage citizens to lose their fears of the “Other,” to be opened to the difference, and to welcome and celebrate the diversity of Europe.

FACT has succeeded in:
- making visible and valorizing a marginalized theatrical production produced by African and Caribbean dramatists and artists from the former French colonies
- disseminating widely the results of the research through seminars, conferences, publications (on paper and online)
- addressing societal and cultural challenges, such as ethnic relations, migrations, and cultural interactions to offer new perspectives on today’s French society.
- challenging the audience’s prejudices against African and Caribbean cultures by providing the public with the possibility of viewing the world with a different lens.
- enhancing international and inter-academic collaborations between France, Europe, Canada, the United States, the Caribbean

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The work performed during the FACT project and the main results achieved were disseminated by:

1) Participation to national and international conferences:
• June 6, 2015, Mantes-la Jolie, Collectif 12, France
Arts and Marroonage: Street Culture and New Performance

• July 14-15, 2015, Avignon, Theater Festival, France
Summer Colloquium "Of Skin and Politics", Laboratoire SEFEA (Scènes Francophones et Ecritures de l’Altérité), Unversity Sorbonne Nouvelle

• October 22-24, 2015: Haitian Studies Association Conference, “Haiti and the Global Environment”, Université de Montréal, Canada
Moderator of two panels: “Memory, Reclaiming Gender through Selected Literary Works” and “Home, Exile, Diaspora”

• May 2-4, 2016, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, France
"Disivion, Rupture and Diffraction of the Self: On the Edge of Solitude and Madness", International Conference "Between Monologue and Dialogue"

• May 24-27, 2016, Université Jean Jaurès, Toulouse, France
Theaters of Americas: from the anthropological stage to the Cultural and Artistic Stage, Congrès AFEA (Association Française des Etudes Américaines), Chantiers d’Amérique

• July 2016, Avignon Theater Festival, France
Moderator of a round table “Female Heroes of African and Caribbean Theatrical Stages", Université d’été, Focus on Woman on African and Caribbean Stages, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle

• October 24, 2016, Segal Theater/CUNY Graduate Center, New York, United States
Conference on Haiti and Marie Vieux Chauvet’s Theaters of Revolt,

• November 24-25, 2016, Centre Wallonie Bruxelles, Paris, France
Moderator of a session on “Histoire de jazz, myhtes et détours animaliers,” Conference “Esthétiques Jazz, Animal, Jazz, Machine”, Univ. Sorbonne Nouvelle

• March 24-25, 2017, Salamanca, Spain
MCAA (Marie Curie Alumni Association) General Assembly and Conference

Invited guest speaker
• October 19, 2015, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
Public lecture on the “History of Caribbean Drama (from colonial times to now)”

• November 15-28, 2015: Theater Festival 4 Chemins, Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Public lecture on “History and Aesthetics of Drama in Guadeloupe and Martinique”
Introduction of public readings of contemporary Caribbean plays

• November 4, 2016: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Department of French & Italian, United States
Paper: “Migration Theater from Haiti: Fractures of exile, wandering of memories”

• April 28, 2017, Café de l’Europe, Salon de l’Inalco, Paris, France
Paper: “Research on Caribbean Drama: Postcolonial approach and textual methodology ”

• May 9, 2017, Académie Royale des Sciences de l’Outre Mer, Brussels, Belgium
Paper:“Theaters from Guadeloupe, Martinique and Haiti: convergence and divergence”


Organization of international conferences and public events (round tables):
• October 22, 2016, Théâtre 13, Paris, France
Round table on Haitian Theater

• February 27, 2017, CIEE (Centre for International European Exchanges), Paris, France
Round Table “Crossing the line”

• April 21, 2017, TARMAC, Scène Internationale Francophone, Paris, France
International conference on "Wanderings and detours in José Pliya’s work: from the page to the stage"


PUBLICATIONS
• Book
Le Théâtre-Monde de José Pliya. Paris: Éditions Honoré Champion, 2015.

• 6 Articles (in peer-review journals). See technical report.

• Work in progress:
Monograph outline: 100 ans de Théâtre d’Afrique et d’Outre Mer (Hundred Years of African and Caribbean Theaters)

General public dissemination:
Nov. 2015: Radio broadcasts in Port-au-Prince, Haiti: on Radio Pacific,and Radio Métropole, TV broadcast on TNH (Haitian National TV)
Online encyclopedia: Afritheatre.com online Encyclopedia on Francophone African and Caribbean Theaters.

SEMINARS
• Fall 2015: University of Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris 3, France
Attendance of 2 doctoral seminars:
From Theater to Performative, the Stage as a Body Factory, Prof. Josette Féral
Nature and Status of the Text on the Stage Today, Prof. Joseph Danan,

• November 23-27, 2015, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Theater Festival des Quatre Chemins
Teaching of workshops on Caribbean theater (analysis of playwriting and staging of Caribbean plays)

• December 10, 2015: Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris 3
Teaching of a doctoral Seminar: Of indecision of disciplinary borders and categories

• Spring 2015 and Spring 2016, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, France
Co-teaching of two graduate seminars: Stages and Writing of Otherness: Contemporary Afro-Caribbean Theater, with Prof. Sylvie Chalaye

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project challenges the audience’s prejudices against African and Caribbean cultures by providing the public with the possibility of viewing the world with a different lens. We are hopeful this awareness can have positive consequences on the representation of Black people in the public sphere, for instance by imposing quotas of minorities in the media. This opening to cosmopolitism is a necessary condition to stop the rise of nationalism and discrimination in order to build a future of mutual respect based on non-discrimination, freedom, equality, justice, all values reaffirmed by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

International conference on Jose Pliya's theater

Conference on African & Caribbean Women in Theater

Guest lecture: Migration in Haitian Theater