Michèle Addala
In 1982, Michèle Addala, an actress by training, began to work with the inhabitants of “urban outskirts”. It was in the Avignon district of Monclar that an adventure took root that involved her in an atypical artistic itinerary, at the crossroads of what is called “culture” and “the social”. In 1985, she decided to incorporate her art in a plural way into the life of the neighbourhood and founded, with a few of her workshops' participants, the company Mise en scène. Nourished by encounters and daily work with the population (theatre practices and creation workshops, workshops on words, improvisation, corporeal percussions), the company asserted its aesthetics and multiplied its actions mixing amateurs and professionals in spaces as varied as buses, hospitals, bistros, markets, gardens and theatres... In 2002, the acquisition of L'Entrepôt, a “cultural proximity scheme”, permitted her to further anchor herself in the city, to link the different activities and territories, to develop artistic collaborations and partnerships with associations. At the head of a troupe of loyal interpreters and surrounded by long-time collaborators like the writer Jean Cagnard, the playwright Gilles Robic or the choreographer and actor Cheikh Sall, she especially created composite shows in which poetry and the real jostle each other to make today's words ring out. Words that “nibble at” the writing of associated authors and carry the murmuring of the world, as in The Butterfly Parable, her first creation for the Festival d'Avignon.
April 2013.