Passeurs d'Europe - Afrique(s) - Unforgettable experience

This past week, I participated in a theatrical, poetic and musical spectacle, organized by the franco-allemande group Plattform, for the "Printemps des Poetes", an annual event in France that takes place in March, with this year's theme being "Afrique(s)"!  When I volunteered to participate back in January I had no idea on what to expect. I found out about this event through the Alliance Francaise Facebook - they were in need of several languages speakers with Portuguese amongst them. I emailed them offering my availability for the required dates and for the Portuguese reading, mentioning my 0% theatre/poem reading experience. I was told by the enthusiastic Marie-Christine, that it was fine as most people would be 1st timers too and that it was great that I was going to join the project. I really had no idea on what I was getting into. From reading the information available about the event and from past events, I thought it would be a poem reading evening with some accompanying music and a bit of theatre, not sure what I individually would have to do apart from the Portuguese poem reading. We had a week's rehearsal's. Monday to Friday for 3h in the evening and a long rehearsal on the Saturday afternoon, before the final rehearsal and 2 performances the week after. Gaelle, our artistic director (= the boss), warned us that in a week's time we would all be kissing and hugging, she wasn't wrong! To be honest, I thought 3 hours rehearsals every night plus a 5h one on a Saturday was going to get really boring at some point...well, it never did!! This all had to do with Gaelle...she is a force of nature and with a charisma that never lets you take your eyes off of her. I was like a kid, listening to her with all my attention, drinking her words and directions. This is her job of course, but as I've seen through many other fields, being a professional at something doesn't mean you are automatically good at what you do. She truly is! We were 40 people with ages ranging from 10 years old to maybe 60 and from all sorts of backgrounds and all kids of personalities, and everyone was under the spell of Gaelle.

Gaelle in action!

The rehearsals always started with a warm-up which usually involved some sort of passage of energy between us. These passages of energy were done either by touch, eye contact or theatrical movement. These exercises were really great for us to bond, to relax and even laugh, before we got to the poem readings and stage placement rehearsal. We really had fun for the whole week, and day by day, we got more confident with each other and with what we had to do on stage. None of us are professional actors, with only just a few of us having done this Passeurs d'Europe in previous years, so we gave it all so it would be a good show. The week passed really quickly and off came the time to perform to a 200+ audience in a very nice cultural centre, L'Espace Hillel. We were all dressed up accordingly for the theme "Afrique(s)", so we were all colourful, some cool hairdos, some make up (yes me too!), and barefoot of course. We were all very excited but some people nervous, me included!!

Professor Justo Boleka, who wrote and read the Spanish poem  with our Greek goddess Heleni :)

Me with makeup! with Adersa from Cape Verde

The spectacle included 8 poems (German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, Romanian and Portuguese) all read initially in their original written languages followed by an African translation (Swahili, Zulu, Creole, Congolese etc) and then a French translation, followed by several other translations, all accompanied by some poem inspired music (Atelier d'improvisation du Conservatoire de Lyon). I was going to read a paragraph of the German poem (2nd poem of the evening) in Portuguese, and then would be reading the Portuguese Poem (last one) with Mariana, a Brazilian woman. We would finish off the spectacle, which was cool but nerve wracking at the same time! Off we went, and after 1h15 we where all done. It seemed like we did really well, from Gaelle's feedback and from our Passeurs d'Europe and the audience. We also felt as a group that we did better than what we had done on our final rehearsal, so we were all proud and happy!!

I had Luisa Dutra, the representative from the "Instituto Camoes de Lyon" (Portuguese Institute), one of the partners of this project and who provided the poem, come and speak to me. She kindly thanked me and said she really liked it all, specially the Portuguese poem and our romantic take on it between me and Mariana. Afterwards, the Consul of the Portuguese Consulat of Lyon, Maria de Fatima Mendes also congratulated me and thanked me for my participation. I mentioned I was in contact with one of her colleagues about registering my wedding from New Zealand there, and she said when I visit to go and see her, so cool! Then came our 2nd and last performance the following day. I was more nervous for this second performance as I had family and friends coming to see me. Of course I was happy to have them coming to see me and support me, which I knew wasn't easy for them, as they really lead busy lives at the moment! So, we gave it all and in my opinion we really had a good performance which I was really proud and happy! Personally I did some things better than the previous evening but unfortunately messed up nearly at the end, by reading the wrong phrase with Mariana reading the correct one, but it wasn't that big of a deal, so all was fine :)

Me reading the Portuguese translation of the German poem

Myself and Mariana finishing off the Portuguese poem with the phrase "Livres, livres, livres" meaning "Free, free, free!"

At the end, I had Sara my cousin come to congratulate me and give me a kiss, and then my friends Nahil, Barbara and Alexandra! I was really happy to have them all there and was chuffed that they all liked the whole spectacle! I wasn't sure they would as poetry performances are not everyone's cup of tea and read in all sorts of languages, mainly African languages, I was slightly worried they would be bored, but no...they really seemed to have enjoyed it. Whilst I was chatting with them, all the others where dancing behind me on stage to the sound of Buba playing jambe and really happy! :) Afterwards we decided to celebrate our final performance with a trip to an African restaurant/bar. We were around 20-25, and literally took over that little restaurant and danced and drinked for a few hours, still energised by our last performance and by our new friendships. As for me, I couldn't believe my luck in having had the honour to participate in such a great project! I wasn't sure of what to expect when I volunteered to participate in this project, and in 10 days I made 40 new friends and met some amazing and inspiring people. The group energy and connection really made me think I should do something similar like this in the future. I really really enjoyed being part of a group. Those moments, before the curtain opened, where we were all in place just waiting, looking at each other nervously, cheering each one of us with our eyes, passing our energy and courage to each other, those moments are so strong, I love them...and then the feeling of accomplishment at the end of a group performance, where everyone pulls in the same direction is so great, that I really want to re-live it. As for the theme of this year -  Africa, it also inspired me to get to know a lot more about this continent. We had lots of people from all over Africa, talented, great spirits, sweet, happy and inspiring individuals, which made me want to visit and learn more about this fascinating continent!