Stage!

Sunday we stopped by an exposition held along the Cours Mirabeau to promote all kinds of groups and activities. There were a lot of demonstrations from salsa groups, martial arts groups, musical groups, etc. There was even a booth for nudists ("le naturalisme"), but of course they could only hand out pamphlets.
Our Contemporary France prof told us it's a once a year thing, which explains why it was so crowded. We spent a long time on Monday discussing the fair, so I guess that's one thing we did in that class.

I went because M. Pelopidas, the artistic director who I met last week, was going to be there at his theater's booth. We set up an appointment to discuss an internship ("stage"), so I met with him today. After much difficulty (big surprise), I found the theater, which is actually very close to where I live. He gave me a brief tour, and then we went to a café nearby since they were about to have a class in the space. It is TINY, probably the smallest black-box I've ever been in, but it's really adorable. He described how they'd staged a couple of productions, and clearly they have everything they need, although he was bemoaning the fact that they can only seat 50 people, so they hardly make enough money to pay for the productions.

Their big show for this season is already underway, and the company is very small, so even though the V-i-F program director told me it was possible I could be in a play, I haven't gotten my hopes up about that because I figured it wasn't likely. But, kind of the next best thing, I guess, is that there's a sort of improvisation class Monday nights for students. I'll probably be in over my head, although maybe not because it's advertised as being for foreign students as well as French. So anyway, there's that, and then he tossed out a variety of things that I could do during my almost entirely free Tuesdays and Thursdays--helping to take/choose photos for the website and expositions, locate/decide upon props (thanks for the suggestion, Alex) and scenery, and perhaps most exciting, sitting in on rehearsals. Vanderbilt students have had internships here in the past, but they've always worked in the administrative side of things, and that doesn't really interest me, so I told him I'd do whatever as long as I got to be around the production itself.

I really hope it all pans out. He's supposed to get a rehearsal schedule to me soon, and then we'll kind of go from there. The improv class doesn't start for a few more weeks, which is nice because I'd like to have a bit more French practice before jumping into that. Tomorrow, they've got an exposition at the Office of Tourism, so I'm going there after class to check it out, but generally, I'll just be working Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Here's a link to the theater's website. If anyone has the time/interest, it's pretty cool. There are clips from past productions. woohoo

http://www.ainsidesuite.com/