Artistic Director of BRED IN THE BONE Theatre Company
Curator of DREAMS BEFORE DAWN Festival
MATTHIEU LELOUP BELLON
5 minutes with Matthieu Bellon...
We caught Matthieu in between rehearsal and workshops in Rose Buford College and asked him to spend a few minutes with us.
Hi! Tell us please on what stage the preparation for the Festival 2018 is?
We have spent the last month processing all the applications, which kept coming to us above and beyond our expectations and the deadline we had set back in December. It has been a very exiting time to think of the best combination of shows to come, and we are very happy to welcome this year young companies from Paris to complete a very international festival!
We also have held this year for the first time a pre-launch of the festival on the 7th of April, with the support of our partners Theatre de Menilmontant and the Conservatoire a Rayonnement Regional de Paris.
It proved a fantastic opportunity to see extracts from the shows that will come in July, as well as engage with audience members to present the work of the Company and the ethos of the Festival. I am thrilled by the response we are getting this year, and the real enthousisasm I feel is growing for Emergeant European Theatre.
We are getting very excited to see all the shows coming to Paris - although we have seen some of them already, there is the expectation of the unknown that is thrilling! It will be a great pleasure to see the shows evolving right before our eyes during their stay at the festival, and I am particularly looking forward to finally put faces on the artists who I haven’t yet met and who’s work I am extremely proud to welcome to the Festival this year.
This year we are also launching a whole new website ‘En Francais’, honoring the great welcome that the Parisian have made to the festival for the last 4 years. We are launching a series of social media campaigns which we hope will help to consolidate and expand our local audience. We also hope to live stream a lot of what is happening at the Festival, for those unlucky who cannot make it to the city of light this summer.
Tell us please about the team that works on the festival?
As the Festival grows, so do the teams dedicated to make it such a success. I am very happy to welcome onboard new team members from Rose Bruford College, and to double the number of people working during the festival. With more than 70 events over 5 days to programme and run, it was time to expand the team and allow for more support to those who have been working tirelessly on the 3 preceeding versions. And as always the incredible dedication of the Bred In The Bone Theatre members will give this festival its collaborative and generous flavour. We thought we’d let audience know more about these incredible passionate people who make the festival a success each year through our ‘behind the scene’ section on the website… keep an eye out for it!
What is unique about companies and performances that have applied to participate in the festival this year?
More than any other year, I wanted the festival to be a meeting point between theatre people from Europe who, often without knowing it, share the same passion for the craft. These companies and artists all have a genuine need to develop their work and express through a language that is personal, heartfelt, genuine. Every companies we have invited share this same attitude to their work.
To this effect we are attempting to programme not only different European companies, but also young and less young, confirmed artists and graduating students. We also welcome this year Laboratories of theatre - to look at processes of research as well as end products of performance.
What are you dreams and expectation for the Reves D'Avant L'aube 2018?
Each year we try to establish greater community of international theatre makers as well as to present our work in front of our friends and colleagues. I hope this year will be a big next step in our journey. Me and all collective of Bred In The Bone are looking forward
for it.
Thank you, Matthieu!