Dramaturgy Practices cycle

La Bellone is back with its 2025 cycle of seminars in Dramaturgy Practices.

Rather than a history or theorisation of dramaturgy, participants are invited to grasp, define and practise dramaturgy by attempting both to map out dramaturgical practices and to situate themselves within them. The aim is not to define a practice which, as such, is outside the definitional framework, since it has no fixed and unchanging ‘ends’ or contours - these change according to the means of dramaturgical activation (on the stage, in institutions, in the design of various devices, etc.) - but rather to propose a method of double singularisation: to single out what makes up the dramaturgical landscape today and thus to see, for each person, what singularises their own method of doing things. From there, a path of situated study begins, along which the participant can recognise more clearly the specificity of their method and tools, but also, by doing so, experiment with other ways of using them or refining them in the light of the specificities of others.

Lieux polyphoniques

Cifas and La Bellone are co-producing one of these seminars: Lieux polyphoniques by Vincent Focquet.

"Working with Kunstenplatform PLAN B, a platform for artistic work in rural spaces, I noticed something interesting. Working on dramaturgy turned out to be much more interesting and productive for me outside the walls of institutions than in more traditional environments like the black box, where I learned both the term and the practice.

Is it the ecological crisis that makes it more urgent to listen to these spaces? Was it the attraction of the real that satisfied me more than the fantasies of the black box? Or is it the presence of all those other 'actors': cornfields, farm workers, local residents, all with their own histories so absent from the silence of the black box?

In this seminar, I want to look collectively at what might be interesting in this dramaturgy beyond the black box and what it might look like.

To do this, the seminar will be on the move. Working in and with different realities in and around Brussels, we will ask ourselves: ‘How can a dramaturgy be in and of a place?’

During the seminar, we will collectively create tools for listening to what a space and each entity within it might have to say. For example, who are the (non)human inhabitants of the village-turned-town of Haren? How can we talk about children's interactions with green spaces in Molenbeek? What is the story of a river and how can it be told to birds?

I'll be sharing some of the questions, cases and methodologies that are dear to me in this context, and which seem critical in these (eco)political times. With this patchwork of cases and discussions in mind, we will collectively propose exercises, scores and formats for realising our polyphonic dramaturgies of space.

By moving around, I hope to shift the blocks and stereotypes around dramaturgy. Outside the black box, rusty notions of what a dramaturg is will be challenged and new dramaturgical possibilities may emerge.

The seminar itself attempts to be polyphonic, firstly by prioritising group discussion and collaboration, but also by listening to contributions from other creators, dramaturgs, spaces, etc. Based on the idea that ‘everyone who is here comes from here’, we will collectively try to be part of the dramaturgy of a place, without claiming ownership or parenthood.

With an emphasis on specificity, play and collectivity, and drawing on our own (writing) practices as creators and/or dramaturges, we will find ways of weaving stories out of the space and its inhabitants. These attempts will be brought together in collective traces, to see if our dramaturgies manage to transport spaces elsewhere’.

Vincent Focquet

Vincent Focquet studied Theaterwetenschappen at Ghent University. He is a playwright, organiser, performer and author. He has worked as artistic coordinator at Decoratelier and dramaturge with the Side-Show circus company. He currently works with performance artist Sophia Rodriguez and is a member of the artistic platform PLAN B and BREAKFASTCLUB by Gouvernement.

For whom ?

People with experience as dramaturges, beginner or confirmed.

The seminar will be held in French, with the possibility of questions and answers in English and Dutch.

Applications

Applications will be sent to mylene@bellone.be before 15 November

They must include :

• an email including your motivation and the seminar(s) you wish to attend
• a summary of your background, including a short bio, in relation to your dramaturgical practice (2 pages max.)

Confirmation of the applicants enf of November.

Conditions

Free.

Participants must be present during the whole of the seminar.

For information on the other seminars of the cycle : this way