An integral part of the National Arts Centre, French Theatre’s Children and Youth programming will soon have a new Associate Artistic Director. After more than a decade in the role, the incomparable Mélanie Dumont will be moving on to new and exciting challenges elsewhere, but the vitality of the small team will continue to shine, thanks to the hard work and passion of Véronique Lavoie Marcus, Programming Assistant for Children and Youth, and Elyse Gauthier, Education and Audience Relations Officer.
We had a great opportunity to interview Véronique and Elyse to find out more about the wealth of experience they bring to supporting and fulfilling the Artistic Director’s vision.
Can you tell us about your respective roles with French Theatre?
Véronique: As Programming Assistant for Children and Youth, I’m the right hand and partner of the Associate Artistic Director. I like to say that my role at French Theatre over the past 11 years has been to realize Mélanie’s artistic vision.
More specifically, I’m responsible for managing and coordinating the Children and Youth section, including welcoming shows, companies and audiences, and developing outreach activities and special projects for schools and families. I also supervise the Education and Audience Relations Officer.
Elyse: My job is to liaise with the schools when it comes to booking school matinees and workshops. Sometimes we also give workshops in schools, so I go with the artists to prepare the pupils to attend a school matinee. That’s more my education officer role.
The other facet of my job, audience relations, was added this year. In that capacity, I work more on the family side, not just in schools, around our public performances, and I do community outreach to attract new audiences and make our offer as accessible as possible. This year we’ve been focusing on teenagers and young adults. That involves partnerships with organizations and schools, and can take different forms, such as booths at school theatre festivals or the pre-show events we organize for young people.
Before a children’s show or a school matinee, Elyse can often be found decorating the Azrieli Studio foyer, setting up an activity that will immerse the audience in the show’s atmosphere. Why is this important? Does it affect their present and future experience?
Elyse: You have to consider that if a child doesn’t come to the theatre regularly with their family, that school trip may be the only opportunity they have to experience theatre at the NAC. That’s why we want to create the right atmosphere from the moment the groups arrive, so that the students are well prepared for the performance. Our shows are fairly short—usually around an hour—, but a pre-show activity or workshop can extend the experience and add a lot of context and fun to what the artists are already providing.
“Our hope is to create a moment of magic and wonder that will encourage the students to return to us or go elsewhere to broaden their exposure to the performing arts, be it through dance, theatre or music.” Elyse Gauthier, Education and Audience Relations Officer
We also try to reach out to their families. One of the initiatives we’ve developed is to send parents letters with a description of the show and suggested questions, under the heading “Your child went to the theatre today.” This gives parents the opportunity to start a conversation with their children about the art they’ve seen. We also include a card with information about our upcoming shows, hoping to encourage families to come to the theatre with their children if they don’t already.
So your mission is not just to sell shows, but to inspire young audiences to love the performing arts?
Elyse: When it comes to school matinees, especially with the Arts Alive funding (which alleviates the economic hardship some schools face), it’s not about selling tickets and filling the hall: it’s about reaching out to groups who don’t normally come to the theatre, who haven’t really had the opportunity to be there. Our job is to make art accessible to everyone.
I’m also thinking about the moment when groups arrive at the NAC: Mélanie, Véronique and I work together to make the experience as enjoyable as possible, whether it’s designing a seating plan to suit the age and height of the children, or adapting a teaching guide for immersion students, for instance. There are lots of little details that make the experience more positive for every student who visits us, and that’s our priority.
There’s obviously a lot of preparation involved before the children actually arrive at the theatre. Véronique, whom do you talk to most in your work: Children? Parents? Teachers? School principals? Others?
Véronique: That’s a great question! For me, it’s absolutely clear that children are the raison d’être of all our work, because children are first and foremost at the heart of the approach of the artists whose work we present, who think, create, and address children as active, intelligent and receptive spectators. From a purely commercial point of view, obviously it’s teachers and parents who decide whether or not to take children to the theatre. Of course, a large part of my work also involves supporting and raising awareness among adults, whether that’s through a more educational approach to the program... because adults often need to be reassured, ha ha!
Programming for children and youth has been an integral part of French Theatre for over 40 years. Véronique, it was your father, Jean-Claude Marcus, who introduced this important component in the early 1980s! How would you describe the relationship between French Theatre’s programming for general audiences and its programming for children and youth? Is there any overlap? How do they differ?
Véronique: Programming for children and youth is in French Theatre’s DNA, and that’s one of the reasons it’s so rich. For several decades now, we’ve been supporting the creation of shows for young audiences and helping children discover artistic offerings that match their intellectual capacity and curiosity. We’ve built up a wealth of expertise that’s recognized across the country and gives us great satisfaction!
French Theatre’s programming for children and youth and for general audiences are part of a larger whole, and often complement each other in a way, since they’re based on complementary artistic visions.
“All our shows reflect a desire to support creativity and daring, to encourage audiences to take risks, to inspire surprise, reflection, engagement, and, generally, wonder.” Véronique Lavoie Marcus, Programming Assistant for Children and Youth
At the NAC French Theatre, we’re very fortunate to have almost complete artistic freedom, a vast playing field that allows us to offer our audiences extraordinary shows and experiences, while giving artists and creators an exceptional platform for dissemination.
What’s your favourite part of your job? What are you most proud of?
Véronique: Every season we present about six shows for young audiences. Throughout the year, we work very hard to ensure that these moments of contact between artists and children are perfect and that the magic happens! So once the company is set up, the set is in place, the artists are ready, the host teams are on site, the school buses arrive, and hundreds of children stream in; when those children—sometimes just toddlers—take their seats in the theatre, all excited, and when the show finally starts and we feel that we’re all sharing a precious, special, timeless moment—that’s what I like best. It reminds me both of the importance of my work and of how incredibly lucky I am to be doing it as part of a first-class team and a great community of artists.
Elyse: The aspect of my job I’m most proud of is seeing the impact of our work on our young audiences. After months of preparation, communicating with teachers, and developing outreach projects, there’s nothing better than seeing the faces of young audience members light up in response to a work they would never see anywhere else. It’s in that moment that all our efforts seem worthwhile, when we share the joy of the young people in the audience.
I think the presence of children and young people in an audience challenges many of the conventions we often take for granted. Young people are very honest audiences who bring a very special energy to the theatre, whether through their audible reactions, their willingness to be swept up in the fiction or magic of theatre, or their insatiable curiosity. I think an adult audience could really benefit from coming to the theatre with a child’s liberated perspective. And I get the same feeling when I accompany our teaching artists for workshops in the schools, and I hear young people expressing themselves creatively, discovering new ways of looking at the world around them.
In 1989, Véronique, the now-defunct arts magazine Liaison asked your father*: “As someone who sees a lot of shows for young people, what is your perception of what is being done in this field?” If you were asked the same question, how would you answer it?
Véronique: I never enjoy going to the theatre more than when I see a good show for young audiences. Because those shows are often created with a strong desire to appeal as effectively as possible to the most demanding audience there is: children. To achieve the right tone, to appeal to them and connect with them, you have to be doubly inventive. To create a children’s show, you have to know your target audience, take them seriously, and respect their intelligence and sensitivity. So the creative process for shows for children and youth is unique in that it’s often the result of a long process of reflection, research, and experimentation, with children’s participation. What’s special about creating shows for young audiences is the infinite fertility of the medium: you can go anywhere, in terms of both form and content, and for an adult, that’s really refreshing!
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Interview conducted with assistance from Anicée Lejeune, to whom we extend sincere thanks.
*Marc Haentjens, “Jean-Claude Marcus. Théâtre Jeunesse : adultes s’abstenir,” Liaison, No. 52, feature on “La culture au jardin des enfants,” May–June 1989, p. 41.
