SIf we are to believe information from the social protection group Audiens, there were, in 2023, in France 10,884 people declared as directors of live shows by their employers. The figure, which includes private and public theaters, training or events sectors, leaves one wondering. Of these 10,884 directors, how many thousands of anonymous people for a handful of elected officials achieving national recognition?
For 8,139 of these directors, the annual amount of remuneration was below 6,000 euros. This means that one must have the faith of a coal miner to dedicate oneself to a profession which covers different realities and, moreover, requires the skills of a business manager. Leading a team (of actors, authors, costume designers, lighting or sound designers, technicians, etc.), looking for rooms, finding funding: the responsibilities are multiple and the finalization of projects is hazardous.
Here again, there are many called and few chosen. Many companies looking for subsidies and less money in the coffers of a public institution squeezed by the rising cost of living. The result? An artistic margin reduced to the minimum and shows which die barely born, for lack of playing long enough.
A collective reflection
In this tense economic context, where competition divides more than it unites, we understand better why the start of the 2024 school year is accompanied by collective reflection: the National Conference on Staging. Since September, they have started a tour which will take them from theater to theater until January 2025.
Implemented by the National Union of Directors (SNMS), these meetings, which bring together a number of directors around workshops, began in Lille, in an atmosphere of the end of the world since on the set lay the wreck of a shattered plane. The setting was that of a show whose title, Tragedyis, at best, a metaphor and, at worst, a prophecy.
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Invited to phosphorus in Lille, Strasbourg, Paris, Poitiers, Rennes, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, the directors together take stock of a poorly defined practice. “ It is a question – for the first time in the history of this art and this profession – of convening a national, participatory, open reflection on the contemporary issues of staging as an artistic field, on what founds the profession as a director, on what situates this art in contemporary societal issues », notes the SNMS roadmap. This need to think together does not come out of nowhere: the feeling of solitude is major among artists who need to get out of their swimming lanes to share their experiences.
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