Geneva: migrants, seniors and disabled people on stage

Genevan art –

Migrants, seniors and people with disabilities united on stage

The ELAN collective created a theatrical performance with around thirty people, in an artistic and social approach, on memory. To discover at the Comédie.

BotTalk

How was this project of bringing three populations together on stage born?

We created the ELAN collective with Pascal Greco after a five-year collaboration within a structure aimed at the reintegration of young people said to have broken away. We have experimented with several techniques for putting on plays, films, performances, photo exhibitions, and developed work expertise that has proven itself with more than 200 young people. We realized that this experience allowed them to reconnect with others and with themselves, to “hang up” with an internship, to rediscover a taste for projects.

We then decided to extend the concept to other populations in situations of isolation or vulnerability, in order to give them tools for better social integration. Two shows were created. The third, “Mémoires”, will be presented on November 28 and 29. It brings together allophone students, people with disabilities from the Cap Loisirs Foundation and seniors from the John Jaques day center.

What does the “Mémoires” performance look like?

I set the theme but it was the thirty participants who composed the texts and the performances. There is a young person who talks about his story, very sad, through dance. An elder tells of his childhood in Pâquis, in the 1950s. He invites us to follow her on a stroll with her father, like a tracking shot, crossing this neighborhood. There is also an elderly person who talks about his memory going away. Everything that is said on stage is true.

What does this project bring to participants?

These are populations that often remain in a closed circuit. It takes weeks, sometimes months, but this project allowed them to open up, meet people and build links with other people. Allophones have made phenomenal progress in French. Participants also acquired more autonomy, coping skills around values ​​such as respect and tolerance. They were able to discover that they were capable of achieving many things. I hope that they will come away from this experience with more self-confidence and with the understanding that we are stronger together.