T H E A T R E    D E    L A    S O L I T U D E

 

The studio was founded in 2001.   Commited to the support of solo work, it is available to performance artists working on individual projects for the theatre.  Its purpose is to encourage the transition from the realm of experiment and rehearsal to the realm of public performance.

List Of Works

The following texts have been worked on, in whole or in part, at the Theatre de la Solitude:

The theatre embraces the ideas of Artaud and Grotowski in rejecting preconceived notions of  performance and in seeking the simplest conditions in which it can occur. It encourages performers to take risks and to search for something new. The aim is to promote a sense of safety and to protect experimentation.

Director

Actress and teacher, Emily Blake founded the Theatre de la Solitude in 2001.  She studied acting in New York City with Stella Adler, Herbert Berghof, Gene Feist and Barbara Speigel, and in California with Robert Goldsby and Jean Shelton.  She was educated at Bryn Mawr College, the New School for Social Research,  the Sorbonne, and the University of California at Berkeley, from which she holds a BA in French Theatre and History.  In New York City she has performed at Town Hall; Lincoln Center Plaza; Theatre for the New City; the Homeless Theatre Project; the Catholic Worker Theatre; Mass Transit Street Theatre; West Side Repertory Theatre; Oasis Theatre; Musical Theatre Works; West End Cafe; St. Marks Theatre; the John Houseman Studio Theatre; the Duplex; Columbia and New York Universities; and the Mint Theatre, among others. Regional work includes Chamber Theatre of Boston, National Theatre for the Performing Arts, and the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center.  In France she has worked at the Cafe de Flore (Talking Heads; The Man Who Came To Dinner) and in film (Mrs Selby's Dream, Marcel Wenger, director; and La Folle de la Rue, Olga Terbach, director).

Original Works

Simone de Beauvoir: On Sex, Art and Feminism.  One-woman show written and performed in New York City, based on Beauvoir's journals and diaries and tracing her development from companion and colleague of Sartre to feminist icon.  First presented as a work in progress under the title Simone de Beauvoir In Her Own Words, then at the John Houseman Studio Theatre as Notes on a Life, and finally at the St. Marks Theatre where it had an extended run in 2000.

Félice the Clown.  A silent clown whose encounters with her physical surroundings (architectural sites, plazas, gardens, etc.) provide the basis for performance pieces without text, words or formal structure. Félice au Palais-Royal (Paris 2003), Félice en Grève au Palais des Papes (Avignon Off 2003), Félice au Palais du Louvre (Paris 2000), Félice Takes a Walk and Félice at the Cloisters (New York, 1999). 

Les Femmes Sont Sales/Women Are Filthy. Film treatment of an act of violence against a woman, "justified" by her perceived, intrinsic dirtiness. With Olga Terbach (cinematographer).  Paris, 2003.

Works In Progress

Antigone x 4.  Piece for 2 actresses based on the various versions of Cocteau, Anouilh, Brecht and Sophocles.  Paris, 2004.

The Bleeding Man of Clemenstrasse.  Monologue for actress.  Paris, 2003/4.

Eating Play.   Play without words for two actresses.  Paris, 2004.

To contact the studio, please write:

Théâtre de la Solitude, 7, Rue du Mail, 75002 Paris, France.