À ce stade, a theatrical and participatory workshop (Nyon 2050)

On Saturday 1 June 2024 at 18:30 at far°, the public feedback session for the À ce stade workshop took place.

À ce stade is a theatrical and participatory workshop (more information below) guided by the artist Joëlle Fontannaz, as part of the Nyon 2050 process, initiated by the town of Nyon. The choir lent its voices to the words of citizens, collected during workshops held in several districts of Nyon in autumn 2023 by the Laboratoire d’Architecture (Geneva).

Thank you for coming in such large numbers to hear the voices of the people of Nyon, their ideas, dreams and thoughts for the city of tomorrow.

À ce stade is a participatory theatrical workshop for residents of Nyon and the surrounding area. The choir, which will be formed especially for the project, will symbolise the population. It will share the words gathered during workshops conducted in several districts of Nyon in autumn 2023 by the Laboratoire d’architecture (see background below). In other words, this citizens’ choir will share its views on the city of Nyon today and pass on a few dreams for a better future.

The workshop will be led by Joëlle Fontannaz, director and actor. She will compile the collective text of À ce stade, which can be completed and modified by the members of the theatrical choir. Each rehearsal will begin with a short warm-up (body and voice, no singing). The text will be distributed according to desire and possibilities. The final form and duration of the performance will depend on the wishes of the group.

Conditions of participation

• Want to join this collective adventure
• Commit to taking part in rehearsals a little*, a lot** or passionately***.
• Be available on 1 June for the final rehearsal and public performance
• No previous experience is required
• 10 years of age or older
• Workshop open to people who speak little or no French
• Participation is free and unpaid

*Participating a little means: coming to at least three rehearsals between 27 April and 1 June 2024, choosing to say parts of the text in public or to take part silently in the citizens’ choir.
**Participating a lot means: coming to more than three rehearsals and carrying part of the text during the presentation on 1 June.
***Participating passionately means: coming to every rehearsal (or almost every one) and generously lending your voice to the text of À ce stade.

7 repetitions

• Saturday 9 March 2024, 1.30 pm to 5.30 pm
• Wednesday 20 March, from 6.30pm to 9.30pm
• Thursday 18 April, 6.30-9.30pm (exceptionally at Les Tines in Nyon)
• Saturday 27 April, 1.30 p.m. to 5.30 p.m.
• Wednesday 15 May, 6.30pm to 9.30pm
• Saturday 25 May, 1.30pm to 5.30pm
• Thursday 30 May, 6.30pm to 9.30pm
• Saturday 1 June, from 1.30pm – rehearsal compulsory, followed by public performance

Rehearsal room : Les Marchandises (rue des Marchandises 5, 1260 Nyon)
The venue is opposite the community hall and next to the far° offices (about 10 minutes’ walk from the station).

Public presentation

Saturday 1 June 2024 late afternoon in Nyon (place and time to be announced)
Free admission, open to all interested parties

Inscriptions

Contact Nathalie Garbely, head of cultural participation at far° Nyon at participation@2024.far-nyon.ch or 022 365 15 51 (Tuesday to Thursday)

Other practical infos

You can bring your own packed lunch.
The hall is accessible to people with reduced mobility. If you use a wheelchair, please let us know so that we can install the ramp.
If you have any special requirements, please contact us so that we can provide you with the best possible welcome.

A Lausanne-based actress, director and playwright, Joëlle Fontannaz trained at ESAD in Geneva and then at LASSAAD in Brussels. She also obtained a CAS in dramaturgy and text performance from the University of Lausanne and La Manufacture. She works regularly as a performer for various artists and companies, including Sandra Amodio, Guillaume Béguin, Anne Bisang, Sébastien Grosset, Joël Maillard, Denis Maillefer, Philippe Saire and Adina Secretan. In her work as a director with Fair compagnie, she seeks to develop new and collective forms of storytelling. In 2017, she presented Titan at the far° festival de arts vivants (Extra Time programme). More recently, she created L’Événement, a polyphonic play presented at Théâtre 2.21 in Lausanne and then at Théâtre du Grütli in Geneva, as part of the GOGOGO festival in 2022. At the Festival de la Cité 2023, she and her brother Vincent Fontannaz, director and actor, presented Revenir aux Faverges, an offbeat, immersive tour of their childhood neighbourhood, with the participation of residents of Les Faverges. She has also run a number of theatre workshops with children, young people and adults in the Lausanne region.

« I think it’s essential to work with the residents of Nyon to ensure that the ‘reality’ contained in the texts can also be found ‘on stage’ between the words, in the voices and the bodies. It’s an artistic choice, but also a political one, to want to form a chorus of citizens. This arrangement encourages the protagonists to really listen to the group, while at the same time requiring each individual to assert his or her singularity in their points of view, but also in the way they speak and move. As in music, we need to find contrasting effects, both in the nature of the words and in the speed of speech, while incorporating silences. I believe there is an aesthetic, playful and joyful potential in trying to master spoken polyphony collectively. »

Joëlle Fontannaz

As part of the process of drawing up its new municipal master plan (PDCom), Nyon 2050, the town of Nyon has launched a number of participatory initiatives to involve the general public in this transformation, which is aimed in particular at bringing the town more into line with changes in society and the challenges of climate change. It has entrusted one of these initiatives to the architecture laboratory (Mounir Ayoub and Vanessa Lacaille) and to Jacques Perret. They organised the Imagine the City of Tomorrow workshop between August and November 2023. It included exploratory walks, followed by collective writing sessions. The aim was to invite the population to make a diagnosis of their environment (the strengths and weaknesses of current urban planning) and to draw up a collective vision of the future. It was from this project that À ce stade, the theatrical and participatory workshop at far°, was born.

À ce stade is organised by far° Nyon, in collaboration with the Laboratoire d’Architecture, as part of the City of Nyon’s “Nyon 2050” project.