Theatre Y to Welcome Georges Bigot for Shakespeare Workshop

Georges Bigot, an iconic figure with Ariane Mnouchkine's Theatre du Soleil 25 years ago and one of the most lauded stage actors of his time, is in Chicago to conduct a three-week workshop with American actors and dramaturgs. The workshop is working towards a production next year to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death - although Bigot prefers to think of 2016 as the 456th anniversary of the poet's birth. Details of the "what" and "where" of the production has yet to be settled, but it's safe to say that when the production happens, it won't be Shakespeare as usual.

"I'm greatly touched by the commitment of these people to Shakespeare and to the work we do together," said Bigot. "If I could have any set I wanted, I would reproduce the old, broken church where we rehearse. The process binds us together and the French word for "binding together" (reliure) is of the same root as "religion."

The workshop was organized by Melissa Lorraine, Artistic Director of Theatre Y, under whose auspices it's being held. Theatre Y is well known for international collaboration, notably with Andras Visky of the Hungarian Theater of Cluj. The "old, broken church" is the sanctuary behind the parish house of St Luke's church on N. Francisco in Chicago that has been Theatre Y's home for two years. The participants range in age from 11 to 64. Bigot has given them exercises drawn from the ground-breaking techniques of the Theatre du Soleil, but he doesn't like the word "technique" and operates in a style decidedly his own.

"Since I have been running a theater company centered on international collaboration, I've been on a quest for circumstances that would bring Bigot to Chicago," adds Lorraine. "Every theatre worker cherishes the memory of a master, a seminal influence in the work. He was among my very first. Jaw-dropping in his commitment, precision and sense of play, skilled -- truly, truly skilled -- and piercing. George Bigot's years at the Theatre du Soleil cured him of any desire to slap together productions of institutionally imposed plays with pick-up casts. The reason we cannot speak more specifically about the project itself is because he refuses to impose a play on a group of actors without first working with them extensively. He needs to discover their tastes and abilities in order to gauge the art the group should make for Chicago. He's not interested in pumping out a hit in a month; he's interested in leaving this project a changed man. He demands the same hope of everyone involved. In short, he hopes to give each participant a new understanding of the purpose, potential and practice of theatrical production. For my part, it's a thrill to finally bring Bigot to my own city."

In the 1980s at Ariane Mnouchkine's Theatre du Soleil, Georges Bigot played the title roles in Richard II andThe Terrible but Unfinished Story of Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia, Hélène Cixous' eight-hour epic that turned the fury of neo-Shakespearian dramaturgy to the facts of current history. Also for Mnouchkine, Bigot played major roles in Twelfth Night, Henry IV and the Atreus Cycle of three Greek tragedies, productions which made theatre history wherever they toured. Many have placed him among of the greatest stage actors of the last thirty years. Of Bigot's days with the Theatre du Soleil, critic Olivier Berardi, says:

"What Georges Bigot does on stage is unique, not unique in the sense that he has his own style -- any actor can say as much -- but unique in the simple sense that no one else can do what he does. Georges Bigot is first of all a voice, a voice like Louis Jouvet's could sometimes be; it seems he inherited his diction from Paul Meurisse and his brute energy from Brando. Bigot is a mask in human form that, when turned towards an audience, hits you like a punch in the stomach. Everyone who saw him come on stage as Richard II, or Prince Hal, or Sihanouk or in the Indiade knows exactly what I'm talking about."

Since 1992 Bigot has worked with a host of directors on a vast range of projects: Von Horvath's Figaro Gets a Divorce in 1993, Edward Bond's Saved in 1997; The Cid in 1999; Titus Andronicus in 2003; Brecht's Galileo in 2004, Edwardo de Filippo's La Grande Magie in 2008; Wajdi Mouawad's Heavens in 2009; Something Wilde(adapted from Salomé) in 2010, and Victor Hugo's Will They Eat? in 2013. Bigot has directed half a dozen plays himself, notably Chekhov's The Seagull and, in Cambodia, a Khmer adaptation of Norodom Sihanouk.

Berardi concludes, "He's not only an actor who lights up our imaginations and overwhelms us even in memory, he's also an accomplished trainer and director of other actors." Indeed, Bigot taught for two years at the French National Conservatory of Dramatic Art and has conducted workshops on five continents, often incorporating the sui-genus methods and techniques of the Theatre du Soleil.

Performance Details will be announced at a later date.