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U.S. KOLTES PROJECT
Bernard-Marie Koltes
Directed by Various Artists
09/05/2006 - 12/05/2010
PERFORMANCE TIMES
PLEASE JOIN US FOR THE INTERNATIONAL KOLTES SYMPOSIUM ON APRIL 3-4, 2010 IN ATLANTA.
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ABOUT THE PLAY
THE U.S. KOLTES PROJECT is a ten-year project established in order to translate and produce six of Koltès’ plays: In the Solitude of Cottonfields (Dans la Solitude des Champs de Coton), The Day of Murders in the History of Hamlet (Le Jour des Meurtres dans l’histoire d’Hamlet), Sallinger, The Night Just Before the Forests (La Nuit juste avant les Forêts), Tabataba and Quay West (Quai Ouest). These plays were chosen for their ability to address the human condition as well as the predicament we face as citizens of the United States and the world. Each play involves themes such as intense isolation, deal-making, senseless war, and misplaced national loyalty. Born in 1948 to a middle-class family, Bernard-Marie Koltès emerged as one of the most distinctive and important dramatic voices of the 1980s. His work, based in real-life problems, expresses the tragedy of being alone and of death. His writing style accents the dramatic tension and the lyricism of his plays. Beginning with the recent 2008 production of In the Solitude of Cottonfields, 7 Stages will present a world premier translation of each work every other year through 2016 filling each off year with residencies at national and international universities. |
Koltès Project Show Links
In the Solitude of Cottonfields from 2007-08 Season
The Day of Murders in the History of Hamelet - Coming in April 2010
Talk in America and Around the World About Koltès: Scholars, Journalists, Writers, Artists,
Bloggers,…People
Award winning critic Randy Gener praises USKP at 7Stages in The Koltès Mystique
Theater Scholar Jean- Pierre Ryngaert talks about contemporary theater, including Koltès in Lost in Translation, or Why French-Language Plays Are Not Often Seen on American Stages”
World-famous Koltès director Patrice Chereau talks about contemporary theater, focusing on Gide, in France in On “The Screens”
Koltès translator David Bradby talks about plays, including Koltès plays, about Algeria in Images of the Algerian War on the French Stage 1988-1992
Donia Mounsef talks about the incredible language of Koltès in The Desire for Language in the Theater of Bernard-Marie Koltès
Look at the Koltès project at Atlanta’s official city blog, radio program, and social network dedicated to promoting the city’s arts and entertainment scene.
A look at the
Etant Donné Grant awarded to the USKP
Look at
“>French activities in Atlanta, including USKP at the French Consulate site.
Look at USKP founder, Isma’il ibn Conner’s Koltès and Krump
A look at the Mellon Grant awarded to USKP
A fascinating look at issues of race that the Koltès project addresses: Negus World
A gay website’s portrait of Bernard-Marie Koltès. Gay for Today
A look at Koltès on the screen
A gay book review talks about the latest Koltès biography
A look at Koltès and his heritage in Moral Rights or the Outraged Heir: Real-Life Drama at the House of Molère
An EXCELLENT bibliography of selected works by and on Koltès
USKP founder Ismail ibn Conner’s Facebook page with the latest updates on Hamlet
7Stages’ newsletter about the Koltès project
About Koltès’ unfinished play,
“>Coco
A bibliography and biography of Koltès at the official publishing house for the playwright, Les Editions de Minuit (in French)
Music made for a production of Koltès’ Roberto Zucco
On Yale Repertory Theater’s production of Koltès’ Black Battle With Dogs, directed by Robert Woodruff
An Updated and Comprehensive History of Bernard Marie Koltes
Bernard-Marie Koltès was born in Metz, France on April 9, 1948.
His secondary education was at Saint Clément College in Metz.
He studied the piano and then the organ with Louis Thiry.
In 1967, Bernard-Marie spent some time at the Strasbourg School of Journalism.
He definitively chose to write for the theatre after seeing Marie Casarés, in Medea, at la Comédie de l'Est, directed by George Lavelli.
1968: three days of discovery in New York.
He entered the "stage", at the new school of Théâtre National de Strasbourg, where he spent some time, then immediately founded a theatre troupe, leThêâtre du Quai, for which he wrote and directed several pieces himself: Les amertumes (1970), La marche - Procès ivre (1971) - Récits morts (1973).
Hubert Gignoux, director of Théâtre National de Strasbourg, noticed Bernard-Marie at this time. Mister Gignoux was, during these years, Koltès' principal representative.
Bernard-Marie wrote L'héritage (1972) et Des voix sourdes (1973), which were registered with the Organisation de Radiodiffusion et Television Française of Strasbourg in a production by Jacques Taroni, with the actors from Théâtre du Quai, then for a radio program by Lucien Attoun, for France Culture. Récits morts was adapted under the title La nuit perdue, for a film that Bernard-Marie made, in Alsace, with his troupe. This film was never completely finished.
Winter 1973, traveling through the USSR (East Germany, Kiev, Moscow, Leningrad)
Strasbourg. He stayed in Paris and Pralognan, in the family house of Savoie. In 1974, he wrote Le jour des meurtres dans l'histoire d'Hamlet. This play would not be published until 2006.
Strasbourg: dependance on drugs.
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In 1975, a long stay in Pralognan. He joined the Communist Party in the local chapter. In 1976, he wrote La fuite à cheval très loin dans la ville.
In 1977, Bernard-Marie Koltès moved to Paris, where he wrote La nuit juste avant les forêts, performed by Yves Ferry, at the Off Festival d'Avignon. This would be Koltès' last directorial effort. In the autumn of this year, he began to write Salinger, commissioned by Bruno Boëglin, who was the director at l'El Dorado de Lyon, in 1978.
La nuit juste avant les forêts was presented by Pierre Audi at the Festival d'Edimbourg in 1981, then in Munich, Vienna, Fribourg, Frankfurt, Mons, Rennes, Amsterdam, Milan, Copenhagen, Oslo, etc. This piece made the young author known, in France, and in Europe.
Voyage to Nigeria, February 1978.
Voyage to Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico (Summer, Autumn 1978).
During his journey to Guatemala, he wrote two short stories, and undertook writing Combat de nègre et de chiens, which he finished in Paris.
1979. Centre culturel de la Communauté françiase de Belgique à Paris: Combat de nègre et de chiens was voiced by Gabriel Monnet for a France-Culture radio broadcast, in January 1980.
This piece was performed for the premiere in New York, in 1981, at La Mama, under the direction of Françoise Kourilsky. This piece went on to be performed in Germany, in several cities.
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In 1983, Patrice Chéreau directed the opening of this piece at his theatre: Théâtre des Amandiers in Nanterre. It would go on to be mounted in Bordeaux, East and West Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Denmark, Holland, Italy, Spain, Finland, and South Africa.
Meeting with Claude Stratz (Patrice Chéreau's assistant). Claude became Bernard-Marie's favorite text-reader and representative.
1980. Voyage to Africa (Mali, Côte d'Ivoire).
In 1982, Bernard-Marie translated a play by Athol Fugard, The Blood Knot, which was directed by Yukata Wada at Festival d'Avignon.
Between 1981 and 1985, Bernard-Marie made several trips, lasting some weeks at a time, to New York.
1984: Jérôme Lindon, of Éditions de Minuit, published La fuite à cheval. He edited all of the subsequent texts of Bernard-Marie Koltès.
1983-1985: He wrote Quai ouest. Premiere in Amsterdam at the start of 1986, then was directed by Patrice Chéreau in Nanterre, the same year. Since 1986, this play has been mounted in all of Europe and the world.
In 1985, Bernard-Marie wrote a script for the cinema, Nickel Stuff, that he wanted to make himself. He dreamed, for the film, that John Travolta would perform in this film. The screenplay was finished, but his project was abandoned.
Tabataba was performed a single time in Avignon, in 1986, under the direction of Hammou Graia.
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Bernard-Marie Koltès started a new novel that stayed always under construction, a sole chapter, entitled Prolouge, was completed.
Dans la solitude des champs de coton was directed, for the first time in Nanterre, in 1987, by Patrice Chéreau. This play was mounted in five continents.
In 1987, Luc Bondy commissioned Koltès to translate Winter's Tale, by Shakespeare. for his director's program en 1988.
Koltès went on to write Le retour au désert (1988) and Roberto Zucco (1988). Zucco would become, without doubt, the most performed play by Koltés, in the world.
He had been ill for some years, his health worsening in 1988. In the winter of '88-'89, he traveled from Lisbonne to Mexico, and to Guatemala, to Paris, then finally to Lisbonne where he stayed one month. He returned to Paris, for a while, where he died, some days later, on April 15th, 1989.
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