Guest of Honor at the 32nd Edition of the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theater
The renowned French theorist, Patrice Pavis, delivered a dense and generous lecture as the guest of honor at the 32nd edition of the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theater. Translated and accompanied by an attentive audience, he shared his reflections on adaptation, dramaturgy, interculturality, and the future of theater in the digital age.
A Major Figure in Contemporary Theater Studies
Patrice Pavis is a prominent figure in contemporary theater studies, occupying a unique place in the global intellectual landscape. As an emeritus professor at the University of Kent, he is the author of the famous Dictionary of Theater, a reference work for researchers, and numerous books that have renewed the critical approach to the stage, performance, and postdramatic theater. His thought, always in motion, refuses to be confined to fixed definitions: theater, he reminds us, is an art that constantly reinvents itself. It is in this spirit that the Cairo festival dedicated an open meeting to him, moderated by Moroccan professor and critic Khalid Amine, in the presence of an audience of artists, researchers, and students.
A Fertile Dialogue
This meeting was an opportunity for a fertile dialogue, where Pavis shared his vision of the current issues of the stage without hesitation. From the outset, he emphasized the delicate question of theatrical adaptation. Translating, adapting, transposing: these are gestures that raise essential questions. "Why this text? For whom? What to preserve, what to transform?" he summarizes.
If some writings are inseparable from their culture of origin, others can be "re-rooted" in a new culture, provided that their spirit is respected. For him, adaptation is not a simple translation: it engages the director and actors in a creative confrontation with the work.
The Boundaries between Dramaturgy and Stage Direction
The discussion then expanded to the boundaries between dramaturgy and stage direction. Faithful to the German concept of the "dramaturg," Pavis describes this role as that of an artistic advisor, a companion in reflection for the director. Adaptation remains attached to writing, while dramaturgy is played out in scenic work and concrete stage choices.
New Avenues
Throughout the meeting, Patrice Pavis opened up new avenues: the use of video and visual media in theater, which he considers fertile as long as it is integrated organically into the dramaturgy; collective work where texts enter into rehearsal like simple sketches, transformed by the group into new creations; or the complex relationships between dominant and dominated cultures in artistic exchange processes.
The Impact of Technological Changes
Asked about technological changes, Pavis reaffirmed that digital technology and artificial intelligence will never replace the artist, but can become valuable tools in the service of experimentation. What matters, he insists, is not only the finished spectacle but the path that leads to it: training, research, confrontation of ideas.
Conclusion
In a final word, he recalled the fertility of semiotics, always able to nourish the analysis of the director, the spectator, and the critic. And he concluded with a strong conviction: theater remains a living art, irrigated by the permanent dialogue between the stage and its audience.
