My name is Impatience.
What an odd name. Who gave it to you?
You did, my love.
Olivier Py
For the fourth successive year, in partnership with Télérama and France Inter, the Odéon Theater is giving newly or recently formed theater companies a chance to get into the game. And like last year the Centquatre, an artistic institution of the City of Paris, is in association with our two theaters to offer you a new glimpse into the theatrical creation of today, an invitation from new companies to dream of faraway places. Impatience thus invites you to three different locations: the Odéon Theater and Centquatre have at their disposal, in fact, complementary resources in terms of theaters, seating capacity, and scenery equipment which will enable them to welcome these companies and their publics with increased flexibility while at the same time enriching the festival program. Over a period of ten festive, enriching days curious theater-lovers will be able to discover on the spot what the world and the stage resemble for these new talents of tomorrow. Help new artists become known right now; facilitate their encounters with a larger public; encourage exploring new paths for some and curiosity for others: these are Impatience’s aims. Close to twenty years ago now the work of Olivier Py (like that of Stéphane Braunschweig or Hubert Colas, among others) was supported by a festival similar to this one, organized in Strasbourg. The director of the Odéon has not forgotten how important it is that an institution – and all the more so if it is an institution with both a national and international calling – reserves their own place for the creators and craftspersons of the future of the theater. Great theatrical moments just as any others – just as demanding, just as accomplished – will be welcomed. Whether the choice of companies- a choice that will obviously be made during the season – is based on production of great texts in the repertory or new writing, whether the works emerge from collective creation or display a search, a quest by an author, one thing is certain: we won’t be presented with the sketch of a work, a small preparatory model, nor a workshop, nor prototypes, nor fragments of unperformed work, nor presentations of end-term projects; the encounter will be sui generis, grouping fully completed productions, the fruit of autonomous, professional projects. The choice was based on strictly artistic criteria, tempered as always by a certain search for balance and diversity. Once again this year two prizes will be awarded: the Prize of the Public and the Odéon-Télérama-Centquatre Prize, awarded by a jury made up of professionals and enthusiasts, under the presidency of an outstanding personality in the theatrical world. And as always this portion of our annual programming, Impatience, will have as its primary objective to be at the service of young companies, to make their work known to the widest possible public, to support them in their aim to practice their art at the highest, most demanding level. This is a way to show that there is solidarity from one end to the other (that is, as well, from one generation to the other) of the world of the living theatrical show.
