The invisible take the stage<

The walls of theaters and movie sets are cracking. Or is it the creaking old floorboards, or the heavy door that you don't know how to open or close? It's a bit of everything, and the work has only just begun. Artists, teachers, cultural professionals are rolling up their sleeves, in theater and cinema schools. Don't stay in between me, do something. And things are happening in Saint-Etienne, Paris, Cannes, and more broadly in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. It is, neither more nor less, to bring out on the boards or on the screen the famous faces of social and cultural diversity, according to the established expression. The question is not new. But some very proactive methods are currently taking the profession the wrong way.

A unique device in France

Let's start with the most spectacular, which is also the most discussed. The director Arnaud Meunier, 42, has pulled out the jackhammer, and he is not unhappy to make noise in the ambient hum. Tired of waiting for the slogan "Liberty, equality, fraternity" to produce its effects, the director of the National Dramatic Center (CDN) of Saint-Etienne, La Comédie, created a system unique in France: an integrated preparatory class saw the day, in 2014-2015, distinct from the Superior School of Dramatic Art of Saint-Etienne which he also directs. This preparation, open to five young actors only - because the device is expensive -, is a kind of airlock which aims to bring "disadvantaged" students up to standard, in order to prepare them for the so selective competitions of higher schools of dramatic art. (Paris Conservatory, schools in Strasbourg, Lille, Cannes, Rennes, Lyon, Saint-Etienne, Montpellier, etc.).

The experience is promising. “We mainly based ourselves on two selection criteria: one, the candidates have a strong desire for theatre; two, they come from very, very modest families. The challenge is social, beyond the color of the skin”, sums up Arnaud Meunier. The five students in this “mini-prep” are between 20 and 23 years old and all come from Rhône-Alpes, except one. And these young people did not come for nothing, so to speak. If one of them, a young girl, finishes passing the competitions (some establishments in the national network have not yet completed their selection process), the four others have been admitted to one of the major higher education schools in 'dramatic Arts. Bénédicte Mbemba has just joined the holy of holies, namely the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art (CNSAD) in Paris: she will be one of the 30 students in the promotion, out of a total of nearly 1,300 candidates. Romain Fauroux was admitted to the school of Saint-Etienne. For their part, Frederico Semedo and Mouradi M'Chinda joined the regional school for actors in Cannes, the ERAC – another higher national establishment.

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