Individual residencies / Andorra
GEORGE BELLIVEAU
From Monday, 3 October 2022 to Monday, 17 October 2022
Bio
George Belliveau is Head and Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia, Canada. For the last two decades his scholarship has focused on research-based theatre, where with a team of artists and researchers he has co-developed plays based on funded research projects. His latest book ‘Contact!Unload: Research-based theatre with military veterans’ (2020) explores a project with military veterans, artists and counselors. The play and adaptations of it have been performed over 40 times to audiences across Canada, UK, and Australia. Another recent book project ‘Research-based Theatre: An Artistic Methodology’ (2016) explores a variety of international projects that use theatre to examine critical social issues. He is a trained actor (Stanislavsky approach & Lecoq), and has participated in over 100 theatre productions as an actor, director, or playwright. He was recently inducted into the College of the Royal Society of Canada (2017).
Project
During my residency I will work on a theatre play about what happens when one (nearly) loses their mother tongue. The play traces the journey of an individual growing up speaking Acadian French (language of Rabelais) in a rural part of Canada. In a desperate pursuit of perfecting his English for professional purposes, he nearly erases his Acadian identity. The play is a quest to reclaim language and identity through performance. The narrative is porous enough so people globally can see glimpses of their stories played out - their journeys of learning/losing/reclaiming language and identity.
Full Immersion
My experience at FABER Andorra was wonderful on many levels. First, the hospitality offered by everyone I met during my stay. Meritxell Blanco was gracious, generous and most helpful throughout my time and after numerous e-mail exchanges it was great to meet her! The teachers, artists, museum guides, members of the community and students I met all shared insightful information about Andorra, its history, identity and what it means to live in this beautiful country. Secondly, visiting the many museums in Andorra and especially the interactions with the guides became an insightful way to explore and better understand the country in a short time. Third, the footpaths were stupendous and each day I made use of them by either walking or running these stunning paths that cross most of the country, exposing you to nature, history, animals and public art. Finally, I spent most of my time in La Massana and Ordino where I was able to sense the pulse of the place, the daily life, and the multiple languages as I made use the swimming pool, the local shops, and lingered in the neighborhoods interacting with local residents.
All this stimulation from the people and places inspired my creative writing which was the goal of the Residency. What I didn’t anticipate was how much Andorra would influence and become part of my project. The resonances and questions around language and identity in Andorra fed into my theatre project on Acadians1, which initially seemed quite far apart geographically, culturally and politically. I am most grateful to FABER – Andorra for this gift of two weeks. I walk away inspired, and wanting to come back and to find ways to collaborate with new found colleagues.
1 Acadians are a group of people originally from France who immigrated to Eastern Canada in the 17th century, though Acadians are now found around the world.
