Kate France

PERFORMER / FILMMAKER 

2023_2024

Performer in Oiseau, written and directed by Anna Nozière. Théâtre de la Cité, CDN de Toulouse Occitanie and touring France  (Tours, Bordeaux, Le Mans, Foix, Périgueux, Arles…)

2021-2022

Visible/Invisible, a project in Dunkirk using music, video, photography, spoken word and writing. Contributers from 14 to 80 years old, including schoolchildren, pensioners, people with special needs. A series of exhibitions and readings, and a cine concert

Performer in Esprits, written and directed by Anna Nozière (compagnie La Polka), Théâtre de la Cité – CDN de Toulouse Occitanie, Théâtre Romain Rolland, Villejuif, la Scène conventionnée d’Aurillac, l’Odyssée – Scène conventionnée de Périgueux.

2020-2024

Co-leader of Art Refuge’s mobile studio project The Community Table at the CEDRE (Centre d’entraide dédié aux personnes exilées) Secours Catholique in Paris.

2019/2020

Art therapy training at INECAT, with a placement with Art Refuge, working with displaced people in Paris and Northern France.

C.L.E.A. residency in Calais. Workshops combining art and video with the artist Berengère Vallet, and different structures in Calais : kindergarten, primary and secondary schools, unaccompanied minors, medical and social centres. A film, Nos Métamorphoses, assembled 6 groups despite the lockdown.

2018/2019

C.L.E.A. residency Lens-Liévin. Imagining and developing different artistic gestures : walking, protest, ancestors, masks, films

Il vous faudra bien passer près des sirènes. A video made with asylum seekers and long term immigrants. This project was made possible by the Louvre-Lens and the town of Avion.

Training and diploma in Médiation Artistique at INECAT 

2017/2018

Je vous écris d’un pays lointain: (I am writing to you from a faraway land) Video 58 mins. A film made during a residency with Sylvie Reteuna and the patients and staff of a psychiatric hospital in Lyon, Le Vinatier.

Starling  text, music and video project with Eric Sterenfeld, for the festival Recits Sans Frontières organised by Château Coquelle, an arts centre in Dunkirk.  with the Communauté Urbaine de Dunkerque.

2016/2017

La forêt dans la ville : Mixed media community project . Funded by DRAC Île-de-France (appel à projet Culture et lien social), Bondy town council, Service de la vie associative de Bondy and Centre social Georges Brassens.

Happiness  Medvedkine : Ciné concert with Eric Sterenfeld, l’Ecran, cinéma art et essai de la Ville de Saint-Denis in the Festival HA HA HA

Mon enfance  Bill Douglas : Cine concert with Eric Sterenfeld, Magic Cinéma Bobigny in the festival Bande(s) à Part.

2015/2016

Le temps qu’il fait. Devised mixed media community arts project with different cultural and social structures in Dunkirk, in collaboration with Sylvie Reteuna and the composer Stéphane Taniel. After a year of workshops (writing, photography, performing) the project’s final form was a recital/concert with a string quartet and piano accompanying the amateur speakers. Related projects included Le temps qu’il fait, Le temps qui passe, a photo and sound installation in le Chateau Coquelle, Dunkirk and Weathertime Dunkirk, a day of workshops and improvisation, Fructose, Dunkirk

Nous n’étions qu’une seule pièce, collectively devised piece with dancer Carlotta Sagna and musician Didier Petit directed by Sylvie Reteuna. Anis Gras, Arcueil.

2014/2015

Si tu veux pleurer prends mes yeux, freely adapted from King Lear by Antoine Lemaire. (La Rose de Vents, Villeneuve d’Ascq ; Le Phénix, Valenciennes)

Répétitions. Devised community project, which brought together a group of 15 year olds with learning problems and a group of pensioners living in Bobigny, to create a theatre/video piece.

2013/2014

Mirror . Performance, live music and video. Produced by Le Bateau Feu, Scène nationale de Dunkerque

Video for La Natation ou l’Art de nager, appris seul en moins d’une heure, an adaptation of the works of Jean-Pierre Brisset by Sylvie Reteuna

Inauguration of the Maison de Quartier La Timonerie in Dunkirk, in collaboration with Phoebe Dingwall, Sylvie Reteuna and Eric Sterenfeld. Videos, including outdoor projection, performance and live music.

2012/2013

Performance with Eric Sterenfeld (music) and Cedric Bachorz (video mapping) Cantique des Quantiques in Lille University.

Etes-vous heureux Devised mixed media community arts project for Dunkerque 2013, capitale régionale de la culture in collaboration with Phoebe Dingwall and Sylvie Reteuna. This project in several stages, included an exhibition (drawing and video) and a walk through performance.

2011/2012

Chants d’Amour a community video project commissioned by le Bateau Feu, Scène nationale de Dunkerque.

Performed in Métamorphoses Magic Show devised pièce with Sylvie Reteuna based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses. (Le Grand Bleu, Lille, Le Vivat Armentières, Centre André Malraux, Haazebruck,Théâtre de Chelles)

Video for Adolf Wolfli, Enigme numéro un, performance devised with Sylvie Reteuna and Francois Daujon, (Université de Lille 1.)

2010/2015

Performed in La Barbe Bleue (Bluebeard) adapted from Perrault and directed by Jean-Michel Rabeux. This play for young audiences toured over 6 seasons throughout France

2008/2009

Devised and performed Pasiphaé, (adapted from Ovid’s art of Love) music/theatre piece for all–night show nuit Transérotique, Théâtre de la Bastille.

Video for Blanche Neige, by Robert Walser, directed by Sylvie Reteuna. Le Vivat Armentières, Théâtre de la Bastille and tour.

Performed in Le Corps Furieux, a devised piece by Jean-Michel Rabeux with singers, acrobats and dancers. MC93 Bobigny and tour.

2007/2008

L’Appartement. An installation/performance which combined art brut paintings and writing in an especially conceived ‘apartment’ in the Grande Halle de la Villette, Paris. Devised with Sylvie Reteuna and Bruno Descharmes, founder of abcd (art brut connaisance et diffusion) .

Impromptus sur quelques textes bruts performance devised with Sylvie Reteuna at the abcd art brut gallery, Montreuil.

La promenade, a 45 minute community video on the theme of walking in the city. Devised in collaboration with Sylvie Reteuna and Agnès Laurent as part of the project Mécanique Urbaine, Centre Culturel Théo Argence, Saint Priest

2006/2007

Performed Puck in Le Songe d’une nuit d’été (Shakespeare) directed by Jean-Michel Rabeux. MC93 Bobigny and tour (Le Maillon, Strasbourg, La Rose des Vents, Scène Nationale de Villeneuve-D’ascq, Le Bateau Feu, Dunkerque, le Petit Quévilly Rouen etc)

2004/2005

Le Génie des Lieux ten short films community video on the theme of the town as fiction. Devised in collaboration with Sylvie Reteuna as part of the project Traces et Cheminements , Centre Culturel Théo Argence, Saint Priest.

Performed in radio play Les Nouvelles Confessions adapted from the novel by William Boyd, directed by Jean Matthieu Zahnd for France Culture.

En route vers l’homme Devised performance to inaugurate the Jardin Ephémère a project by artist Phoebe Dingwall, Maison Folie de Lambersart.

Music and sound environment in collaboration with Eric Sterenfeld for King Lear, directed by Sylvie Reteuna with the Compagnie de l’Oiseau Mouche, a professional theatre group with mental disabilities. (Le Garage, Roubaix, L’Agora, Scène Nationale d’Evry, Festival Trans, Théâtre du Chaudron, La Rose des Vents, Scène Nationale de Villeneuve d’Ascq, La Comédie de Béthune etc)

2003/2004

Les Chroniques Martiennes Devised musical performance with the collective StrangeLucid live music, video and performance (Maison Populaire à Montreuil, Confluences, Paris.)

Paroles d’Oiseaux, devised piece for young audiences, with the Compagnie de l’Oiseau-Mouche. a professional theatre group with mental disabilities. (Le Garage, Roubaix, La Rose des Vents, Scène Nationale de Villeneuve d’Ascq.)

Performed in radio play Cahin-caha, by Fabrice Pereira. Radio play for France Culture directed by Myron Meerson.

2003/2004

Performed in Deshabillages, written and directed by Jean-Michel Rabeux. (Théâtre de la Bastille, Paris, Théâtre Garonne, Toulouse, La Rose des Vents, Scène Nationale de Villeneuve d’Ascq.)

2000/2002

Performed in Arlequin poli par l’amour, by Marivaux, directed by Jean Michel Rabeux and Syvie Reteuna. Two years touring in France (Théâtre de Gennevilliers Théâtre Grronne, Toulouse, La Rose des Vents, La Manufacture Nancy etc)

2000/2001

Creation of a C.D. with Eric Sterenfeld and the children and teaching staff of the Ecole Maternelle Piat, Paris.

Devised site-specific piece for the inauguration of Le Garage, performance space run by the Compagnie de l’Oiseau-Mouche.

1999/2000

Music for Le Labyrinthe (with Eric Sterenfeld) a devised piece by Jean-Michel Rabeux and Sylvie Reteuna with La Compagnie de l’Oiseau-mouche. ( La Rose des Vents, le Rencontres de la Villette and tour in France, Switzerland and Germany).

1998/1999

Performed in, and composed the music for Les Enfers Carnaval, devised piece by Jean-Michel Rabeux. (Théâtre de la Bastille, La Rose des Vents, le Cargo, Scène Nationale de Grenoble).

1995/1997

Performed in Il mondo oscuro, devised piece by Mladen Materic and Emir Kusturica. Palermo festival.

Performed in La terre est loin, le ciel aussi, devised piece by Mladen Materic.Tours in France (Théâtre Garonne, Théâtre de la Bastille, Les Bernardines, Marseille etc) Italy (Palermo, Udine) and Holland (Rotterdam).

1994/1995

Performed in, and composed the music for Les Charmilles written and directed by Jean-Michel Rabeux. La Rose des Vents, Théâtre de la Bastille, Le Cargo, Grenoble.

Musician in the Footsbarn Travelling Theatre Cabaret. Printemps des Comédiens, Montpellier.

1993/1994

Performed in Le jour de fête, devised piece by Mladen Materic. (Festival d’Automne, Théâtre de la Bastille, Paris, Maubeuge, Foix, Carcasonne, Marseille etc).

1992/1993

Performed in and composed the music for Le travail du plâtre, devised piece by Jean-Michel Rabeux. (Théâtre de la Bastille, La Manufacture, Nancy, La Rose des Vents.)

1992/1994

Played accordeon and clarinet in the group Cartel del Barrio. Tours in France, Hungary and Belgium.

1991/1992

Circus, devised piece by the Grand Opera of Oklahoma with the Mary Ward Over 60’s theatre group and other performers. (Serpentine Gallery Heatwave Festival, ICA London.)

1990/1991

Nature, devised piece by The Grand Opera of Oklahoma,. (Commissioned by the Serpentine Gallery Heatwave Festival, also performed at the I.C.A. and Demarco Theatre. Tour assisted by the British Council to Théâtre de la Bastille, Paris and Yermolova theatre, Moscow.)

1990/1991

The Closing Number, devised piece by Mladen Materic. (Hampstead Theatre, London, and British tour (Tron theatre, Glasgow, Chapter Arts Cardiff etc)

1989/1990

Performed in Animal, written and directed by Gary Stevens.( I.C.A., London, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, Chapter Arts etc. Later toured as part of the British Art Show.)

Blast, devised with Tamzin Griffin. National Review of Live Art, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow.

1988/1989

Found Wanting (Grand Opera of Oklahoma) workshop with young performers at Chisenhale Dance Space.

Founded The Grand Opera of Oklahoma with Andrew Davenport. Their first show was Grace (Edinburgh Festival, I.C.A. London, National Review of Live Art, Brighton Festival.)

Music for The Life and times of Hieronymus Bosch, devised with The Bosch Project. (Edinburgh Festival, Brighton Pavilion Theatre.)