Gael's Erratic Pigeon Post | 6 months and a million projects later
A recap of my life in the last six months!
Some serious level of erratic-ness
When I first open this page, I thought 'Oh Gael, three months without a newsletter, that's a lot!'
Well.
It's been some six months since I wrote a Pigeon Post. This is some high-level making a task bigger than it should be! It's one of my specialty: if I don't feel like I can handle perfectly and 100% a task, I'll tend to push it for later. Added to my tendency to always prioritise the work I need to do for others over my own, this is the perfect recipe for losing track of time.
But here I am, back on the—flying, pigeon-shaped—horse! So let's get to it!
I thought of you a lot!
During these six months, my brain went crazy with all of the ideas I wanted to explore in this newsletter! I had a million different topics I wanted to talk about, so I thought I would just summarise them here, and open the door to explore more in depth any of them.
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The process of change
I wanted to explore the process and wish of change, and how as human beings we are open to the idea of change looking at results, but very resistant to the process itself. This train of thoughts came from some of the changes that I implemented to IMPRO Amsterdam this year, and the huge resistance and push back we had to face.
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Creating courses and classes
Another of topic that fascinates me, and that I wanted to share thoughts around is the way that I like to build classes and courses. Since we opened Flock 3 years ago, I created numerous new classes, courses and exercises! It is both draining at times, and also very inspiring and rewarding.
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Business and improv
This is a bit correlated to the podcast I recorded during IMPRO Amsterdam: Impropodden on improv-professionalism. It was such a nice conversation with Hjalmar, and it's a topic that I always find interesting to dig in! Sometimes, as artists we feel like talking about business is 'dirty', while it's essential to our activity.
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The paradox of improv: between over– and underthinking
Another nerdy topic that is getting into an area that I love: how can we both stay playful and in the moment, and build great stories on stage. A lot of the shows I direct are narrative longform, and it required from me to develop tools that allow people to keep as much of the coherence in, without loosing spontaneity, connection and playfulness. I'm always us for a chat about it!
I might use some of these in future Erratic Pigeon Post, or some of the other vague topics that I would like to put on paper one day! In the meantime, if you feel very strongly about one of them and you want to engage, I'm only one 'Reply' button away!
Billy and myself in our show '7 Deadly Sins' in October in Amsterdam | credits: Chee-Wai Chan
A million things happen
Between September and now, a loooot of things happened, and the last six months were really full. So I thought I would share the joy with you on some of these projects that make me happy!
I created and directed a new show for Flock Theatre
This new show, Transperceneige, is a narrative longform directly inspired by the French comic book of the same name, written by Jacques Lob and illustrated by Jean-Marc Rochette. You may also know the more recent movie and series adaptations under the name of Snowpiercer.
I am very proud of the work done with the cast over the 3 months of rehearsal, and of the production value of the resulting performances. The setting was specific, the staging placing the audience just outside of the 'train' on both sides was bold, the costumes hand-picked by Christianna were inspiring, the lights—both in installation and operation—were looking good, and the audience responded very positively to the show!
I love being pro-active in bringing improv into theatrical performances and witnessing the effect it has on our audience. Probably one of my best direction of shows to date!
Performance of 'Transperceneige' with it's central two-sided stage and post-apocalyptic feel | credits: Robin Straaijer
IMPRO Amsterdam happened
Some of you were there, some of you checked in with me, and some weren't at the festival—check this to increase FOMO. But what is sure is that it definitely happened! 8 months of crazy work as Artistic Director to reshape this historical festival and bring it into its new era!
It was a big pile of work that took a lot of my time, but luckily I got to work with some of my favorite people in the process. I also got to witness all of the participants having such a good time during the week. And I got to see some of the things I care about coming to life: a more equal and inclusive organisation, some very high-quality improv while also building a supportive and kind community, and just a lot of—new and old—friendships!
IMPRO Amsterdam happened and it could only happen thanks to every single person that made it happen, from organiser to visitor, from artist to workshop participant, from volunteer to partners. Thank you so much you all, and see you in 2024!
Family picture of—almost—all of the artists and volunteers present on the last night of IMPRO Amsterdam 2023 | credits: Mathieu van den Berk
I got selected for the Arctic Circle expedition
If you know my talented friend Katy Schutte, you maybe followed her adventure in the Arctic ocean last year. In January, I applied to the expedition for 2024, and I just got the very good news that my project got selected!
Stay tuned, because I'll definitely get back to that more in details soon, with more info about the actual artistic project, and all. But for now: yay! I will spend 3 weeks on a ship in the Arctic circle with a bunch of other artists and scientists!
The ship I'll lose myself onto in Summer 2024 | credits: Beau Carey — The Arctic Circle
Our Flock got a Treehouse
Another successful application was the one we led with Laura in the name of Flock Theatre: we now have a studio in an artists' incubator. It's called the Treehouse—perfect name for us— and it is situated in Amsterdam-Noord!
In there, we have a small studio that will allow us to have our own space, office, storage, small workshop room, and most of all to get to know the other 100 artists of all kinds also present in the incubator!
If you have the opportunity to have a look at it when you are in Amsterdam, it is a small island of creativity in the buzzing heart of NDSM former shipyard. We are very happy with this next step for Flock!
The courtyard of the Treehouse and its colorful container-studios | credits: Laura Doorneweerd-Perry
I created a new duo-show
With Diego Ingold we worked for two weeks on creating a new show. He came to Amsterdam, and we rehearsed every day at our studio at Treehouse to discuss, explore and experiment.
The result of this work is both at the intersection of our skills, and it also transcend what we are individually capable of: visual, speechless, poetic, silly, dream-like, What Remains is a journey in itself!
Click on the picture to watch the teaser of the show | credits: Robyn Berk
My improv-mother turned 30
This week, la LOLITA—the association I started improv with—is celebrating 30 years of existence in Strasbourg with a special week of shows!
Some of my old team-mates are gonna be on stage and even one of my team—the Dancing Lovers—will be revived for one-night-only. I am super-bumped to have to miss this love-letter to 30 years of existence, so if you are around or if you have the chance to go, please do it for me!
LOLITA taught me a lot of skills at the beginning of my improv career, but mostly taught me a lot of my values that are still the same today. Thank you for that, and happy birthday!
The Dancing Lovers after a rehearsal, trying to be coherent | credits: Someone else from la LOLITA I guess?
Thanks for sticking around and for your patience! Do you have anything you would like to share, to answer, or a meme to send to me? You can simply reply to this email!
Talk to you soon—promise, in less than 6 months!
Love you all!
Gael
The cooking stuff
If you are ever in Amsterdam and you like fine dining, one of our favorite places to go to with Laura is Café Modern.
They have a really good wine menu, and they source their wine from small producers, mostly organic, and always very interesting. They also happen to do fantastic food, using local products in a refine way, and with the intention to limit waste.
This means sometimes eating surprising bits or things. Yesterday for instance, we got served asparagus—all fine, a classic—with beurre blanc—nothing crazy there—and dried tuna heart flakes—wait what now? I had never had it before, but it is a concentrate of flavours and it was really well marrying with the asparagus and creaminess of the beurre blanc! Yum yum yum yum!
Fabulous orange wine in the beautiful spring light of Amsterdam-Noord | credits: Laura for the picture, Jeroen for the hand
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