The technical object on stage

At once strange and familiar, bearer of a narrative and initiator of a relationship, the theatrical object has a status in its own right within the performance, and constantly encourages the actor to reassess the quality of his relationship with his immediate environment. This book proposes to turn our attention to a specific type of object: the “technical” object, i.e. the technological apparatus, now digital, as it is put into play on contemporary theatrical stages. More than an exhaustive panorama, L'Objet technique en scène attempts to formulate several questions about the possibilities opened up by these new kinds of objects, through a number of case studies (Marina Bollaín, Simon McBurney, Rabih Mroué, Heiner Goebbels, Dries Verhoeven, Robert Lepage, Agnès de Cayeux, Christiane Jatahy...) and interviews with artists whose production bears witness to an interest in this technical object. Julia Gros de Gasquet is an actress and academic. Lecturer at the Institut d'Études Théâtrales de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, she has published En disant l'alexandrin, l'acteur tragique et son art, 17e siècle-20e siècle (Champion, 2006). In film, she was recently directed by Eugène Green in Le Fils de Joseph (2016). She is artistic director of the Grignan Correspondence Festival. Julie Valero is a lecturer in the performing arts, specializing in creative processes and the relationship between theater, science and technology.