Remembering the Present
Remembering the Present: A Creation Laboratory with L’École Parallèle Imaginaire
Step into a nine-day creation laboratory with Rémi Fortin and Arthur Amard—members of L’École Parallèle Imaginaire (France) and co-creators of Le Beau Monde. Together, you’ll enter a transmission of process that merges performance and collective invention.
Drawing from the dramaturgy of Le Beau Monde—a speculative ritual in which future beings attempt to reconstruct the everyday customs of our time—you’ll use improvisation, collaborative writing, and embodied exploration to reinvent fragments of the original work and generate your own speculative ceremonies. What gestures, emotions, and social habits might future generations remember—or misremember—about us?
Guided by Fortin and Amard’s signature blend of intelligence, absurdity, and tenderness, you’ll experiment at the edge of documentary and fiction, building speculative ceremonies as new mythology of the present. Rather than transmitting a fixed form, the artists invite you to co-create an ecological and poetic model of how performance might travel—across borders, bodies, and time.
The intensive will culminate in a public studio showing.
Presented in partnership between The Improv Centre and PuSh International Festival for Performing Arts
How to Apply
Please complete this application form and include:
- An artistic response (short text or video) to a creative prompt imagining a future ritual of remembrance – details are outlined in the linked form.
- A brief overview of your relevant professional experience and/or advanced-level training.
- Any access needs you wish to share (optional).
About the Artists
Rémi Fortin and Arthur Amard are members of L’École Parallèle Imaginaire (France), an interdisciplinary collective that reimagines how performance, ritual, and imagination intersect.
A graduate of the Théâtre National de Strasbourg, Fortin approaches creation as both actor and instigator, developing works that merge walking, writing, and collective authorship into theatrical rituals of memory. His practice explores how performance can serve as a vessel for transmission—carrying gestures, stories, and emotions across time.
Amard, trained at the Comédie de Saint-Étienne, moves fluidly between theatre, movement, and live music. A pianist and accordionist, he integrates composition and sound as dramaturgical forces within performance, crafting works that hover between concert, ceremony, and play.
January 12th – 22nd, 2026
Jan. 12, 9AM–5PM & Jan. 13–16 & 19–22, 10AM–6PM
The Improv Centre | 1502 Duranleau St., Vancouver
Application deadline December 8, 2025
For more information, contact pushapplicationstic@theimprovcentre.ca.
For experienced theatre artists with advanced-level training and/or professional experience. Pre-professional theatre students are also welcome to apply. This program is free for selected applicants.
