Jeux de lumière
is a fascinating journey behind the scenes of the Festival d'art lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence and also in Scotland and in the ghosts of Shakespeare.
The novelist wanted to highlight all these shadow professions that work behind the show.
It is a great achievement and it is fascinating.
His novel has just been selected for the Literature Prize of the Lions Club international.
Interview with a happy author.
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LE FIGARO.- The framework of your novel, at the beginning, is the Festival of lyric art of Aix-en-Provence, it is an event which is very particular for you?
Aurélie DYE-PELLISSON.-
Yes, indeed. It was at the Festival d'art lyrique d'Aix en Provence that I was introduced to opera. This dates back to the summer of 1999. I was a student at the time and I worked as an opener, at the Théâtre de l'Archevêché, which is the historic site of this Festival and which is at the heart of my novel, " Light effects". I have always liked the theater a lot, but I did not know the world of lyric art at all. My first encounter with opera did not go as I had expected: to be honest, I went to the intermission, thinking I would never see any show of this type again! I realize with hindsight that I was not prepared for this, especially to sit for more than three hours when usually a play lasts an hour and a half!
But by having the opportunity to come back to the scene very regularly, to observe from the corner of your eye the work of the technicians, that of the singers and musicians who rehearse, we cannot remain indifferent to everything that is being played, to everything that is being prepared, each day, so that a work can come to life at nightfall.
Finally, I wanted to give a second chance to this story which had started so badly and which turned into a real passion.
Through your novel, what are all the shadow trades of the show that you wanted to highlight?
I wanted to make the reader discover what he can never see as a spectator: the work of women and men in the shadows, that of the technicians, also to show the diversity of the trades involved in the editing. operas. Everyone knows when they attend a show that people are behind the spotlight for example, backstage, etc. but without really knowing the work that is done upstream, at the time of the opera and once the curtain has been drawn. I have been fortunate enough to be able to be a shadow spectator for many years and it seemed to me that the least I could do was to tell, to share, to transmit not only what I had been able to observe but what was playing in me too; emotion, the very strong links forged with the theater of the Archdiocese.I am very different from my heroine, Juliette, but we share her and me, the same love for this so special place.
Is this fiction or reality?
My characters are fictional characters and “Games of light” is not intended to be a report on the work of the technical teams. However, through Franck, Matt, Juliette in particular, I wanted to make the reader know, from the inside, the daily life and the work of technicians, often poorly known, also poorly understood. Like all professions, entertainment workers are categorized and not always in a positive way. Often precisely because of ignorance. Since the start of the pandemic, the world of culture, to which live performance is a part, has been severely affected. The writing of my novel was completed shortly after the arrival of the Covid 19. When the project to write this book was born, I was already keen to make people discover “the backstage behind the scenes” but with the end of the shows,the closing of the rooms and the endangering of a whole profession, my desire to defend the intermittent of the spectacle, to put in the honor the formidable and essential work which they do has been increased tenfold.
Your novel is also a long journey, could you tell us about a few stages it goes through, especially in the Hautes-Alpes?
The story of "Games of light" takes place partly in Aix-en-Provence but not only indeed.
Matt, one of the main characters, lives in the Hautes-Alpes, in the Champsaur to be more precise.
If Juliette is connected to the stones of the Archdiocese, it is connected to the rock walls of the mountains of this valley.
He is a very lonely person, who shares his life with a young Japanese woman, Saori, whose country and some of its traditions I also mention.
And then there is Scotland and the city of Edinburgh, which are also central to the novel.
My characters take the reader to another great festival that takes place in the Scottish capital every August ...
You are a French teacher, you like to share your enthusiasm for lyrical art with your students, how do they react?
For the past five years, thanks to the Educational Actions offered by the Departmental Council of Bouches du Rhône and the Passerelles service of the Festival d'Aix, I have been able to introduce the students of one of my classes to the world of opera.
It is extraordinary luck.
The first year, I admit that it made me uncomfortable when it was necessary to present the project to the students.
I knew for a fact that at thirteen, opera is far from being a priority, or even something attractive ...
I had no choice, however, so I took the plunge, keeping in mind what I deeply believe in: "Passion is contagious."
At first, my students were very surprised, even desperate!
Some chuckled, others sighed.
But over the sessions, they got caught up in the game and it was a great success.
It must be said that I had a strong ally: Mozart and his Don Giovanni!
Since then, they must spread the word and expect, if they have me in French in fourth or third, to have to dive into the lyrical pot because no one seems surprised when I announce the start of the "festivities". .
Could you tell us how the novel writing developed, the work with your editor?
Between the initial spark and the end of the writing of my text, almost five years have passed, three of which were necessary for the maturation of my romantic project, for the installation of the characters too, for the taking of notes. , to interviews with certain people. I am thinking in particular of the lighting designer Philippe Berthomé, whom I was able to meet in 2017 and who gave me a much more precise vision of his profession. Then there was the writing period. That of the first draft. I have sixteen handwriting notebooks and dozens of computer-typed versions left for the first ten chapters. My main challenge, like many authors I imagine, is finding time to write. Or more exactly,to allow oneself to take the necessary time when so many professional and personal obligations pull us by the sleeve like children who cry out for you. I am unable to move forward in writing a novel if I know I only have half an hour, for example. Maybe one day I will succeed, but today in any case, I need to be able to immerse completely in the universe of my characters, and to reach a kind of hypnotic state so that the words lying on the paper or typed on a Word file are not generated by my "brain" alone. If the intellect guides my writing session, I know very well that my words will be “stillborn”, that they will lack the essential: a body and a heart. But since I'm a very cerebral person, I have a hard time letting go.I need more time to allay my own suspicion and muzzle my fear.
And when did you find the time?
The confinement of last year was on this point beneficial: I was so solicited, from morning until late at night by the preparation, the distribution of my lessons for my students, the emails to which I answered individually that very quickly, I realized that by keeping this rhythm, I was going to find myself completely overwhelmed.
This awareness led me to establish what I never do: a very precise schedule, hour by hour, for each of my days.
That's when I decided to put in place no matter what, a daily writing session of at least two hours.
I finished the “Games of Light” manuscript on June 26, 2020. I then let it sit for three weeks, starting to document myself for my next story.
I then reworked my text all summer.
When I met my editor at the beginning of September, I was just finishing the final touch-ups.
I sent it to her a few weeks later, as she had suggested.
How did the relationship with your editor go?
When Maïlis Paire contacted me at the end of November to tell me that she wanted to publish it, we then started a real teamwork, supported by her collaborator Nathalie. I am very grateful to them for having shown great respect towards my text, for having always asked for my agreement for the slightest modification. I believe we share the same values, the same vision of writing work and the same relationship to words and literature. So things went very smoothly and in harmony with each other. Everything that was essential for me in my text, including the title and the visual support for the cover was respected and I can only thank them for it.
Before the publication of this first novel, you went through self-publishing, could you tell us about this experience?
I have indeed self-published a manuscript, "Go through the entry of artists" in 2019 on a well-known self-publishing platform, after having tried, in vain, to find a "traditional" publisher. Why did I choose to defy the refusal of publishing houses? Because at one point, with all due respect to the profession, I needed to start walking, to take a few steps at least, on the path that I know has been my life path since I was child. I needed this text, which I held bound in my hands, to become a book, to meet readers other than my family and my circle of friends. And if there is one very positive point that I retain from this adventure, it is this one: the bridge built between oneself and others. People that you have never seen, that you know nothing about and who tell you,who write to you that they adored your novel, that they recognized themselves in your characters ... The opinion of relatives is of course very precious, but the feelings of strangers are particularly so to allow you to straighten out head and feel legitimate to continue writing other stories, to continue believing in your dream.
Sometimes we all have one knee on the ground, collapse, literally and figuratively. At such times, an outstretched hand can change everything. Feedback on this self-published manuscript has been this helping hand, as well as the unconditional support of a few people who are very dear to me.
On the other hand, self-publishing is a universe where you are alone, absolutely alone, with your text lost in the midst of thousands of others.
Personally, I neither have the digital skills for a good promotional campaign, nor the time to devote myself to it.
However, in self-publishing, it is essential to "stand out from the crowd".
You have to be present on all fronts, feed social networks, set up promotions on certain weekends, for example, to boost sales and attract the eye of publishers who scrutinize the potential profitability of certain authors on well-known sites. .. Personally, I do not find myself in this mode of operation and I am delighted today to have found an exceptional editor to carry my novel.
What advice would you give to those who wish to be published?
I would say, as other writers have done before me, hold on, believe in it, visualize your goal, work towards making your dream come true. But for that, desire is not enough. It seems to me that it is essential both to nourish oneself, by numerous readings, by a daily practice of writing, by trips, real or imaginary, and at the same time to empty oneself, in order to be able to welcome the story that will unfold in us.
You have to work hard, and be prepared for many sacrifices. It is not easy to close the door to your children, to give up your vacations, going out with friends. It is not easy to leave all the room for beings whose presence we are the only ones to feel and at the same time to be unavailable to our loved ones. You have to be ready too, to see the whole world covered with letters, with ink, as soon as you look somewhere.
To sum up, we must accept to put ourselves at the service of words, twenty-four hours a day, without knowing where they will lead us, or how long the journey will last. I know very well that many formations hatch lately, with like horizon the complete control of the writing of your future novel. We can of course, write a story that we have tied from start to finish, with Excell table and ultra detailed plan. No doubt this approach is suitable for some and so much the better. It must offer, I think, a significant saving of time and save the author's heart by allowing him to beat at a rate which will not lose its regularity, but it seems to me that this deprives of something essential : adventure, the real encounter with words.
Light games, novel by Aurélie Dye-Pellisson, preface by Jean-Paul Delfino, Red'Active Éditions, 324 p., € 8.90.