“Poetic Consultations” are individual conversations between artists and members of the public. Each consultation takes place around a table: it begins with a free conversation and ends with the artist reading or singing a poem or song specifically chosen for the participant. At the end of the consultation, the participant receives a personalized poem or song in the form of a “poetic prescription.” Consultations are free 20-minute experiences, individual meetings based on listening, on time given to the other, on a moment to share life, poetry, music and dance. Poetic Consultations is a new practice that rethinks the relationship between the public and the performer, imagined by Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota, Director of the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, and playwright, poet, and novelist Fabrice Melquiot.
NYC-based actors, musicians and dancers. A simple idea unfurls into a soothing ritual: listeners book appointments and actors call to talk for 20 minutes before reciting a poem inspired by the conversation and, finally, suggesting a poetic remedy prescribed specially for each participant. An unexpected meeting, face to face, in the flesh, between an actor, a musician, or a dancer and a person around poetry. Like the Telephone Consultation, the Face-to-Face Consultation begins with an exchange to get to know each other, but this time the scene is set. A table and two chairs create intimacy. Equipped with a collection of over 100 poems, invented on the model of a medical dictionary, the actor chooses a poem from what has been said, the dancer a choreography, the musician a melody.