May Issue - Stage Directions Magazine

School Spotlight
By Karyn Bauer-Prevost
Parfait
of Excellence
For more than 30 years, the
Training Center for Professional
Theatre Technicians has been
training France’s finest.
A student works the board for a production in rehearsal
Deep inside the gritty Parisian suburb of Bagnolet lies
a theatrical jewel. Unique in its vocation, and highly
acclaimed for the excellence of its academic offerings,
The Training Center for Professional Theatre Technicians (Centre
de Formation Professionelle aux Techniques du Spectacle, or
CFPTS), has been attracting students from across France for more
than 30 years. Open to both high-school graduates and practicing
technicians, the school is fertile ground where professionals
and amateurs meet.
“It is a crossroads,” says educational supervisor Béatrice
Marivaux. “Our goal is to promote the greatest amount of interaction
among beginners and experts. Students often return to the
school to engage in that rich exchange”.
During an average year, some 200 active professionals will
take time out of their demanding schedules to teach classes here.
The school boasts nine classrooms, five stage facilities, four sound
studios and nine extensive workshops. The incoming professors
are invited on a rotating basis, keeping coursework contemporary
and evolutionary.
Often unaccustomed to working in a classroom environment,
this rotating staff frequently requires assistance from the school’s
in-house team of teachers who, according to Marivaux, “transform
their enthusiasm into academic tools.”
Nearly 1,000 professionals will have taken continuing education
classes at the CFPTS this year, ranging from the more popular
crash course on WYSIWYG Lighting Design and perfecting the
grandMA console to working with the Pyramix Virtual Studio and
understanding Flying Pig Systems. A variety of long-term training
sessions are also available in the areas of theatre administration,
technical direction, staging, rigging, lighting and sound.
The school also prides itself on the diversity of its stage accessory
classes, unique in France, which teach skills that include ironworking
for designing stage jewelry; sculpture for creating masks
and molds; and special effects for mastering onstage fires, explosions,
snow, smoke and indoor fireworks. A variety of safety classes
ensure that technicians function in a low-risk environment.
Housed in a former sawmill factory, the CFPTS opened its
doors in 1974 as a semi-private continuing education center for
theatre technicians, who take classes to perfect their skills, or to
change jobs entirely. It has since evolved, and in 1992 the school
launched the Center for Art Training, otherwise known as the
CFA. Unique in France, the program is open to recent high-school
graduates, ages 18-25 years old. The 50 students admitted into
each academic cycle must pass a written and oral examination,
proving their scholastic level. They must also demonstrate their
motivation by obtaining a two-year paid internship at a local
theatre prior to enrollment.
“If they are struggling to find an appropriate contact,” says
Emmanuelle Saunier, the school’s outreach officer, “then we can
provide them with some guidance, but we prefer to let them
approach the various theatres on their own. It is essential for prospective
students to demonstrate a certain level of enthusiasm
and assertiveness prior to enrolling.”
That assertiveness will be essential to their training throughout
this two-year program as they alternate between six-week
classroom sessions and hands-on work. Not only do interns
receive a minimum salary, but the majority of those students
studying here, whether in the CFPTS or in the CFA, pay no tuition.
Fees, which can be extensive, (880€ Euros for a three-day rigging
class, 17,200 Euros for a nine-month class in sound production)
are covered by the “taxe d’apprentissage,” a French tax requiring
businesses to reinvest a small percentage of their profits into
training centers like the CFPTS.
“We all learned by watching,” says Marie Noëlle Bourcard,
lighting production supervisor at the Théâtre de l’Athénée Louis
Jouvet in Paris, who frequently takes CFA interns under her wing.
“We know how essential it is for theatre technicians to have that
hands-on experience. They develop into an integral part of the
team and are usually hired once their internship ends.”
The post-graduation placement rate for CFA students is nearly
100 percent. Among the prestigious venues where students have
found jobs are the Paris National Opera and the National Theatre
22 May 2007 • www.stage-directions.com