GSE takes to the stage at the Avignon Festival
In celebration of the 80th Avignon Festival, France’s oldest and most acclaimed stage arts event, GSE is supporting a Hamlet production – taking the company’s first role as an arts sponsor.
To mark the 80th edition of the Avignon Festival, GSE is – for the first time – backing an arts event. We are sponsoring the creation & touring of a Hamlet production, directed by Thibault Perrenoud and included in the Festival’s official programme. We will even be hosting a special performance at our Avignon head office. Whisper it loudly: GSE cares about cultural life in its communities.
To sponsor or not to sponsor?
Our group’s head office is in Avignon. Oh, you knew? As we celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary, we are pleased to back our city’s best-known cultural event. Besides contributing to the local economy, we want to foster artistic creativity and help promote Avignon’s cultural influence – in France and internationally.
As a patron of the Festival, GSE provides more than financial support. We’re directly involved in the artistic project.
Roland PAUL, Chairman of GSE, Thibault PERRENOUD, director of the Hamlet production, and Tiago RODRIGUES, Director of the Avignon Festival
Our head office, a cultural venue for one night
As a highlight of this partnership, GSE will open the doors of its Avignon head office to the public and host a special performance of Thibault Perrenoud’s touring production of Hamlet. On Wednesday 22 July, part of the office will be completely transformed into a theatre, bringing culture into the heart of the company.
Adapted from William Shakespeare’s play, Thibault Perrenoud’s production offers an immersive experience designed to appeal to audiences of all backgrounds. Performed by just three actors, this streamlined version focuses on direct, physical theatre that brings the performance close up & personal. The actors use their bodies, speech and imagination in lieu of technical effects. Designed to be performed in a variety of venues, the play invites the audience to share an intense collective experience, exploring the play’s key themes – power, parenthood, guilt and doubt – in an energetic and contemporary production.
This initiative demonstrates, as dramatically as the king’s ghost (almost), that a general contractor in commercial real estate can build – in addition to state-of-the-art logistics and industrial facilities – bridges between the worlds of business and the arts.
Roland PAUL, Chairman of GSE: “This partnership expresses GSE’s belief that businesses have a role to play in the cultural life of local communities. In support of the Avignon Festival, we aim to help foster new forms of expression and make culture accessible in unexpected places.”
Tiago RODRIGUES, Director of the Avignon Festival: “The Avignon Festival has always been a meeting place for artists, audiences and local communities. GSE’s backing fits in perfectly within this approach.
By opening their doors and hosting a performance right at their head office, GSE isn’t just supporting an arts project. They’re helping invent new ways of sharing theatre.
Our partnership illustrates our conviction that culture can & must engage with all sectors of society. GSE’s commitment helps to raise the profile of the Avignon Festival while strengthening its roots in the city.”
