INSAT THEATRICAL DAY
Student Theater Festival
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Theatro INSAT Club - Tunisia, Since November 2016
Houssem Chabbouh // Cofounder, Former Club Team Leader, Actor, Writer, Stage Director, Costume Designer & Artistic Director
Photography // Different photographers
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JTI or the Theatrical Day of INSAT (National Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology of Tunis) is a theater festival organized by student members of the THEATRO INSAT Club, which apart from its regular artistic activities offers via the JTI an open artistic platform to all students passionate about performance art in general and theater in particular.
Regardless of their specialty, these students, inspired by both the Theatrical Days of Carthage and the 24-hour non-stop theater festival, put on a whole festival from their own resources. The JTI mainly boils down to a marathon of plays of all genres, played successively without stopping during the day, and alternated by various artistic breaks, within the Geant Auditorium of the INSAT which has a capacity of more than 600 spectators. The main purpose is to offer this free platform for theater lovers to live a part of their unfulfilled dreams and challenge themselves, in almost limited cultural conditions.
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JTI started in 2017 from a team that had nothing but an idea. Since then, the project has been expanding. Based on an already acquired knowledge, a know-how has been transmitted to over more than five generations of students and is ceaselessly developing. By setting higher goals to achieve, the students are enlarging and advancing their project.
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Multiple topics were exposed in different ways. Starting from their own daily problems, such as routine, dreams, actuality, they little by little let themselves be immersed and plunged into their depths to look for emotions in them, and to dig in the parts that were always forbidden, banned or unrecognized. Human beings and universal values, such as freedom, love, hate, fear, rage, death, and chaos, were exposed, and sometimes even redefined to adapt them to the new changements in a world that does not stop evolving. They go further to speak about history, religion, psychology, politics, reflecting upon metaphysical and existential questions... They transmit themselves before the public from one universe to another, from the comic to the tragic while passing through the philosophical, all in just one day. Such a truly moving experience!
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Some of the actors shine alone on stage, playing monologues, in rare moments of emotional purity, where the interior character takes control, to show the real essence of the person, to expose himself and revolt: an effect that every actor desires, face to face not only to the public, but to a reflection of himself first. When theater can heal some engraved wounds.
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Different fluid interactions create another dimension to the actor - actor relationship, which goes from a partnership to becoming a one body and soul united by a spiritual universe, and a fusion of pure feeling and emotion. You can feel the OTHER person’s energy as if it's your OWN.
If the feeling is honest and true, the fusion can take place even with a virtual character, or maybe.. yourself.
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As it is the exclusive partner of the theater since antiquity, music was strongly present, adding more rhythms and colors. Different types were played, starting from singing, to parodies, passing by various instruments or just very well chosen words in a slam.
Even the art of silence is music in theater.
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Many bodies can create unforgettable shapes, while exposing a tragic common chaos, or the suffering of persecuted minorities. Even when it's funny, it could be sad on the inside: a tragic comedy., When tragedy becomes a source of sarcasm, then the alarm bells should ring.
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In group or solo, oriental or classical, calm or dynamic, dim or illuminated, dance has been always an amazing theater exercice to express a rhythm, a balance of happiness and sadness, the other side of the human being from death to life. It can make the actor feel very stable, even if he is flying between his feelings and jumping from a muscle to another.
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Theater is a painful way of meditation for an individual to rediscover the essence of himself, to ask questions about the other, about society, about many pre-received ideas. For many actors, it's a long journey of research and experiments, from different perspectives, based on the Body & Soul to purify the conscience seeking for knowledge or just another version of truth.
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In the line of editions, the JTI has been able to create a caterpillar of fans and a loyal audience leading to a SOLD OUT sometimes. This audience who is in the dark Auditorium finds its human darkness, and thus takes advantage of these moments in hiding to laugh about its own faults exposed on stage under the light, and above all to think about it and interpret it in a free way, or going further sometimes by interacting with the actors.
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Several guests from the artistic world in general and that of theater in particular (as Anouar Chaafi, Taoufik Bahri, Hela Ayed, Mohamed Grayâa, Ahmed Amine Saad, Yasser Jradi, Foued Litaiem, Jouda Najeh..), honored the members of the JTI by their presence, encouragement and even partnerships sometimes, dazzled by the quality of certain plays.
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Photographers played a crucial role since all the audiovisual content and the beautiful shots, were the result of their love and passion for this form of art by transmitting a living art to a digital art starting from the same subject, via their visions: theater in their eyes.
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Apart from creating memorable characters, where every detail is very well studied to be more realistic in the play dimension, one of the main goals of theater will always be to build a balanced person who sees the human hidden in him, and who can easily integrate into a group or society in general to be an active actor through the love he has for himself and others.
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