Created in 1967, by Francois Florent, the Cours Florent is a French drama school whose reputation is well established. The list of its alumni is impressive: Daniel Auteuil, Sophie Marceau, Gad Elmaleh, Guillaume De Tonquédec, …
Since last September, the célèbre Cours Florent has been offering drama classes to La Tour students every Wednesday afternoon.
Here is an interview of Alexis Bloch, the teacher of this extracurricular activity at La Tour.
What are the specific features of the prestigious Cours Florent for adults?
The Cours Florent is a drama school whose purpose is professional. Also, the Cours Florent trains actors, but also musicians, film directors…. The Cours Florent offers many specialized courses: improvisation, mask work, singing, elocution, vocal and physical technique, text analysis.
The students have 9 hours a week and 6 hours of specialized courses.
All the teachers have an extra activity, other than teaching. They are confronted with the reality of the job. They can teach because they know what it’s like to be a professional performer.
Alexis Bloch is an author, a stage director and an actor.
How did you become a teacher at the Cours Florent?
From my first years as a student, I assisted the teachers. I already had a certain classical education. For these two reasons, I was offered a job as a teacher. First for teenagers, then for adults.
What would you say about this teaching experience at the Cours Florent?
I’m lucky to teach at the Cours Florent. The students are interested and motivated because they want to become professional performers. It’s not a simple extracurricular activity. The students have a professional objective. This allows me to go further with them.
What advice would you give a teenager who wants to become an actor?
WORK! WORK! WORK! A LOT OF WORK! Acting is made of 10% talent and 90% work. Some students work up to 30 to 40 hours a week and others … 10. Those who only work 10 hours won’t survive in this environment, even if they have talent. You must also watch what’s going on the world around you, the news. You can’t be an actor if you aren’t conscious of the world around.
Why are you an actor?
Because I like telling stories, playing different characters. Louis Jouvet once said, “We go on the stage because we feel like we’ve never been oneself and that at least we’re going to be”
So, are we ourselves while playing someone else?
Yes. When you play an emotion, it is your character who feels the emotion, not you but, you play the emotion as you feel it. If you want it to be true for the audience, it has to be true for you. When you are on the stage you show others who you really are, how you are when you are afraid, when you suffer, when you are angry, when you are happy… It is a role but you play the role. On stage, you lay yourself bare.
How did you know you wanted to study at the Cours Florent?
When I was young, I told my mother I wanted to study at the Cours Florent. She didn’t want to. She wanted me to graduate first. A few years after, my father offered me a one-week course at the Cours Florent during the summer. At the end of the course there was an audition. I passed it.
This extracurricular activity at La Tour will perhaps create new vocations!
In the meantime, I advise you to go and see Alexis Bloch’s last play Entrée, Plat, Dessert (at the Croisée des Chemins theatre Paris 15), where four comedians lay themselves bare, showing their fears, their joys, their choices…
-By Isaure C.
The Tower Times Blog 