To mark its 20th anniversary, La Manufacture wanted to highlight the singular career paths of its alumni through short stories recounting the portraits of each of them. The book ‘20 ans de parcours’ presents them today.

Presentation

Twenty years ago, a new school dedicated to training actors opened in Lausanne. On this basis, and in just a few short years, La Manufacture has made its mark. It established principles and a training system suited to its time, and gradually extended its mission to other disciplines and professions related to the stage, becoming the Haute école des arts de la scène in French-speaking Switzerland - a unique structure in the academic and artistic landscape of French-speaking Europe.

If the institution grew quickly, it was because it filled a void. And since speed allows us to transform time into a journey, it is this journey that we wanted to celebrate on the occasion of its twentieth anniversary. And what better way for a school to make its journey visible than by revealing the journeys of the students and apprentices who have made it?

Assessing the trajectory of La Manufacture therefore meant measuring that of each of these personalities, drawing their portraits and revealing the paths they have taken since the school. This book presents them. Some of them have agreed to look back at the turning point when an artistic desire is affirmed and confirmed, an approach is refined, and a landscape of elective affinities is built up that will also become the first network, the matrix of artistic experiences and professional paths to come.

Many of these careers are now centred on the French-speaking and international scenes. But the skills acquired at an art school have considerable power and can be mobilised in a wide range of contexts and professions. This book also highlights the plurality of careers, the interdisciplinarity of commitments to art and society, and the diversity of professions practised after La Manufacture.