Good Bye ISADAC

Written by Allal EL Alaoui

Acting in Morocco is not new .It is related to Halka; actors gathering people around them usually in a cirle and you can listen to this kind of stories right in the heart of Marrakech ;  a place called Jamaa El Fna square .Now,some Moroccan towns like Mekness  invite the same Halkas just to seduce consumers because it is about buying goods and at the same time  having pleasure.

Right after the independance of Morocco, some Moroccan students went to France to study theatre just like Taib Essadiki,Chafik Shimi and more others . Others prefered to go to Egypt or Syria because of patriotic or nationalistic reasons .Any way, some forms of  theatre have been known in Morocco ;although in general Arabs already refused theatre in the past because its dareness to blasphemy .

After Cairo ;Demascus,and Baghdad and there comes Rabat creating  a new establishmement called ISADAC, a french word meaning ; institure of theatre of dramatic studies which is apparently  training, and urges to study and research in all areas of theater. It is created by decree No. 2.83.706 of 18 January 1985, under the Ministry of culture in Morocco.

One of its objectives is to train professional actors and introduce them to theatre and cinema world.yet,ironically its actors are lost in cafés of major towns in Morocco  just like Café Terrace in Rabat ; which is itself becoming a commercial café meeting .There are other places that actors and actresses usually meet and discuss the market of jobs just like La Ruche, Halinka, Triangle Rouge in Rabat,la comédie in Fès and café de la France in Casablanca .

According to Hicham El Wali and Said Ait Baja, recently interviewed in Al Oula TV,they state that the position of actors in Morocco is critically bad and it is getting worse, because first the jobs are findless and even if there is a job , excecutif producers pay them badly (see the famous 2M series called – AL Majdoub - in which Hicham EL Wali has worked in and appealled to tribunal   the producer himself  .The production company of Al Majdoub has declared its fraud and it can not really pay all actors . In the past, ISADAC was a seducing place for young comers .However now , it really becomes empty proscenium arch ; producing only unemployed actors,states Said Ait Baja .ISADAC achieved nearly 1000 adherents before and in 2012 only 350 which is a considerable decrease in number.

Still , girls in the world of theatre  namely in movies are confronting sexual abuse not denying that some of them accept the offer willingly just to get a part in a movie or theatre .Some students in ISADAC convey strange behaviours of ISADAC teachers as to ask them for sex ,but this fact is not  yet confirmed .

Either what Mahmoud Frites has recently  conveyed about the decline of Art in Morocco or the melancoly of actors already lost in pubs, expensive cafés and hotels ,states Khalid Didane in his recent play called – Hawlasa – Acting is  still a passion for many and Moroccan actors are going through painful moments only theatre and cinema-goers know this secret. In some way,Moroccan actor becomes more melancolic than Hamlet who confronts not only a « corrupt king » but too many nasty nature elements.

The ISADAC

Admission to the Higher Institute of Dramatic Art and Cultural Animation is done by competition open to candidates aged 17 to 23 years, holders of bachelor of secondary education or a recognized equivalent.

Students of  foreign nationals may be admitted, subject to availability, on the same terms.

Their applications must reach the direction of ISADAC through the competent department of the Ministry of Culture and Foreign Affairs of their countries

FONCTIONS

Institut Supérieur d'Art Dramatique et d'Animation Culturelle est une école nationale spécialisée dans la formation des cadres supérieurs dans les métiers du théâtre :

Formation de base

Interprétation et jeu : Théâtre, Télévision et cinéma

Formation en option

Mise en scène, dramaturgie et administration théâtrale

Formation de base   :

- Scénographie, décor et technique de la scène .

Formation en option  :

- Marionnettes, costumes, éclairage et son

Formation continue

Perfectionnement et spécialisation des professionnels des arts du spectacl

« Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature. For anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure »

Shakespeare