Alliance Française de Philadelphie presents: EUPHRATE

Alliance Française de Philadelphie presents: EUPHRATE

Daughter of a Turkish father and a Norman mother, Euphrate is a high school senior facing challenges within the education system. Besides her rather mediocre grades, she must soon express her choice of career path: a real conundrum. She begins to wonder how her dual culture has influenced her identity. In a witty and humorous dialogue with her father, she embarks on a journey to explore her Turkish roots and childhood memories. Blending dance and words, the show joyfully expresses the path toward affirming her own voice as a woman.

6:30pm Doors

7:30pm Show

Show in French with English subtitles

NIL BOSCA, Writing, concept, and performance

STANISLAS ROQUETTE & OLIVIER CONSTANT, Assistant Directors

ALEXE POUKINE & HASSAM GHANCY, Writing Collaborators

CHRYSTEL CALVET, Choreographic Oversight

STEPHANIE VERISSIMO, Sound

GENEVIEVE SOUBIROU, Lighting

ORIGIN OF THE PROJECT

“Initially, when I started to imagine this show in 2019, I wanted to address the question of desire. How does a person manage to break free from the constraints imposed by their gender, culture, and social class to access their own desires? What path do they take to escape the pressures from the education system and then the world of work, in order to identify what they truly want to do? I wanted to tell a life journey that would reflect this difficult transition, from a teenage quest for meaning to full blossoming in adulthood. I then sought to meet people who could inspire me for the creation of this character. It took me some time and several stages of work to realize that the story I needed to draw from was my own. I wanted to weave together three essential themes that have marked my personal journey.

The first is career orientation and how school prepares us for it—or not. I myself changed paths three times, always in search of “what truly resonates within me.” I questioned the meaning of my future from an early age, but the answer only came to me much later. Next is the question of my cultural identity: my mother is French, my father is Turkish, and this dual belonging has shaped my development as a young woman. It has become a central point in my search for meaning and desire. By overcoming the shyness that prevented me from questioning my Turkish roots, I realized how essential it was to explore this part of myself. Finally, I had to navigate the internal and external obstacles related to being a woman. This is how Euphrate was born, my fictional double, through whom I hope to turn my story into something more universal, touching on a reality larger than my own.”

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