Impact of smoke on the air quality at the NAC
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The French Theatre Collective

©Caroline Robert and Vincent Morisset - Studio AATOAA

Launching the next generation of performers 

With the support of the Théâtre du Rideau Vert, one of the oldest professional French-language theatres in North America, French Theatre will produce and present a new play featuring recent graduates of theatre training programs in Quebec and Canada. Le collectif (“The Collective”) will open up a horizon for the next generation of performers by offering them hope, but above all a genuine work opportunity in the form of an annual professional production steered by top-level creators.

To all of you who want to perform, embody, interpret; you who are now facing a wall of postponed productions, struggling companies and overcrowded touring schedules: we say, “Welcome.”

The 2023 Collective

The participants in the inaugural Collectif are Élodie Bégin, Samuel Boulianne, Marion Daigle, Ahlam Gholami, Stella Lemaine, Cassandre Loiselle, Charles-Olivier Maltais, David Noël and Kevin Pereira.

2022-2023 season director: Marie Brassard 

For the 2022–2023 season, the direction of the show has been entrusted to the great Marie Brassard. An exceptional and experienced creator, she challenges theatrical codes, through both the surreal atmospheres of her company Infrarouge and the visual and sound settings she creates for other artists. For French Theatre, she has presented Jimmy, créature de rêve (2002), La noirceur (2003), Peepshow (2006), L’invisible (2009), Moi qui me parle à moi-même dans le futur (2010), La fureur de ce que je pense (2017), and most recently, Violence.

L'ombre, Marie Brassard's creation with the first collective, will be presented at the NAC from September 28 to 30, 2023. 

Learn more.

“When I start work on a new creation, I’m driven by the desire to initiate an encounter, a human experience conducive to intellectual and sensitive exchanges. With my team, I aim to develop works that are rooted in the best and most intimate part of each of us.”

Marie Brassard and the National Arts Centre