2024 edition: From the instinct to the stage 

You who want to create shows, develop your vision, strengthen your artistic work. You who founded your own company, who crave, who doubt, who have reworked your plans a thousand times. You who thirst for rich exchanges and inspiring strategies. We invite you to join us for a brand new laboratory. 

Yes, that’s right: the French Theatre Labs are back! 

While creation remains the foundation of any artistic project, many other factors come into play to ensure that a work reaches the hearts, minds and bodies of the audience. How do you bring art back to the centre of a theatre company’s process? How do you put your ideas into practice and convey your vision of the world? And above all, how do you learn to follow your instincts while being aware of your blind spots? 

This new laboratory is part of a long tradition of intensive exchanges around the professions related to the stage. Initiated by Denis Marleau (2002–2008), continued by Wajdi Mouawad (2009–2012) and now revived by Mani Soleymanlou, these workshops and master classes have fostered projects, friendships, collaborations and even vocations. They are usually held in the spring, over about 10 days. 

Full details of the 2024 edition will be announced at a later date.

A brief history of the French Theatre Labs 

2002: On performing Russian texts in French, dir. André Markowicz and Denis Marleau 

2003: Le Temps de Sénèque, on the actor’s body and vocal work based on the works of Seneca, dir. Stuart Seide

2004: Architecture et géométrie du récit, on the question of time and story, dir. Wajdi Mouawad 

2005: L’acteur-verbe, on the dynamic between language and performance, dir. Alain Françon and Daniel Danis 

2006: on the fundamentals of playwriting, dir. Normand Chaurette 

2007: L’acteur vertical, on the nature and practice of performing tragedy today, dir. Brigitte Haentjens 

2008: Le texte en-jeux, on the relationship between actor, text and character, dir. Galin Stoev 

2009: Entre fiction et réalité : réinventer la relation enfant-adulte pour le droit à la rencontre artistique, on writing plays for young audiences, dir. Suzanne Lebeau 

2009–2010: Je critique donc je suis, on theatre criticism as commitment, resistance and art, dir. Robert Lévesque 

2011: Le devoir de création et la joie du péril, on the notion of creating theatre in the face of the unprecedented, the unpredictable and the risky, dir. Claude Poissant 

2012: L’acteur-auteur, on acting, approaching a text, and the writer’s connection to writing, dir. Wajdi Mouawad