September 13, 2006 -

Ottawa, Ontario -- Peter Herrndorf, President and CEO of Canada’s National Arts Centre (NAC), today announced the appointment of the new Artistic Director of the NAC French Theatre, effective September 1, 2007 (for a five-year term). Writer, director and actor Wajdi Mouawad will take over from director Denis Marleau, who has held the position for seven years (2000–07). The 2008–09 season will be the first one to be programmed by Mr. Mouawad.

“The Artistic Director of French Theatre is not only a major player on the National Arts Centre’s artistic team, but also de facto a leader in supporting and developing French-language theatre across the country, and a touchstone of Canadian theatre for other nations and cultures,” said Peter Herrndorf. “That’s why the National Arts Centre is especially proud to welcome Wajdi Mouawad to this position. Mr. Mouawad is an outstanding creator, a captivating storyteller whose works, acclaimed internationally, speak to audiences from every walk of life through their insightful exploration of the important issues faced by the individual in contemporary society. As well, Mr. Mouawad’s profound interest in contemporary music and dance make him the ideal choice for a multidisciplinary institution like the National Arts Centre. His presence at the NAC will undoubtedly enhance French Theatre’s visibility at the local, national and international level.”

Over the past 15 years, Wajdi Mouawad has established himself—in Canada as in Europe—as a uniquely original player on the contemporary theatre scene, acclaimed for his compelling style and his clear and personal theatre aesthetic. He has built an international reputation for his deeply humanist theatre that examines the human experience with keenness and compassion, and emphasizes the power of the actor as spokesperson in the fullest sense of the word. In his writing as in his directing, Mr. Mouawad investigates the tension between the importance of individual freedom and the no less essential renunciation of the self. On this subject he is fond of quoting Kafka: “In the struggle between yourself and the world, back the world.”

Wajdi Mouawad is pleased to be joining the National Arts Centre team. “Succeeding Denis Marleau is a terrifying challenge for me, but also a fantastic opportunity,” he says. “Denis’ artistic practice is so unflinchingly precise and coherent that it bestows a sense of enormous freedom on whoever follows in his wake. Confusion begets confusion: clarity is essential if the world is to move forward. And so for me everything is possible. Thank you, Denis. I intend to maintain that standard, to reinvent it in the context of my duty to explore my own radicality which I feel confident I can do. Theatre is still a place for exploring. It allows the breathtaking suspension that reveals inexpressible beauty.

One day, some artists were amazed by the ways of the world . . . and they shared their amazement with us, in a form that doesn’t exist in nature: through dance, painting, music, theatre. This unfamiliar, unnatural form fissures our eyes. Who could ever look at an apple the same way again after seeing Cézanne’s apples? In this sense, the NAC French Theatre plays a key part in enlightening a world that still believes in the importance of madness. My role in all this is to promote madness. There’s only one way to do that, and that is to go mad myself. I’ll do my best.”

Denis Marleau, Artistic Director of the NAC French Theatre since December 2000, is pleased to be handing over the reins to Wajdi Mouawad. “Personally, I’m delighted that Wajdi is coming to the National Arts Centre,” says Mr. Marleau. “He is one of Canada’s leading stage artists, acclaimed for his outstanding artistic and intellectual approach and his exceptionally compelling and stirring voice—a voice infused with civic consciousness. His arrival will bring new energy to NAC French Theatre production, and I’m confident that he will create a stimulating and appealing programme for our audiences in the National Capital Region.”

NAC audiences will remember, among others, Wajdi Mouawad’s Pacamambo (presented in spring 2001), Ce n’est pas de la manière qu’on se l’imagine que Claude et Jacqueline se sont rencontrés (spring 2002, co-written with Estelle Clareton), and Incendies (fall 2003), as well as his direction of Chekhov’s Trois Sœurs (winter 2004). His most recent play, Forêts, will be presented at the NAC in March 2007. He also hosted the third annual Laboratoire du Théâtre français (French Theatre Master Class) in May 2004, on the theme of The Architecture and Geometry of Narrative. In 1996, the NAC English Theatre presented the world premiere of Wedding Day at the Cro-Magnons’ (Shelley Tepperman’s English translation of Mr. Mouawad’s play Journée de noces chez les Cromagnons), and recently commissioned an English translation by Linda Gaboriau of Incendies. The English version, Scorched, will be premiered by the NAC English Theatre April 4–21, 2007, in coproduction with Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre and the NAC’s Quebec Scene.

Background: Wajdi Mouawad

Born in Lebanon in 1968, Wajdi Mouawad fled the war-torn country with his family; they lived in Paris for a few years, then settled in Montreal. In 1991, shortly after graduating from the National Theatre School, he embarked on a quadruple career as an actor, writer, director and producer, occasionally wearing all four hats in a single production, as in Willy Protagoras enfermé dans les toilettes (winner of the 1998 Masque for Best Production/Montreal awarded by the Association québécoise des critiques de théâtre).
In all his work, from his own plays—a dozen so far, including Journée de noces chez les Cromagnons (Wedding Day at the Cro-Magnons’), Littoral (Tideline), Rêves, and Incendies (Scorched])—and adaptations (including Céline’s Journey to the End of the Night and Cervantes’ Don Quixote) to the productions he has directed (including Macbeth for the Théâtre Ô Parleur, which he co-founded with Isabelle Leblanc; Les Troyennes [The Trojan Women] and Les Trois Sœurs [Three Sisters] at the Théâtre du Trident; Œdipe roi [Œdipus Rex] at the Théâtre Denise-Pelletier; Reading Hebron with the Teesri Dunya Theatre; and Trainspotting and Six Personnages en quête d’auteur [Six Characters in Search of an Author] at the Théâtre de Quat’Sous), Wajdi Mouawad is guided by the central notion that “all art bears witness to human existence through the prism of beauty.”
From 2000 to 2004 he was the artistic director of Montreal’s Théâtre de Quat’ Sous, where he strove to create theatre that takes its rightful place as a voice in the stream of civic dialogue, a voice that will not conform to our market-driven culture, a voice that respects the obligation to remember the past while probing the meaning of life in the present. In 2005 he founded two companies (on either side of the Atlantic) specializing in the development of new work: Abé carré cé carré in Canada (in collaboration with Emmanuel Schwartz), and Au carré de l’hypoténuse in France.

Besides his work for the stage, Wajdi Mouawad has directed a feature-length film, Littoral, based on his play of the same name, and written a novel, Visage retrouvé. He published a series of in-depth interviews (titled Je suis le méchant!) with director André Brassard, a former artistic director (1982–89) of the NAC French Theatre; and was himself profiled in Architecture d’un marcheur: Entretiens avec Wajdi Mouawad, a collection of interviews conducted by sociologist Jean-François Côté.

In January 2002, the government of France named Wajdi Mouawad a Chevalier de l’Ordre National des Arts et des Lettres in recognition of his lifetime artistic contribution. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honours for his writing and directing, including the 2000 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama (for Littoral) and the 2004 Prix de la Francophonie awarded by the international Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques (SACD) for his lifetime achievement. In May 2005 he turned down France’s prestigious Molière Award for Best Francophone Author, in protest against the indifference of French stage directors to the work of contemporary writers.

Canada’s National Arts Centre

Canada’s National Arts Centre (NAC), located in the heart of Ottawa, the nation’s capital, was created as a Centennial gift to the people of Canada. Since it first opened its doors in 1969, the NAC has been strongly committed to fostering every aspect of the performing arts in Canada, working with emerging and established artists from across the country and around the world and collaborating with scores of other arts organizations to develop and produce new work. The NAC is home to the internationally acclaimed NAC Orchestra, and its four performance halls welcome outstanding artists and productions in dance, English theatre, and French theatre. It is a leader in youth and educational activities, offering innovative programmes for young artists and audiences from coast to coast to coast. The NAC is proud to be Canada’s foremost showcase for the performing arts. Find out more on the NAC website: www.nac-cna.ca.

The NAC French Theatre

From its very beginnings in 1969, the National Arts Centre (NAC) French Theatre has maintained the highest artistic standards, thanks to an impressive succession of exceptional artistic directors: Jean-Guy Sabourin, Jean Herbiet, André Brassard, Robert Lepage, Jean-Claude Marcus (Artistic Advisor), and currently (since December 2000) Denis Marleau.

NAC French Theatre audiences have come to expect theatre that is in step with the times; theatre that reflects and responds to emerging artistic trends both at home and abroad; theatre that actively participates in advancing contemporary dramatic writing and directing. These principles form the foundation of our collaborations with national and international partners, of the touring productions mounted by other companies and presented by French Theatre, and of the shows we produce ourselves, in-house, that express French Theatre’s distinctive voice. We offer our audiences not only aesthetically challenging theatre, but an emotional and intellectual adventure that is profoundly and unabashedly human.

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For more information, please contact:
Jayne Watson
Director, Communications
Canada’s National Arts Centre
(613) 947-7000 or 1 866 850-2787, ext. 260
jwatson@nac-cna.ca

Guy Warin
Communications Officer
French Theatre, Canada’s National Arts Centre
(613) 947-7000 or 1 866 850-2787, ext. 759
gwarin@nac-cna.ca