Actors and high school students, hand in hand

The Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation and the Comédie-Française theatre are working together to offer students from the Jean Renoir high school in Bondy the chance to participate in an introduction to theatre, based on the production of Kleist’s Penthesilea. The play, directed by Jean Liermier, is showing in the theatre’s Salle Richelieu from the 26th January 2008.

This partnership, aimed at students from a high school in a priority education zone (this experimental programme was initiated by Sciences Po (Paris’ political sciences school) in Seine-Saint-Denis), is an important first for the Comédie-Française.

“How do you put on a production?” “How is theatre created?”
These are the sorts of questions tackled over the course of the school year.

Thanks to this workshop, with the analysis of a classic text and an initiation to interpretation techniques, the students of Bondy’s Jean Renoir high school are thoroughly immersed in the process of artistic creation.

Stage one: The high school students went to watch rehearsals for Penthesilea and visited the back-stage areas of the Comédie-Française. They also met director Jean Liermier as well as Léonie Simaga, the actress playing Penthesilea. On the 25th January, the students have attended Penthesilea' dress rehearsal.

The outcome of these experiences will be presented at the Comédie-Française’s Studio-Theatre in June 2008.

Link to Comédie-Française's website, click here