Frontline Drama 6: The French Issue

Catherine Anne (born 1960) is a French actor, director and dramaturg. After her studies, she worked under the renowned directors Sommaire. More than twenty-five of her plays have been produced, throughout France and abroad, including Agnès, which, in a translation by Nigel Gearing was given a rehearsed reading at the Royal Court in London in 1997. She was Artistic Director of the Théâtre de l'Est parisien from 2002 to 2011, where her time at the helm was noted for its exposure of contemporary authors and the democratisation of the theatre towards all generations of audiences. Christophe Pellet is a French dramaturg, born in Toulon, 1963. He is a graduate of the École nationale supérieure des métiers de l'image et du son (formerly le FEMIS). As well as One More Wasted Year (translated by Martin Crimp), which was given a full production by the Royal Court in 1997, he has also written a number of films including Le Garçon avec les cheveux dans les yeux, and Plus dure sera la chute. Nathacha de Pontcharra was born in Montélimar in 1960. A writer and artist, she lives in Paris. She has been publishing novels and poems since 1976, in various reviews: Les Nouvelles Littéraires, Parler, Exit, Le Fou parle... She is also the author of more than twenty plays and has won many prizes and bursaries. In her work, de Pontcharra explores the depths of human soul and society through characters often on the margins. She has written on many subjects, from the family (in La Trempe, Les Ratés, La franchise c'est bien, Le Voisinage, Mickey-la-Torche), the world of business, (in Dancing), and adolescence (in Je m'appelle pas Shéhérazade). Many of her works have been translated and produced abroad, including Annabel Arden's rendering of Mickey-the-Torch, which was given a rehearsed reading at the Royal Court in 1997, and published by Methuen Drama in Frontline Drama 6: New French Plays in 2000. Noëlle Renaude (b. Paris, 1949) is a French dramaturg. She has written many plays, the majority of which have been translated into many languages and performed around the world. Plays include: Madame Ka (1999); Fiction d'hiver (1999); La Comédie de Saint-Étienne (2000); Promenades (2002); 8 (2003); Par les routes (2004 ); and Sans carte sans boussole sans équipement (2010 ). Her play Le Renard du Nord was translated by Gillian Hanna and given a rehearsed reading at the Royal Court in 1997. It is published by Methuen Drama in Frontline Drama 6: New French Plays (2000). Xavier Durringer (b. Paris 1963) is a French dramaturg and directo. He is the artistic director of Le Lézarde for whom he writes and directs.His Une envie de tuer..., sur le bout de la langue (translated by Mark Ravenhill as The Desire to Kill on the Tip of the Tongue) was presented at the Royal Court as a rehearsed reading in 1997. It was subsequently published by Methuen Drama in Frontline Drama 6: New French Plays (2000).