Thomas BOUVET
Stage director

Thomas received a writing grant for his plays L'Humanité and La Beauté Intérieure.

What is your artistic background ?
After obtaining a Master's degree in Theoretical Physics, I gave up everything to go into theatre at the age of 22. I enrolled in the Cours Florent where I had different professors (Christian Croset, Jean-Pierre Garnier...). After working on Racine’s Phèdre, which I directed and which brought together actors from the Cours Florent’s Classe Libre, I founded the Def Maira Company in 2005. I find a new way of questioning the world in theatre, of creating spaces and times of my own. Each creation is the opportunity for a new research laboratory on beauty, language and aesthetic universes whose themes can be love, desire, death, power... For me, it is all about questioning and re-interrogating the forms of language, always including the public in the discussion, as I want the audience to be active and in dialogue with the different propositions. To date I have staged eight shows: La Ravissante Rondeby Werner Schwab (Special Mention from the jury at the Prix Théâtre 13 / Young Directors 2006), Loretta Strongby Copi (Carte blanche at the CNSAD in 2007), Phèdreby Racine (Comédie de Reims-CDN in 2008), La Cruche Casséeby Kleist (Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe at the Impatience Festival 2010 and winner of the Prix Théâtre 13 / Young Directors 2009), John & Maryby Rambert (Théâtre de Vanves in 2012), Endormis Sous le Cielby Mario Batista (La Loge-Paris in 2013), L'Humanité, based on the poetry of August Stramm (2014). In December 2013, I directed a workshop at the Moscow Art Theatre around Eugène Labiche's comedy Un Chapeau de Paille d'Italie. The production has since been performed regularly at the Art Theatre. At the same time, I have been assistant director to Pascal Rambert since 2011 on Clôture de l'Amour(Festival d'Avignon 2011), Memento Mori (Hivernales d'Avignon 2013), and Rehearsal(Festival d'Automne à Paris 2014, T2G). It seems important to me to also be involved in a work of transmission. To this end, I have been able to work at the Comédie de Reims school, at the LFTP (Laboratoire de Formation au Travail Physique) and soon at the École du Jeu in Paris.

How do you see your profession today ?
The theatrical landscape is vast, abundant, extremely diverse and therefore fascinating to see. I really enjoy my position as a spectator, going to see a lot of very different productions (sometimes including shows I don't know anything about in advance). This landscape is also getting broader and broader through mixing the arts. A lot of new works are made every year. On the other hand, the number of performances and therefore the visibility is decreasing. To emerge, to be identified, can therefore take some time, all the more so if the work does not respond to certain aesthetic standards of the moment. So I believe that the things that count are patience, confidence and the pleasure of the work in its approach, all of which are sometimes put to the test.

How do you see yourself in 5 years ? In 10 years ?
I created the Def Maira Company in 2005, nine years ago. The company's development and identification have always progressed over the years. As my shows progress, I affirm and clarify my work. So I hope that this will continue and that the company's various projects will be carried out in good conditions, that the experiences I have had with projects abroad will be reproduced and developed further. Alongside my directing projects, I would like to be able to perform more as an actor with other directors. Finally, I will continue to work on my curiosity about creation and I hope to contribute in my own way to questioning the theatrical landscape.  

This interview was conducted in 2013
Photo credit: Anthony Anciaux