Ariane Mnouchkine

Ariane Mnouchkine born 3 March 1939 is a French stage director She founded the Parisian avantgarde stage ensemble Théâtre du Soleil in 1964 She wrote and directed 1789 1974 and Molière 1978 and directed La Nuit Miraculeuse 1989 She holds a Chair of Artistic Creation at the Collège de France an Honorary Degree in Performing Arts from the University of Rome III awarded in 2005 and an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Oxford University awarded 18 June 2008 Ariane Mnouchkine is the daughter of Jewish Russian film producer Alexandre Mnouchkine and June Hannen daughter of Nicholas Hannen Mnouchkines paternal grandparents Alexandre and Bronislawa Mnouchkine were both deported from Drancy to Auschwitz on 17 December 1943 where they were both murdered Ariane is the namesake of the production company Ariane Films that was founded by her father Mnouchkine attended Sorbonne University in Paris France where she studied Literature On a year abroad at Oxford University in England studying English Literature she joined the Oxford University Dramatic Society and decided to return to her roots in theatre She founded the ATEP Association Théâtrale des Étudiants de Paris or Parisian Students Theatrical Association in 1959 when she returned to the Sorbonne She continued theatre studies at LÉcole Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq where in 1964 she founded Théâtre du Soleil Theatre of the Sun with her fellow students The theatre collective still continues to create social and political critiques of local and world cultures Théâtre du Soleils productions are often performed in found spaces like barns or gymnasiums because Mnouchkine does not like being confined to a typical stage Similarly she feels theatre cannot be restricted with the fourth wall When audiences enter a Mnouchkine production they will often find the actors preparing putting on makeup getting into costume right before their eyes In 1971 Mnouchkine signed the Manifesto of the 343 publicly announcing she had an illegal abortion Mnouchkine has developed her own works like the politicalthemed 1789 as well as numerous classical texts like Molières Don Juan or Tartuffe Between 1981 and 1984 she translated and directed a series of William Shakespeare plays Richard II Twelfth Night and Henry IV Part 1 While she developed the shows one at a time when she finished Henry IV she toured the three together as a cycle of plays Similarly she developed Iphigenia by Euripides and the Oresteia Agamemnon Choephori and The Eumenides by Aeschylus between 199092 Source Article Ariane Mnouchkine from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30