Georges Lavaudant Biography

Georges Lavaudant spent twenty years at the Grenoble theatre with the Théâtre Partisan troupe, and was then appointed Co-Director of the Centre Dramatique National des Alpes in 1976 with Gabriel Monnet. It was here that he invented what has become practice today: actors’ workshops. It was during this period that he created his first legendary show, Palazzo Mentale by Pierre Bourgeade, which earned him his first Grand Prix . In 1979 he put on La Rose et la Hache adapted from Shakespeare, in which he and Ariel Garcia Valdes are the only two people on stage.

In September 1981 he was appointed Director of the Grenoble Maison de la Culture.
He put on Pirandello's Les Géants de la Montagne with a striking stage design by Jean-Pierre Vergier that included a suspension bridge. He has also directed several operas including Romeo and Juliette by Charles Gounod at the Paris Opera and L’Enlèvement au Sérail by Mozart at the Lyon Opera.

In July 1983 he put on Jean-Christophe Bailly's Les Cepheides in the Palais de Papes cour d’honneur at the Avignon Festival.
In 1985 He put on Jean Genet's Le Balcon, and the show toured as far afield as Mexico, and the dazzling impression made by this country was to inspire his future work.

In 1986 he was appointed co-director, with Roger Planchon, of the Villeurbane TNP, where he alternated classic and contemporary authors : Jean-Christophe Bailly's Le Régent (Jan 1987); Brecht's Dans la jungle des Villes (May 1987).

In May 1988, he directed Veracruz, the first play that he wrote.
In 1988 in Mexico, he put on Jean-Marie Le Clézio's Pawana. He was the first director to stage the author's works.
In May 1989 he worked with Michel Deutsch for the first time on a production of Feroe, la nuit with two actors whom he has continued to work with, Patrick Pine and Sylvie Orcier.
In 1989 he reprised Lorenzaccio, originally put on in Grenoble in 1975 with Ariel Garcia Valdes.

In 1990 he received the Georges Lherminier Prize for his version of Chekov's Platonov, awarded by the critics' union for the best regional show.
Pawana was re-staged in French. In july 1991 at the Avignon Festival, he created Les Iris, a small show-collage which did very well.
In 1992 he wrote and staged Terra Incognita – at the Odeon theatre.
In March 1993 Eugène Labiche's Un Chapeau de paille d’Italie was one of his biggest comic successes.
In May 1993 world premiere of Claude Debussy's Rodrigue et Chimène at the Lyon opera.
In June 1993 he leaves for Uruguay where, in three weeks, he created Isidore Ducasse : Fragments, an adaptation of songs by Maldoror de Lautréamont.

In February 1994 he staged Hamlet at the Comédie-Française with Redjep Mirovitsa.

In 1995 and 1996, he created Lumières (I) "Près des ruines" and Lumières (II) "Sous les arbres", by Jean-Christophe Bailly, Michel Deutsch, Jean-François Duroure and himself. It was a crossroads play, in collaboration with these three regular work partners. The show was written using texts composed during rehearsals, and constitutes a work rich in very great invention. He directed actors from the Maly theatre in St Petersburg in an adaptation of Lumières: Reflets, performed at the Odeon theatre in 1997. The same year, he directed the world premiere of Prova with Giorgio Battistelli's orchestra at the Rhine opera.

In January 1996, he performed 6 Fois 2, his first workshop at the Paris Conservatoire National d’Art Dramatique. This was based on improvisation and on questionnaires on certain themes – a sort of self-portrait.

In March 1996 he was appointed Director of the Odeon Theatre - Théâtre de l’Europe, and remained there until March.
In his time there he staged :
- King Lear by Shakespeare (1996) – Phillipe Morier-Genoud reprised the title role
- Bienvenue by Lavaudant (1996) – created to inaugurate the Cabane, a traveling theatre
- Reflets by Jean-Christophe Bailly (1997)
- Ajax et Philoctête, adapted from Sophocles (Petit Odéon, 1997)
- Histoires de France, in collaboration with Michel Deutsch (1997)
- La noce chez les petits-bourgeois and Tambours dans la nuit by Bertolt Brecht (1998)
- L'Orestie, Eschyles (1999)
- Fanfares (2000) One of his most secret works, with very few words, for which e also created the lighting and sound track.
- Un Fil à la patte, by Feydeau (2001)
- La Mort de Danton, by Büchner (2002)
- El Pelele, by Jean-Christophe Bailly, May 2003
- La Cerisaie, by Chekhov, January 2004
- Hamlet [un songe], adapted from Shakespeare, in April 2006, for the re-opening of the Odeon theatre after renovation works
- Cassandre, adapted from Christa Wolf, with music by Michaël Jarrell, in December 2006.

He also re-staged some of his work :
- Un chapeau de paille d'Italie, by Eugène Labiche (1997)
- La dernière nuit, by Lavaudant (Petit Odéon, 1997)
- Pawana, by Jean-Marie Le Clézio (1997)
- Les Géants de la Montagne, by Pirandello (1999, created in Catalanin Barcelona)
- La Rose et la hache (2004) – in which he performed with Ariel Garcia Valdes.
- Les Cenci, adapted from Antonin Artaud, with music by Giorgio Battistelli, in April 2007.

At the same time he staged the following Operas :

Le Journal Vénitien adapted from Boswell, followed by Satyricon adapted from Pétrone at the Nancy opera; Fidelio by Beethoven at the teatro Carlo Felice in Genova ; Les genci at the Accademia Musicale in Chigiana ; Tristan et Yseult at the Montpellier Opera; Cassandre in December 2006.

In November 2007, with his company, LG Théâtre, he created an adaptation of Sophocles' La mort d’Hercule at the MC2 in Grenoble, co-produced and re-staged in February 2008 at the MC93 Bobigny.

He has directed numerous works abroad :
- in December 2007 in Madrid he staged Feydeau's On purge bébé (from December 22nd to 30th 2007),
- in Verona he put on Verdi's Attila (March 28th to April 6th 2008),
- in March 2008 He staged Kleist's Scènes de chasse at the Montpellier Opera (March 7th and 9th 2008) .

Current and future projects :
September 2008 : Directing at the CNAC (Centre National des Arts du Cirque)
Creation at the Lyon Opera : La Clémence deTitus,
In Tokyo, re-staging of Des Géants de la montagne by Pirandello.

Texts published :
Théâtre à Grenoble – Dix ans de CDNA – 1986
Veracruz – published by Christian Bourgois, Paris 1989
Terra Incognita suivi de Les Iris, published by Christian Bourgois, Paris 1992
Lumières écriture with Jean-Christophe Bailly and Michel Deutsch
published by Christian Bourgois, Paris 1995.