Céline Devalan: actress, author & director
Trained in Chaillot National Theatre and graduated from Cours Florent acting school, Celine Devalan is author, director and actress. She has worked highlighting writers through language and the physicality of their speech ; she puts the text at the centre of the imaginative process.
« Mostly, I am sympathetic to a language and put the actor and the text at the heart of my vision. The actor is centre of the stage and the text remains the core, then I don’t want anything to get in the way of this creative process. Anything that doesn’t favour the story must be forgotten. Directing is creating meaning, make a language concrete, a situation believable whatsoever.
Every time I’m working on a new show, I tend to think in pictures. I always work on a very uncluttered aesthetic, almost cinematographic, based on lighting effect, something visual and with music ; only things that enhance the spectator’s imaginary, the whole contrasting sharply with the show’s refined aesthetic and the speech’s ferociousness. So, humour is also at the very heart of writing and it’s an essential factor to deliver the story, humour makes it possible to de-dramatize situations and behaviours.
As a director, music is an important part of my work : « music is acting » and conducts the intentions of the drama, supporting the story being told.
All this items are representative of my identity as a director : make available a language, an author, an intention to an audience nowadays from different ages and social or cultural backgrounds. I want my theatre to be popular, smart and funny at the same time.
Shows
Currently: To the fools who dream (written and directed by Celine Devalan) opening December 2018 – running in Paris from August to October 2020 – On tour from November 2020 to February 2021 – Avignon’s Festival July 2021
• When Love denotes (written and directed by Celine Devalan) – Musical. Opening June 2019 – running in Paris from August to October 2019
• Shakespeare, As We Like It (written and directed by Celine Devalan, March 2015 in Paris and Bridewell theatre London February 2017)
• International Actors’ Fellowship – Globe Theatre London (October 2015) directed by Bill Buckhurst and Raz Shaw
• Miss Charity (by Marie-Aude Murail, adapted and directed by Celine Devalan and Vincent Reverte, November 2013, supported by the author)
• Muses (adapted from William Shakespeare and directed by Celine Devalan, May 2013)
• The 3 Lives of Jane Austen (by Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf, directed by Lesley Chatterley, March 2008 to February 2012)
• Wolfgang (directed by Celine Devalan, March 2009)
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (directed by Celine Devalan, May 2007)
• Femmes combattantes (Female Fighters) (directed by Pascal Moret, August 2005)
• Tchekhov: 2 Farces and a Few Illusions (directed by Cédric Prévost, 2003 to 2004)
• Contes Grivois (Saucy Tales) (by Guy de Maupassant directed by Cédric Prevost and Celine Devalan, May 2004 to February 2008)
• Exercices de Style (Exercise in Style) (by Raymond Queneau directed by J.C. Ventura, December 1998 to February 1999)
Projets
• Age Of Crowns – Shakespeare’s complete history circle (from July 2020 to August 2020). Part : Margaret of Anjou / The Alex Theatre, Melbourne (Australia)