Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, Minister of Culture, has agreed to the proposal to appoint Cédric Gourmelon as director of the Bethune Comedy, a national drama centre.
Born in 1974, Cédric Gourmelon was trained at the school of the Théâtre National de Bretagne before creating in Brittany the company Réseau lilas and being an artist associated with the Quartz, national stage of Brest, and the Passerelle, national stage of Saint-Brieuc. In addition to his work as a director in France and abroad, he conducts many training courses at the university and at higher drama schools.
Cédric Gourmelon intends to make the Bethune Comedy a place dedicated to cultural democratization, to the manufacture of a fiction theatre and a theatre of texts, and to the dissemination of great works capable of making people dream. It will be able to rely on a constellation of artists to summon all forms of theatre and all audiences. Louise Vignaud, Tommy Milliot, Pauline Bayle, Thomas Piasecki as well as Jean-François Sivadier, Tiphaine Raffier and Baptiste Amann will accompany him to make the Béthune Comedy an open and generous place that does not compromise on artistic ambition.
Cédric Gourmelon also wants, at the end of the health crisis, to reconnect art and society by organizing a continuous presence of artists in the territory of Hauts-de-France through long-term residencies or through the roaming of light forms. He hopes to transmit the passion for theatre to all audiences by paying special attention to young adults.
Cédric Gourmelon will take up his duties on 1er July 2021, succeeding Cécile Backès. Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin salutes her action at the head of the Bethune Comedy and especially her commitment to parity and youth.