On the proposal of Rima Abdul Malak, Minister of Culture, the President of the Republic decided to appoint Caroline Guiela Nguyen as director of the National Theatre of Strasbourg for a term of 5 years.
Born in Poissy in 1981 to a Vietnamese mother and a Blackfoot father, Caroline Guiela Nguyen began studying sociology and performing arts at the University of Nice, then joined the Ecole du Théâtre National de Strasbourg (TNS), in 2006, to devote himself to directing. She creates her company «Les Hommes Approximatifs» which is interested in the stories of the intimate crossed by the great History and which reflect the evolutions of our society and whose plays Saigon, Fantastic Tale Brotherhood and the film The Sunken are the reflection. To bring these stories to life, Caroline Guiela Nguyen brings together professional actors and amateurs of all ages from different geographical, social and cultural backgrounds. It thus builds its artistic commitment, both in theatre and in cinema, around the question of diversity, the mixture of cultures and languages, to tell our time.
Internationally renowned artist Caroline Guiela Nguyen is now associated with the Odeon - Théâtre de l'Europe, the Schaubühne in Berlin, the Théâtre National de Bretagne in Rennes, the Comédie de Reims, the MC2: Grenoble and the Piccolo Teatro in Milan.
Caroline Guiela Nguyen intends to make the National Theatre of Strasbourg a theatre and a school where the practices of theatre, cinema and audiovisual are built and think of themselves in the same movement. To work on these issues, the theatre will partner with ARTE, a French-German public service channel with a European focus based in Strasbourg.
In the continuity of her artistic gesture, she is committed to developing all the tools possible to imagine a theatre-school in constant dialogue with those who are not yet sufficiently present in our rooms and on our sets. The Federation of Social Centres of France will be associated with the TNS to think and implement this project.
The author, director and director will open the doors of the TNS to artists, researchers and social actors to think and carry with her the mission of the TNS.
Anchored in the territory of the Strasbourg Eurometropolis, Caroline Guiela Nguyen’s project will address the challenges of theatre on a European scale. For this, it will rely on the vast network of theatres that has been formed around her creations: the Schaubühne (Berlin), the Wallonia-Brussels National Theatre, the Liège Theatre, the Piccolo Teatro (Milan), the Centro Dramático Nacional (Madrid), the Dramaten (Stockholm).
Caroline Guiela Nguyen will take up her duties on 1 September 2023, which will make it possible to anticipate and best prepare the implementation of her project thus succeeding Stanislas Nordey, which Rima Abdul Malak praises for its remarkable action in favour of contemporary creation and writing, but also for its important work in collaboration with some twenty associate artists – directors, authors and actors.
Rima Abdul Malak rejoices the new dynamic that Caroline Guiela Nguyen will instill in the TNS, with an open and generous project, resolutely European. Like her shows and writing processes, she will bring an open-ended vision, mixing theatre and cinema, small history and big history, intimate and collective. It aims to reach out to all those who feel remote from the theatre, so that they find their place in the audience, on stage or within the TNS school.”