French theatre directors

Olivier Py (French pronunciation: [pi]; born 24 July 1965 in Grasse, Alpes-Maritimes) is a French stage director, actor and writer.

Jérôme Savary (27 June 1942 – 4 March 2013) was an Argentinian-French theater director and actor. His work has democratized and widened the appeal of musical theater in France, drawing together and blending such genres as opera, operetta, and musical comedy.

Paul Georges Buissonneau, (born 24 December 1926 – 30 November 2014) was a leading francophone theatre director in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Born in Paris, France, Buissonneau started his career as a singer with the French chorus Les Compagnons de la chanson, alongside Édith Piaf who was also singing with the group at the time. He parted company with the chorus during a tour of North America, and settled in Quebec.In 1952, the City of Montreal appointed Buissonneau as artistic director of La Roulotte, a parks-based outdoor theatre, which gave an early opportunity to famous Quebec artists Yvon Deschamps, Jean-Louis Millette, Claude Jasmin, Claude Léveillé, Marcel Sabourin and Robert Charlebois.In 1956, he founded his own company, the Théâtre de Quat'Sous (Four-penny Theatre) and served as its artistic director until 1989. Many famous Quebec playwrights began their career in this theatre, notably Robert Lepage, François Barbeau, André Brassard, René-Daniel Dubois, and Lothaire Bluteau.During his 35-year career as director of the Quat'Sous theatre, he played and wrote numerous plays and TV shows. He is remembered for creating and bringing to life the character of Picolo in the children's television series entitled La Boîte à surprises (The surprise box). The series started in 1954 and lasted until the early 1970s.He received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award in 1998 and the Prix Denise-Pelletier in 2001. In 2009, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada "for his contributions to the evolution of the performing arts, especially theatre, as director of the La Roulotte and Quat’Sous theatres."

Jean-Laurent Cochet (28 January 1935 – 7 April 2020) was a French director and actor.

Marie Bell (23 December 1900 – 14 August 1985), born Marie-Jeanne Bellon-Downey, was a French tragedian, comic actor and stage director. She was the director of the Théâtre du Gymnase in Paris from 1962 onwards, and this theatre now bears her name.

Ariane Mnouchkine (French: [aʁjan nuʃkin]; born 3 March 1939) is a French stage director. She founded the Parisian avant-garde 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.

Antoine Vitez (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃twan vitɛz]; 20 December 1930 – 30 April 1990) was a French actor, director, and poet. He became a central character and influence on the French theater in the post-war period, especially in the technique of teaching drama. He was also translator of Chekhov, Vladimir Mayakovsky and Mikhail Sholokhov.

Léonce Joseph Perret (14 March 1880 – 12 August 1935) was a prolific and innovative French film actor, director and producer. He also worked as a stage actor and director. Often described as avant-garde for his unorthodox directing methods, Perret introduced innovative camera, lighting and film scoring techniques to French cinema.
Perret began his career as a relatively undistinguished stage actor. He was recruited to the film industry by the Gaumont Film Company. His numerous short films gained significant accolade in French cinematography. Until his emigration to the United States in 1917, he was a fixture of the Gaumont Film Company. On American soil, he produced several popular films, the most notable being Lest We Forget (N'oublions jamais) in 1918.
After returning to France, he directed the successful Koenigsmark in 1923. His film Madame Sans-Gêne (1925), starring Gloria Swanson, was the first joint Franco-American film production. In addition, Perret collaborated with many of the French and American idols of his generation such as Abel Gance, Gloria Swanson, Gaby Morlay, René Cresté, Arletty, Suzanne Grandais, Mae Murray, and Huguette Duflos.

Roger Blin (Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, 22 March 1907 – Évecquemont, France, 21 January 1984) was a French actor and director. He staged world premieres of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot in 1953 and Endgame in 1957.

Pierre Mondy (born Pierre Cuq; 10 February 1925 – 15 September 2012) was a French film and theatre actor and director.