French-born Brigitte Haentjens will take over as artistic director of the NAC’s French Theatre in 2012.
The National Arts Centre has named Brigitte Haentjens as the new artistic director of the French Theatre – the first woman to ever hold the position.
The announcement was met with cheers from the crowd that gathered at the National Arts Centre to see who would succeed current artistic director, Wajdi Mouawad.
“She was a natural choice for us,” says Rosemary Thompson, spokesperson for the National Arts Centre.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity for her and for us, and she’s the first woman so that’s a big breakthrough and we’re very thrilled she got it.”
Haentjens will officially start her four-year term in September 2012, but she will work alongside Mouawad as the director-designate during his final season.
The French-born Haentjens brings more than 30 years of experience to the job, having moved to Ontario in 1977, where she immediately started working with Franco-Ontarian theatre companies such as Sudbury’s Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario (New Ontario Theatre).
Haentjens has directed close to 50 productions and has already worked in connection with the National Arts Centre on multiple projects, including co-writing the 1984 show Nickel, and more recently, producing an adaptation of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar in 2004.
“The Francophone theatre community is very happy about her appointment,” says René Cormier, former chair of the Association of French Theatres of Canada.
“She has a very strong theatrical background and she is a very well known director with a strong voice.”
While Haentjens’s previous experience made her an obvious choice to many in the theatre community, the newly appointed director says the offer came as a shock.
“Everybody has been telling me for 20 years that I’ll be the next artistic director, but at one point in my life I quit dreaming of it so it was very surprising,” says Haentjens.
According to Thompson, Haentjens’s widespread appeal made her an ideal choice for the artistic director position.
“She is going to reach out to French-speaking Canadians all over the country,” says Thompson. “And because we are a national institution and we like to tour and we like to touch everyone across the country, we know that she has that kind of impulse already.”
Haentjens says she hopes to connect with artists all across Canada, but admits she has not yet established an exact vision for what the French Theatre will look like during her term.
“I feel very close to Wajdi’s work and at this point it is like a continuation for me,” says Haentjens.
“I’ve been working for 30 years now so it’s not all about me or all about changing everything, and I know it is a big institution so you can’t change things just like that.”
Under Haentjens’s stewardship, audiences can expect to see a mixture of both contemporary work and older works, including the ancient Greeks.
And despite her new high-profile position, Haentjens says she will draw inspiration from the same things she always has – the written word and artwork.
“I love literature, I read a lot. I’ve always loved words and books for all my life and that is a big source of inspiration,” says Haentjens.
“Inspiration is mysterious, it is the way you are in life and the way you receive people and the way you exchange with people.”