‘French theater group L’Avant-Scène marks 20 years with shows and special speakers’

Princeton University is gearing up to celebrate the 20th anniversary of L’Avant-Scène, the French Theater Workshop. The weekend festivities, scheduled for April 18-20, will commemorate two decades of showcasing full-length plays in French by Princeton undergraduate and graduate students. Florent Masse, the professor of French and Italian and founder of the program, has been instrumental in shaping the success of L’Avant-Scène.

The highlight of the celebration will be a revival of the workshop’s first full production of Georges Feydeau’s farce, “Le Dindon,” which debuted on campus back in 2004. The play will run at the Wallace Theater in the Lewis Center for the Arts. Alongside the performance, there will be engaging public conversations and panels featuring distinguished individuals such as former French Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, and filmmaker Alice Diop.

Since its inception, L’Avant-Scène has produced an average of four full-length plays annually, attracting over 120 participating students. Laurent Pueyo, an alumnus, praised the workshop for providing him with a supportive community outside of his academic pursuits.

The event will also feature reunions of past participants like Laurent Pueyo and Mina Morova, who will be traveling from different parts of the world to join in the festivities. Partnerships with various institutions, including Princeton’s Lewis Center for the Arts, have allowed Masse to expand the French theater community and offer interdisciplinary courses, trips abroad, and an annual French theater festival on campus.

To find out more about the weekend’s events and ticket information, you can visit the official online page for the celebration. Join Princeton University in celebrating two decades of rich French theatrical history with L’Avant-Scène.