Reading committee

Each season, the Comédie-Française is sent about four hundred plays, which are read and studied by a committee, the Readers’ Bureau. These sessions are conducted by the Comédie-Française’s literary adviser and culminate in the selection of nine of these texts, which are then read and performed by the Troupe and Academy in front of an audience.
Nine opportunities to discover nine playwrights, nine new plays which represent how diverse contemporary playwriting can be.
All three cycles revolve around a different type of text: the first one will feature pieces written in French, lively works for young audiences will make up the second one, while foreign plays will be presented during the third one.

FOR THE SEASON 2023-2024

3rd CYCLE – ÉCRITURES ÉTRANGÈRES (FOREIGN AUTHORS)
JUNE 15 AT 3 P.M., JUNE 16 AND 17 AT 8:30 P.M.

FOR THE SEASON 2024-2025

1st CYCLE – ÉCRITURES FRANCOPHONES (FRENCH PIECES)
NOV 29, 30 AT 8:30 P.M., DEC 1 AT 2 P.M.
2nd CYCLE – ÉCRITURES JEUNESSE (YOUNG AUDIENCES)
APRIL 5, 6 AND 12 AT 2 P.M.

3rd CYCLE – ÉCRITURES ÉTRANGÈRES (FOREIGN AUTHORS)
JUNE 14 AT 3 P.M., JUNE 15 AND 16 AT 8:30 P.M.

A subscription is available for the Reader's Bureau ! If you book all three readings, pay 24€ instead of 30€ at full price and 15€ instead of 18€ at the reduces rate.
For the 2nd cycle, please click here.
For the 3rd cycle, please click here.

The Repertoire of the Comédie-Française consists of all the plays performed by the Comédiens-Français on their main stage, today the Salle Richelieu. Any work may be entered into the Repertoire of the Comédie-Française by the Reading Committee, upon the proposal of the General Administrator.

Outside of the Reading Committee, the Administrator may decide to form a Readers’ Bureau given the task of reading all manuscripts sent to the Comédie-Française by authors or translators. Today, the Readers’ Bureau is chaired by the Comédie-Française’s Literary Adviser. It meets six times a year and reads about 350 texts. The bureau is made up of members of the Comédie-Française and external members. All bureau members are invited to give their impressions of the texts they have read and to provide an assessment of their innovative qualities in terms of form and choice of subject as well as their literary quality.

During the public reading sessions, “committed spectators”, meaning spectators who attend the entire cycle of readings, are invited to comment on the plays and pick one of them as their favourite. The activities of the bureau and the organisation of these readings help to cast light on texts that have often never been performed or published. In this way, these texts may find a place in the programme of the Comédie-Française or in the programme of one of the partner institutions to which they are referred: Association Beaumarchais/SACD, National Theatre Centre, Chartreuse – Centre national des écritures du spectacle, publishers, or France Culture. These contacts allow for a better exploitation of the works of some authors and sometimes material support: production or publication grants, and residencies.

Direction

Members of the Bureau

Sylvia Bergé
Alain Lenglet
Françoise Gillard
Edith Proust
Marine Jubin
Louis-Gilles Pairault
Florence Thomas
Mélinée Moreau
Laurent Muhleisen
Aurélien Hamard-Padis
Séverine Daucourt
Aristeo Tordesillas

The plays distinguished by the public (“committed spectators” group) were:

2022/2023 Season
● Cinq dans le nid de Cordelia Lynn, traduction par Blandine Pélissier

2021/2022 Season
● L'Arbre à sang d'Angus Cerini
● Les Toilettes de l'entreprise de Tristan Choisel

2019/2020 Season
● Suzy Storck de Magali Mougel

2018/2019 Season
● Les Chroniques de Peter Sanchidriàn de Jose Padilla, traduit de l'espagnol par Victoria Mariani
● PIG BOY 1986-2358 de Gwendoline Soublin
● Si je survis de Dominik Busch, traduit de l'allemand par Silvia et Jean-Claude Berutti-Ronelt

2017/2018 Season
● Iphigénie à Splott by Gary Owen
● Delta Charlie Delta by Michel Simonot
● Je Reviens de loin by Claudine Galea
● Canicule (évangile apocryphe d'une famille, d'un pays) by Lola Blasco

2016/2017 Season
● L'Affaire Harry Crawford by Lachlan Philpott,

2015/2016 Season
● Dévastation by Dimitris Dimitriadis
● Extase et quotidien by Rebekka Kricheldorf

2014/2015 Season
● L'Étrange incident du chien pendant la nuit by Mark Haddon
● Bien lotis by Philippe Malone

2013/2014 Season
● Les Morb(y)des by Sébastien David
● Le Principe d'Archimède by Josep Maria Mirò

2012/2013 Season
● Dancefloor Memories by Lucie Depauw
● Voleurs by Dea Loher

2011/2012 Season
● Une maison en or by Gregory Moss
● Le Cartographe by Juan Mayorga

2010/2011 Season
● Belgrade by Angelica Liddell
● Lampedusa Beach by Lina Prosa

2009/2010 Season
● Barbelo (Barbelo, on Dogs and Children) by Biljana Srbljanovic
● Erzuli Dahomey, déesse de l'amour by Jean-René Lemoine

2008/2009 Season
● La Maladie de la famille M. (The Sickness of the M. Family) by Fausto Paravidino
● Les Enfants de la pleine lune (The Children of the Full Moon) d'Emanuele delle Piane

2007/2008 Season
● Burn Baby Burn by Carine Lacroix
● Le bruit des os qui craquent (The Sound of Cracking Bones) by Suzanne Lebeau

Dévastation by Dimitris Dimitriadis was staged in July 2018 by Marceau Deschamps-Ségura, with the Class of 2017/2018 Comédie-Française Academy at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier.
Dancefloor Memories by Lucie Depauw was staged by Hervé Van der Meulen in 2015 at the Studio-Théâtre.
Lampedusa Beach by Lina Prosa was first staged at the Studio-Théâtre by Christian Benedetti in April 2013 and by the author in a triptych in February 2014.
Erzuli Dahomey, déesse de l'amour by Jean-René Lemoine was staged by Éric Génovèse during the 2011/2012 Season at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier.
The Sickness of the M. Family was directed in February 2011 by the author at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier.
The Sound of Cracking Bones and Burn Baby Burn were staged in February 2010 by Anne-Laure Liégeois at the Studio-Théâtre and The Sound of Cracking Bones was revived during the Contemporary Encounters.

La promotion 2017/2018 de l’académie de la Comédie-Française a présenté Dévastation de l’auteur grec Dimìtris Dimitriàdis au Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier.
Dancefloor Memories de Lucie Depauw a été mis en scène par Hervé Van der Meulen, en 2015, au Studio-Théâtre.
Lampedusa Beach de Lina Prosa a d'abord été mis en scène au Studio-Théâtre par Christian Benedetti, en avril 2013, puis par son autrice, en février 2014, sous la forme d'un triptyque.
Éric Génovèse a mis en scène Erzuli Dahomey, déesse de l'amour de Jean-René Lemoine pendant la saison 2011/2012 au Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier.
La Maladie de la famille M. a été mise en scène en février 2011 par son auteur au Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier.
Au cours de la saison 2009/2010, Le bruit des os qui craquent et Burn Baby Burn ont été mis en scène par Anne-Laure Liégeois au Studio-Théâtre.