Anne Delbee

Anne Delbée entered a theater for the first time at the age of 12 to attend the play Tête d'or by Paul Claudel at the Odéon-Théâtre in Paris. The passion for the theater she discovered that night would never leave her. She became an actor, theater director, and writer. Her first troupe was formed by her classmates at the Lycée Claude-Monet. In 1970, with her first professional troupe, she produced a montage of Victor Hugo's texts at the Cité universitaire de Paris. She began working as an actress in 1968 under the direction of Gabriel Monnet at the Maison de la culture in Bourges. She has directed some 60 productions in France, Germany, and the USA, including Racine's classic trilogy (Andromaque, Bérénice, Phèdre). She has also directed operas, including La Traviata and Don Giovanni. Madame Delbée is also well-known for her 1983 novel Une Femme, about sculptor Camille Claudel, for which she received the Grand Prix des lectrices de Elle. It was adapted into a French film called Camille Claudel in 1988. She has been a close collaborator of Antoine Vitez and Maurice Béjart. In 2007, she was elected president of the Syndicat national des metteurs en scène (National Union of Stage Directors).