New York University’s Center for French Civilization and Culture has partnered with a range of French cultural institutions to organize “PARIS BECKETT 2006,” the world’s largest centennial celebration of playwright and author Samuel Beckett. The celebrations events, which will include performances of Beckett’s plays, roundtable discussions of his works, and readings of his works by well-known actors, will be held in and around Paris beginning in the fall of 2006.
A listing of sessions is available at http://www.festival-paris-beckett.com/
“PARIS BECKETT 2006 will be the most important of countless celebrations throughout the world marking the 100th anniversary of the author’s birth,” said NYU Professor Thomas Bishop, director of the university’s Center for French Civilization and Culture. “The fact that Beckett wrote more than half of his work in French makes Paris and its historically rich cultural institutions worthy settings for this centennial.”
Among the venues for the performances of Beckett’s plays are the following: the Comédie Française (the French National Theater); the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord; the Théâtre de l’Athénée; and the Théâtre de la Ville. Other events, including round tables, lectures, and readings by actors, will take place at a variety of locations, including: the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (the French National Library) and the Great Amphitheater of the Sorbonne. Readings are anticipated by the following actors, among others: Isabelle Huppert, Marie-France Pisier, Michel Bouquet, Laurence Terzieff, Billie Whitelaw, and Fiona Shaw.
Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) is widely acknowledged to have been one of the outstanding voices in world literature in the second half of the 20th century. Beckett was born in Ireland, but lived the last 50 years of his life in France, where he wrote “Waiting for Godot”—a play that changed the course of theater across the globe.