Announcing the 2025 Theatre & New Forms Grantees
Villa Albertine and Albertine Foundation are pleased to announce the laureates of the 2025 Theatre & New Forms grants, which support theater, circus, puppetry, street theater, and hybrid forms.
This initiative aims to foster artistic exchanges in the contemporary field between France and the United States, by financing tours and collaborative projects related to the performing arts.
Discover the diverse projects we’re thrilled to support this year! We believe in nurturing performance in all its forms, from large-scale theatrical spectacle, powerful duo or solo piece, immersive participatory experience to indoor and outdoor circus.
Text and Direction by Caroline Guiela Nguyen with Dan Artus, Dinah Bellity, Natasha Cashman, Charles Vinoth Irudhayaraj, Anaele Jan Kerguistel, Maud Le Grevellec, Liliane Lipau or Michèle Goddet, Rajarajeswari Parisot, Vasanth Selvam
Paris, 2025. A prestigious fashion house receives a most important commission: to create the Princess of England’s future wedding dress. For months, and in utmost secrecy, seamstresses, designers, workshop managers, and embroiderers will be hard at work between Paris, Alençon, and Mumbai… Until their lives take a dramatic turn. Villa Albertine resident Caroline Guiela Nguyen explores the absent narratives and characters that never make it on to the theatre stage. Having shown us the inner workings of a Vietnamese restaurant in Saigon and imagined the disappearance of part of humanity in her previous works, here, she uses fabric––woven from threads that connect people across generations and around the globe––as the primary material to talk about our world.Caroline Guiela Nguyen, Director of the Théâtre National de Strasbourg (TNS), is a French director, author, and filmmaker. A significant voice in contemporary French theatre, Nguyen studied sociology and performing arts before attending the Théâtre National de Strasbourg drama school and founding her company, Les Hommes approximatifs. Her plays draw inspiration from real-life and personal stories, often featuring both professional and amateur actors from diverse social and geographical backgrounds.
Learn more about Caroline Guiela Nguyen and her works here.
Directed by Elise Vigneron and Eleonora Gimenez
Created for the public stage, TRACES is an ephemeral, collective performance that brings together puppeteer Élise Vigneron and circus artist Eleonora Gimenez to explore ecological questions and the lasting imprint (or footprint) of humanity. In this choreographed work, participants become performers, casting their feet in ice. Their individual bodies and stories meld together, forming a shared collective identity. Here, ice becomes a metaphor for the world’s fragility. TRACES offers a poetic and immersive experience, inviting audiences of all ages to reflect together on our humanity.Elise Vigneron, a puppeteer and theater director, has been exploring hybrid forms combining theater, visual arts, and science for more than ten years. Her works are founded on research into materials and stage devices. She received Villa Albertine grants for her previous productions, Anywhere, in 2022, and The Waves, in 2024. Anywhere was successfully adapted by a US-based team for the Chicago International Puppet Festival in January 2023.
Learn more about the artist and her works here.
Directed by Tatiana-Mosio Bongonga and Jan Naets, with Tatiana-Mosio Bongonga, Jan Naets, Djeylaroz, Adrien Amey, Lovisa Elwerdotter, Gäel Honegger, Simon Pourqué, François-Xavier Delaby or Geoffrey Durcak
In Soka Tira Osoa, Compagnie Basinga builds a collaborative space by breaking down barriers that separate traditional theater trades and bringing professionals of all stripes––from riggers to musicians, sound engineers, and tightrope walkers––into the same artistic space together. The group starts on the stage floor and slowly rises together throughout the performance, reinforcing the idea that a group is only as strong as the sum of its parts––even (and perhaps especially in) performing arts.Compagnie Basinga, a French contemporary circus company led by tightrope walker Tatiana-Mosio Bongonga, is renowned for its innovative aerial-focused performances. The company uniquely explores movement and physicality, integrating original apparatus and scenic elements into their work.
Learn more about Compagnie Basinga here.
Concept and Direction by Modou Fata Touré, with Ibrahima Camara and Modou Fata Touré
What if contemporary circus wasn’t just European? What if African circus wasn’t just traditional? In their latest work, Ancrage, Modou Fata Touré and his acrobatic partner Ibrahima Camara explore and experiment with new materials discovered in their native Senegal. By repurposing this new material, they create new apparatuses, new techniques, and a new way of creating circus arts. Breaking with traditional clichés of African circus, the two partners nevertheless draw inspiration from their environment as they gradually find their identity as contemporary African circus artists.Modou Fata Touré is a leading Senegalese circus artist with over a decade of experience, known for celebrating African identity. His work, such as the show Ancrage, reinvents circus by using local materials and exploring themes of identity and the human relationship with nature. Now based in France, he teaches at the Ecole Nationale de Cirque de Châtellerault and founded SenCirk’s French branch to foster artistic exchanges between France and Senegal.
Written, Directed and Performed by Tiago Rodrigues
In By Heart, Tiago Rodrigues teaches ten audience members a poem on stage. As these volunteers learn the poem by heart, they become part of an unexpected community united by the act of memorization. By Heart is a piece about the importance of transmission, of the invisible smuggling of words and ideas that only keeping a text in your memory can provide. It’s about a theatre that recognizes itself as a place of transmission where the gains can’t be measured in meters, euros or bytes. It’s a piece about the safe hiding place that forbidden texts have always found in our brains and our hearts, as a guarantee of civilization in even the most barbaric and desolate times.Tiago Rodrigues is a Portuguese actor, writer, and director. Influenced by Tg Stan, he co-founded with Magda Bizarro the company Mundo Perfeito and later led the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II. His work blends personal stories with political themes, often focusing on the transformative power of theater. Named Artistic Director of the Festival d’Avignon in 2022, Tiago Rodrigues is the first foreign artist to helm this preeminent European institution. His work is acclaimed in his native Portugal and across Europe, where he has pursued numerous collaborations and received many honors and awards. His acclaimed piece Catarina and the Beauty of Killing Fascists received a Villa Albertine Grant last year to support its US tour.
Learn more about the artist and his project here.
Writing, Concept and Performance by Nil Bosca
Euphrate is a solo performance exploring the identity quest of a Franco-Turkish high school student navigating her career choices and dual culture. Blending theater and dance, the piece delves into personal and societal expectations. Presented at Princeton University in 2024, it received an outstanding reception and continues to spark meaningful discussions on identity and belonging. It will tour in Spring 2026 in the US.Nil Bosca is a French actor and writer. After earning a master’s degree in clinical psychology, Bosca turned to theatre and joined the Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, followed by the École du Jeu. At the same time, she taught herself dance, later working with Jann Gallois and Chrystel Calvet in contemporary dance, as well as with several hip-hop dancers at Porte de Pantin and Le 104.
Learn more about the artist and her work here.
Directed by Ahmed Madani, with Anissa and Ahmed Madani
Ahmed Madani’s play Au non du père (In the Name of the Father) recounts leading actress Anissa’s real-life journey from France to the United States to meet her father for the first time. In an era where familial ties are rapidly evolving in response to technology and globalization, Au nom du père brings the irreplicable bond between a child and their father to the forefront and explores how this bond shapes a singular destiny. Blending theater, pastry-making, video, and discussions between the protagonists and the audience, this performance offers a sensitive and joyful reflection on fatherhood. As the actors prepare chocolate treats on stage, barriers between performers and spectators dissolve, creating a shared, participatory experience.Ahmed Madani is a French author and director who founded the poetic and socially engaged theater company, Madani Compagnie, in 1985. He made his mark in the 1990s by presenting theater productions in urban environments and directed the Centre dramatique de l’Océan Indien from 2003 to 2007. Returning to his company, he notably conceived the acclaimed trilogy Face à leur Destin and continues to explore contemporary and intimate themes. His work has been recognized with several awards, including the Order of Arts and Letters in 2023, and his texts are published by Actes Sud-Papiers and l’École des Loisirs.
Photo: Au non du père – Ahmed Madani @Ariane Catton
Echo(e)s by Compagnie Yôkaï is an immersive experience performed in cemeteries. This project is based on the innovative animation device, Hidden Twin™/Jumeau Caché™, developed by the artists during their Villa Albertine residency in New York in May-June 2024. In developing Echo(e)s, the artists will divide their time between rehearsals in French and American cemeteries. Echo(e)s will be created with three New York based artists: Sophie Bortolussi, Daniel Parton and Hanne Tierney.Violaine Fimbel, founder of Compagnie Yokaï, is a puppeteer, visual artist, and magician. Her debut show, Volatil(e)s (2014), toured internationally. A graduate of ESNAM and CNAC’s “Magie Nouvelle,” her subsequent productions include Possession, Killing Alice, and Still Life. A recipient of the 2021 Prix de la Création, she was a 2024 Villa Albertine resident in New York.Sophie Bortolussi is a dancer and choreographer who creates immersive works centered on the body and magic. For this project, she will conceptualize movements that represent the journey of human life — drawing inspiration from the Greek Fates, who wove and shaped each person’s destiny — and use them to guide the audience’s movements and actions.Daniel Parton explores musical hybridity, composing for classical groups and experimental rock. He has collaborated with Daniel Carter and Martin Bisi, among others. For this production, he will compose the music and design the soundscape based on echoes and the audience’s sonic experience during the performance.Hanne Tierney, a string puppetry expert, will guide that element of the performance, drawing on 20+ years of experience assisting artists, notably at Brooklyn’s FiveMyles Gallery. She will support Yôkaï Company in refining their Remoted Strings Technique and its integration into their Hidden Twin™/Jumeau Caché™ device.
Learn more about Violaine Fimbel and her works here.
Created by Les Plasticiens Volants and G. Peter Jemison
Les Plasticiens Volants, a French company with more than 50 years of artistic innovation behind it, is collaborating with Hodinoshoni (Iroquois) artists to create a groundbreaking new production based on the Hodinoshoni creation story of the Earth Grasper. Turtle Island is a unique fusion of Indigenous storytelling and large-scale visual spectacle, developed under the artistic guidance of G. Peter Jemison, a Seneca, Heron Clan artist and knowledge keeper, alongside performers from the Skywoman Iroquois Dance Theater.Les Plasticiens Volants, established in 1978, is a street theater company that practices a unique technique of creating and operating giant hand-made inflatable puppets. Their productions merge street theatre, visual arts, digital projections, sound effects, and nature to create an awe-inspiring story.
Learn more about Les Plasticiens Volants and their works here.
Written by Shunyo Hanotaux, with Shunyo & Vincent Hanotaux, and local participants and their children
Co-created with parents and children, Carry-On presents different scenarios in which parents embrace their roles while giving their children the freedom and space to blossom as individuals. In this immersive piece, children accompany their parents on an adventure, which encompasses the various stages and challenges related to parenthood and parenting. During its residency, Compagnie Presque Siamoises will lead workshops for 16 local participants (i.e., eight local artists and their children) to refine their work and develop their final piece.Compagnie Presque Siamoises was founded in Nantes, France. The company endeavors to create proximity with the audience by sharing intimacy and focusing on the singularity of bodies and relationships. The company creates experiences that lie at the intersections of circus and theatre, text and movement.
Louise Dodet | Program Officer louise.dodet@villa-albertine.org