Théâtre National de Bretagne

The Théâtre national de Bretagne is a cultural institution established in Rennes in 1990 by combining the Centre dramatique de l'Ouest and the Maison de la Culture of Rennes. For some time it was called the "Great Eight" due to the shape of its building. Its mission is centered on creation, dissemination and training at regional, national and international levels. In 2002 it attained the status of European center of dance and theater production. Its director is Francis Pillouër, and the school and the theater is directed by Stanislas Nordey. Every year in November the TNB organizes a festival called "Mettre en scène" .ArchitectureThe theater is housed in the Maison de la Culture, built in 1968 by the architects Jacques Carlu, Michel Joly and Patrick Coue. It reopened in February 2008 after three years of renovation work entrusted to the architect Antoine Stinco. After the renovation the building now has three theaters and two cinemas.The Jean Vilar room is the largest of the theaters with 924-seats. The Jean-Marie Serreau room has 260 seats. In the basement, a third 120-seat venue, the Guy Parigot room, is home to rehearsals of young actors of the theater school of SBT, and is sometimes open to the public festivals. On the third floor two rooms are dedicated to art cinema: a larger one with 480 seats, and a smaller one with 92 seats. On the first floor there is also a bar restaurant, "the intermission", that seats up to 250 people.HistoryThe genesis of the Théâtre national de Bretagne dates back to 1940, when Georges Goubert and Guy Parigot founded a company of young actors. In 1948, as winner of first prize in the contest of young companies, the company went on tour through Brittany. Based on a report on the tour, Hubert Gignoux proposed a project to create a national drama center (CDN) in Brittany to Jeanne Laurent. With a grant of 8,000,000 francs from the Ministry of Education, and 2,000,000 from the city of Rennes, the Centre dramatique de l'Ouest (Drama Centre of the West) was born on 2 November 1949, the fourth CDN to emerge after the Centre dramatique de l'Est in 1946, the Comédie de Saint-Étienne in 1947 and the Grenier de Toulouse in 1949.