Catherine Masson

I am currently doing research on George Sand, Marguerite de Navarre, and Olympe de Gouges as playwrights. My book, L'Autobiographie et ses aspects théâtraux chez Michel Leiris, was published in 1995. I have done research on women playwrights at the Comédie-Française and have given presentations on Marguerite de Navarre’s, Olympe de Gouges’, and George Sand's theater. I have written articles on 20th-century theater; since 1997 on George Sand's theater, on her adaptation of novels for the stage, and on her adaptation of Shakespeare. I have written an article on the reception of George Sand’s work in the United States from 1837 to 1876. I co-edited eight plays by Marguerite de Navarre for the first volume of an anthology, Théâtre de femmes de l’Ancien Régime (2006). I am currently preparing a book: George Sand: Novelist-Playwright. I am also concerned with the influence of performance on spectators and have studied surrealist, 20th century playwrights, and contemporary writers.

My approach to theater is not only literary and theoretical, but also practical. I have performed with professional actors, and designed decor and costumes.

I worked on the role of the stage director as critic, analyst, and rewriter. I have created a montage on Jacques Prévert, Pour faire le portrait de Prévert, which has been performed in the United States and in various European countries (1996, 2001). Since 2004, my play, George Sand - Gustave Flaubert, Echanges Epistolaires, has been performed in France, Switzerland, Monaco, and in the United States. I directed the play which was then published in 2006. I directed a production of Huis clos by Jean-Paul Sartre that has been presented in Europe and the United States.

In my class, students are introduced to techniques of acting and directing.

I am the director of the Wellesley in Aix program for 2010-2011.