A starlight friendly personality. Humility, depth, keen insight. Enthusiastic, animated, energetic, creative, open minded. Free spirit. These are just some of the ingredients that make up the charming person that is Angele Regnier.
Angele studied medicine, English language, trained in theatre and studied management and administrative studies for cultural companies.
Today she is the Director of the prestigious ‘Culture de Thann – one of the largest theatrical companies in the North of France that you can visit to enjoy a wide variety of rich theatrical entertainment – the best of cinema, opera, art exhibitions, music performances, theatrical performances and shows.
NEKITA: Who are you?
ANGELE: I am a young radical at heart who believes that theatre is here to open minds, more especially in these crucial times when people are closed, have certitudes, follow mass media and have no more sense of critic. I am a radical who says that culture opens minds in order to live together and to build a better future, to understand others and other cultures beyond theories that are very dangerous.
NEKITA: Describe yourself in two words.
ANGELE: Waouh ! I think I am still a punk in my head, and I am still a punk!
NEKITA: What are your best qualities?
ANGELE: I am dynamic. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to succeed.
NEKITA: Worst quality.
ANGELE: According to my daughters I am not funny.. They say that I think too much and that I am not funny.
NEKITA: Ouch!
NEKITA: What do you do and where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
ANGELE: I am currently the Director of the ‘Culture de Thann’ theatre. For the next five years I intend to continue working in theatre in order to boost culture and intercultural relations with various countries. This is my passion and what I love to do. I hope to keep growing in my field and to keep promoting the beauty that is art, cinema, music, culture and theatrical expression. Hopefully I will take my work/artistic expressions and organisational know-how to a national and international level someday.
NEKITA: So how did you get into theatre in the first place?
ANGELE: I graduated in science and did the first 3 years of medical studies. Then I dropped out and went to England for a year to learn English. When I came back I registered in English language in the university in order to catch up on lost time. My objective was to get a job that would give me enough time on the side to go to the theatre, exhibitions and other cultural activities. Medical studies and doctor jobs won’t allow you to do that. So I got a first job as an usherette in the theatre of Belfort. I was making small money but was working in a place I loved. I realized that what I considered as a hobby (Theatre) could become a job and I could make a career. I discovered all the jobs in a theatre and decided to make my life in this field.
My career in theatre started as a self-made woman – I learnt a lot on the field.
The theatre director noticed me and gave me my chance when there was a theatre project to manage over a long period of almost a year. He gave me first a short time contract then an indefinite contract. I also went working in other theatres in other cities to gain some experience and progress.
I followed some training sessions and I also went back to school for some time to study management and administration for cultural companies…and here I am.
NEKITA: What attracts you so much to theatre?
ANGELE: It’s the excitement of that powerful moment when actors will put themselves in danger in order to meet the audience in a reunion that occurs in the flicker of a moment and which will be a different experience, action and reaction every night. A kind of alchemy where everything is created at a particular moment and yet there is this unique novelty with each new performance. It’s a crescendo of pleasure in a volatile moment. I’m passionate about this strong, meaningful, deep exchange between actors and an audience, or between artists on stage and the public. It is clear that at the theatre there is a kind of communion between us as we spectate in front of these entertaining actions that are happening right in front of us. The link with this 4th wall, which is the public, is to be renewed and enriched each night.
NEKITA: How would you advice those who wish to journey into the amazing world of theatre?
ANGELE: Ohhhhh…. Perseverance. To have faith in what you do. Not expecting to become rich overnight. Being engaged and just to persevere. Studies that lead to these kind of jobs are more organized now, so there are more students arriving in the market. However our country is in crisis and culture is never the priority, therefore there are less jobs… and more job seekers…
NEKITA: What has been your major career milestone?
ANGELE: There are many. Something is even on the way, and I am very passionate about it. I met a Cameroonian actor who talked to me about a library in Yaounde and proposed to organize books collections in France as he is based in Brussel. So we have collected and assembled books here in France for his project. We solicited help and we have been able to send a full container of books that will soon leave to Yaounde in order for us to help create a library and a theatre in Yaounde. I am very proud of that.
Another thing I am very proud of career-wise is that I have met some directors who are now celebrities in the theatre world. They are now in Avignon. (Google the yearly ‘Avignon arts festival’) I have had some privileged moments with them and they have enriched my life in many ways that I am proud to have met, worked and grown with them.
NEKITA: How do you balance your theatre life and your family life?
ANGELE: I manage. Sometimes we realize we are also missing what is essential – sharing with our family and friends because of a lack of time. But it is a job of passion, where we start at 9am and we finish sometimes at 2am, having late dinners with the artists. These moments are very intense and rich but sometimes in the evening I am tired and thinking about the shopping I didn’t do and hoping there is food in the fridge. Moreover my husband regularly goes to the other side of the world for his work. So you need to have a brain that thinks equally about the shopping for the house, the contract for the theatre, the administrative management and all the organization that goes around the office, like security, labor law, etc.
NEKITA: What do you do to relax when you are not at work?
ANGELE: I kiss my daughters. I take care of my daughters. I see friends, I prepare some small meals to host some friends. I also go to the country side to see flowers grow. It is all very very important.
NEKITA: Which woman inspires you most?
ANGELE: If I had to live another life I would be either Yvette Grunell who was the fetish dancer of Jan Fabre, a Belgium choreographer who presented shows all over the world. She dances with movements that are so on point. All her gracefulness has taught me a lot. Otherwise I would be Simone Veil for all that she lived for and all the fights she fought. I am in between a very, very quiet personality like Simone Veil but very engaged as well and someone more artistic, totally artistic and punk-like like Yvette Gruner.
NEKITA: What has been your greatest life lesson?
ANGELE: That nothing is won in advance, that you constantly need to prove who you are, to show your faith and your rage.
NEKITA: What has been your greatest obstacle in life and how did you overcome it?
ANGELE: I think it is the one we are going to live very soon as I will have to stay away from my 7 years old daughter during the week due to work. I have never experienced something like that. I will not be there during the week. For me it is a big problem and I hope that I will be able to solve it and spend the best of time during the weekends when am at home.
NEKITA: What has been your greatest accomplishment so far?
ANGELE: My daughters of course !
NEKITA: Everybody has a sense of fashion and personal style. What’s yours?
ANGELE: Concerning fashion, I am never Too Much. My personal style… I like design, nice things, light clothes with something small that will differentiate it. Something small but that will accentuate the clothes.
NEKITA: What is unique about you?
ANGELE: It is very personal… I have to manage my life without knowing much about my genetic background.
NEKITA: Can you tell us a secret nobody knows about you?
ANGELE: I have never met the man whom I have 50% of my gene from.
NEKITA: What are your views on Sex, love and marriage?
ANGELE: I got married to my husband the day I decided to have a child with him. So I see all this through my kids. I see marriage more like a commitment towards my kids than a formal marriage. It is a strong commitment.
NEKITA: Which movie has inspired you the most?
ANGELE: I who speak about theatre always, I don’t know ! Like that….. I don’t know…
NEKITA: Which celebrity or personality has inspired you the most?
ANGELE: I heard recently the interview of Catherine Deneuve who was an icon and who shows herself in a new light- older, fatter. I think that this woman is super great. I personally wonder how I will age, and I see this woman who accepts herself and presents herself will all her defaults, and also acting in some roles that endanger her… I say well done.
NEKITA: If you had the power to change the world in one way what would you do?
ANGELE: Very classic me – I would make sure that everybody could eat every day in this world.
NEKITA: Merci beaucoup Angele de partarger votre vie et votre boulot avec nous!
ANGELE: Merci de m’encourager á faire tout ça, Nekita.
In order to see more of what the multi-talented Angele gets up to, visit her website here – http://relais-culturel-thann.net/
Visit ‘RelaisThann’ on facebook.
And read her other interviews here:
http://www.dna.fr/edition-de-mulhouse-et-thann/2017/03/08/angele-regnier-femme-de-culture
Nekita ink 