August 27, 2024 – OTTAWA (Canada) – The National Arts Centre (NAC) French Theatre is delighted to announce that Amélie Bergeron will be joining its team as Associate Artistic Director, Youth Programming. She succeeds Mélanie Dumont, who has held this position since 2011.

A graduate (2012) of the Stage Direction and Artistic Creation program at the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Québec, Amélie Bergeron has worked with a wide range of Canadian organizations—particularly in Quebec City, Montreal, Sherbrooke, Winnipeg, and Ottawa—as a writer, director, and artistic director. In 2024, she completed a scriptwriting course at the École nationale de l’humour, further broadening her skills.

Active in the field of performing arts for young audiences since 2006, Amélie has worked in several capacities, including actor, host/mediator, and project coordinator. She worked for a decade with Les Gros Becs children’s theatre company, where she served as director of programming from 2018 to 2022. As a result of these various experiences, she has built relationships with many artists and partners across the country, a momentum she hopes to maintain as she takes on her new mandate at the NAC.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am at the prospect of joining the wonderful NAC French Theatre team and reconnecting with young audiences. I’m diving into this adventure with confidence and joy. To those I’ve already met: I can’t wait to see you again soon; to the rest of you (audiences, artists, colleagues and partners): I look forward to the great pleasure of meeting you at last!”

—Amélie Bergeron, Associate Artistic Director, Youth Programming

At the NAC, the feeling is mutual:

“We’re thrilled to welcome Amélie Bergeron to French Theatre. Her extensive expertise in theatre for young audiences, combined with her dynamic energy, make her an outstanding asset to our team, to the NAC, and to the theatre community as a whole. I can’t wait to dream with her about what’s next.”

–Mani Soleymanlou, Artistic Director, French Theatre

The 2024–2025 season of NAC French Theatre’s Children and Youth series will be the last to be directed by Mélanie Dumont, who has managed the program for 13 seasons—totalling more than 70 shows and special events—in addition to coordinating the presentation of the BIG BANG festival and forging lasting links between a number of cultural and artistic communities. She is currently developing a new international event for young audiences, La mèche courte, which will premiere in Montreal in fall 2025.

“Thanks to Mélanie Dumont, the arts for children and youth have enjoyed considerable growth, both locally and across Canada, and even abroad. We’re confident that with Amélie Bergeron’s impressive background, this unique work will continue to flourish, making the NAC a key player in supporting and developing the audiences of today and tomorrow.”

–Christopher Deacon, President and CEO

Amélie will officially take up her new position on Tuesday, September 3, when she will start working on designing the 2025–2026 season, her first as the National Arts Centre French Theatre’s new Associate Artistic Director, Youth Programming, with this idea of theatre in mind:

“I love the fact that theatre can be a place of joy, creativity and comfort. A place that can be simple, crazy, funny and outrageous, but where we can also express what moves us or worries us. A place where we can experience moments that are both intimate and collective, where play is at the heart of it all!”

–Amélie Bergeron

ABOUT THE NAC  

The National Arts Centre is Canada’s bilingual, multi-disciplinary home for the performing arts. The NAC presents, creates, produces, and co-produces performing arts programming in various streams — the NAC Orchestra, Dance, English Theatre, French Theatre, Indigenous Theatre, and Popular Music and Variety — and nurtures the next generation of audiences and artists from across Canada. The NAC is located in the National Capital Region on the unceded territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin Nation.

-30-

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Sylvain Lavoie

Communications Strategist, French Theatre

National Arts Centre

343-588-0743

sylvain.lavoie@nac-cna.ca