French professor studies, works with French theatre director

Dr. Cynthia Running-Johnson, professor of French in Western Michigan University’s department of world languages and literature, has had a longtime love of art, languages and literature.

That has bloomed as she has studied and worked with French theatre director Brigitte Jaques-Wajeman.

“A couple of years ago I had a sabbatical for a semester,” Running-Johnson said. “I followed rehearsals with her in Paris, saw how she forms a production, it was really interesting. I think she’s brilliant.”

Jaques-Wajeman’s accomplishments include staging for the premier French theatre the Comédie-Française, founding the Pandora Company and teaching at the National School for Performing Arts.

In February 2016, she directed “Polyeucte,” a tragedy in which the audience sees magnificent struggles between the desire of a lover and the desire of a martyr, at the Théâtre des Abbesses in Paris.

As a member of a committee looking for an international drama person to invite to Western, Running-Johnson brought Jaques-Wajeman—whom she had heard about from a colleague in Paris—to do a residency in Spring 2001.

The guest put on a Shakespeare play with the theatre department, and taught a drama class for students in the French classes.

Known for doing very modern, contemporary stagings of classic French plays, Jaques-Wajeman takes the dense, difficult-to-understand texts and makes them accessible to people, Running-Johnson said.

While at Western, she went through a contemporary French play with the students. As they read the lines, she showed them how she would have them move if they were doing the actual play, and how to say certain lines.

“They got to know a fair amount about French theater,” Running-Johnson said. “We try to share with students as much as we can. I encourage them to go to the theatre here and in France. It helps if someone can show them what’s interesting about it.”