Maëlle Dequiedt, stage director and artistic director of La Phenomena, creates forms combining theatre, music and performance, often incorporating a documentary dimension into her work. Her creations have been performed in France, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland.
She studied the cello, literature and the performing arts before joining the staging department of the École du Théâtre National de Strasbourg in 2013 where she worked alongside Thom Luz and Séverine Chavrier. In 2016, she was a director-in-residency at the Académie de l’Opéra national de Paris.
Dequiedt has previously staged Penthésilée by Heinrich von Kleist and Au bois by Claudine Galea (École du TNS), Shakespeare, Fragments nocturnes (Académie de l’Opéra national de Paris), Trust Karaoké Panoramique written by Falk Richter, Pupilla by Frédéric Vossier (Théâtre de la Cité internationale), Les Noces de Figaro, variations (Opéra de Lille), I Wish I Was (Théâtre de la Cité internationale, Le Phénix, Scène nationale de Valenciennes, Halles de Schaerbeek, Comédie de Colmar), Trigger Warning by Marcos Caramés-Blanco (ENSATT, Théâtre Ouvert), Gorgée d’eau by Penda Diouf (commissioned by La Colline, TNS, the Comédie de Reims and the Grand T de Nantes, as part of the project Lycéens Citoyens), La Stratégie du choc, based on the essay by Naomi Klein with students from the ESAD Paris (Théâtre de la Cité internationale), Stabat Mater based on the work of Domenico Scarlatti, in conjunction with the vocal and instrumental company La Tempête, founded by Simon-Pierre Bestion (Les Bouffes du Nord…), Fwd: Chantal about the movies and life of Chantal Akerman (Les Plateaux sauvages) and Salon Strozzi: ein Sit-In (Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden). Her future projects include Faire le mur, based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Comédie de Colmar in 2024, L’Enfant et les sortilèges (An Empty House) at the Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Une Improvisation sans fin at the Festival Musica de Strasbourg in 2025 and Wuthering Heights + Town of Glass in 2026.
Winner of the 2017 CLUSTER prize, established by Prémisses (Claire Dupont), La Phenemona has been associated with the Théâtre de la Cité internationale for three seasons. In 2018, she joined the Valenciennes-Amiens European campus and began a four-year regional residency in the mining basin, with the support of the Hauts-de-France region. In this context she filmed a creative documentary Histoire du bouc. In 2022 Dequiedt was invited to join the Performing Utopia programme at King’s College London, where she co-directed a series of filmed performances, I’m off to work I have posted on the fridge all the instructions on how to make a revolution. Since 2023 La Phenomena has been associated with the Scène nationale d’Orléans.
In addition to her creative works, Dequiedt has recently been leading several workshops on practice and transmission for the International Opera Academy (Opera Ballet Vlaanderen). She collaborates regularly with students from ENSATT (École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Techniques du Théâtre).
CURRENTLY IN
Stabat Mater
Fwd: Chantal
Trigger Warning
Salon Strozzi: ein Sit-in
Playing hooky
Sip of water
The Child and the spells
An Endless Improvisation
Wuthering Heights + Glass Town
