René Richard Cyr

Actor, director, author, producer and host, René Richard Cyr was the artistic director and co-general manager of Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui from 1998 to 2004. He was also co-artistic director of the Théâtre PàP (Petit à Petit) from 1981 to 1998. As an actor, his role in Tremblay’s Hosanna earned him two acting awards. He has appeared in a number of television series, including Cover Girl, for which he was twice nominated for a Gémeaux award. He took part in the filming of the series C’est comme ça que je t’aime. He has directed numerous theatrical productions of works by Molière, Shakespeare, Camus, Brecht, Williams, Genet, Ionesco, as well as works by Michel Tremblay, Michel Marc Bouchard, Daniel Danis, René Daniel Dubois and Serge Boucher. In addition to his work as a television host and director, his television adaptations of Motel Hélène and 24 poses (Portraits) by Serge Boucher were nominated for Gémeaux awards. He also co-wrote and co-directed Zumanity, Cirque du Soleil’s erotic cabaret presented in Las Vegas. In addition, he has directed operas such as Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Verdi’s Macbeth, presented in Montréal, Melbourne and Sydney. In 2010, he adapted and directed Belles-soeurs, the musical that earned him his fourth Félix award for director of the year from the ADISQ. In the spring of 2013, he, along with Tremblay and Bélanger, began a second collaboration, with Le chant de Sainte Carmen de la Main, which premiered at Théâtre du Nouveau Monde.

On TV, he directed the Super Écran series Madame Lebrun. He then worked with Dominic Champagne on Les 3 mousquetaires, presented in fall 2016 in Paris. Demain matin, Montréal m’attend was Cyr’s third musical based on a work by Tremblay. The show opened in June 2017, and in 2018 received Félix awards for Stage Direction and Show of the Year. In October 2017, he brought an English adaptation of his show Belles-soeurs (Sisters, the musical) to Calgary, which he directed. In 2021, he staged Chekhov’s The Three Sisters, and in September 2022, he directed Le fils at Théâtre du Rideau Vert. He became an Officer of the Order of Montréal in 2019.