FRANCINE ROUSSEL (Professor Emerita of Acting and Directing) holds M.A. degrees from the University of Paris, La Sorbonne, in both modern European and classical French literature.  Francine also earned the “Certificat de l’Ecole Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq”, where she studied mime and mask (with Antoine Vitez, Philippe Avron, and Pierre Byland), and studied acting and directing at L’Ecole Tania Balachova (with Michael Lonsdale).  She was part of “Groupe des 50,” which established the Actors Studio in Paris with Andreas Voutsinas, then worked in New York with Lee Strasberg and Earl Hyman.

Francine Roussel played Euripides, Molière, Marivaux, Diderot, Beaumarchais, Brecht, Ibsen, Strindberg, Lorca, Ionesco, Beckett…  She wrote and performed her own shows, including Story of a Clown, which she performed in Paris, at the Festival d’Avignon, in Japan, and in Montreal and Quebec City at the Super Franco-Fête.  She sang in Music Circus for John Cage in Les Halles of Paris.  She wrote a screenplay, Broken Shells; and has performed in several French feature films as well as numerous French television shows.

In 1981, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under the recommendation of Peter Brook and Antoine Vitez, offered her the coveted Lavoisier Grant to develop her work in New York, where she created a new show, A few steps towards the sea.

Settled in New York, Francine Roussel has appeared in The Learned Ladies, The Maids, Youth in Revolt, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (European Tour with Footsbarn Theatre Company), Cabaret, The Interpreter with Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn, Sex & The City, with Mikhail Baryshnikov The Day The Ponies Come Back, The Equalizer, As The World Turns, One Life to Live, Loving, Saturday Night Live withChris Farley, and Gryphon for Channel 13.  She performed in Lost Generation, Popular Fronts, and Ornifle at Florence Gould Auditorium.  She continued her career in France, where she is seen on television in Tribunal, Divorce, and Surprise Sur Prise.  She co-wrote La Vie en Rose, about Piaf and Montand, and has performed cabaret in New York as part of The Trio Franco Fun.  Francine has been performing with The New York Philharmonic, under the direction of Kurt Masur, in Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher, in New York, Berlin, and Leipzig.

Francine Roussel has taught acting and has directed at Théâtre de Vincennes and Studio de Paris, and at Muhlenberg College, Tisch School of the Arts (Graduate and Undergraduate Acting Programs), Stella Adler Conservatory and Wagner College.  She was the mask coach on The Green Bird, directed by Julie Taymor, at The Victory Theatre; directed The Square, by Marguerite Duras, at UBU Repertory Theatre in NYC; and was movement director for Nicholas Hytner’s feature film, The Crucible.

Francine Roussel is a member of SAG-AFTRA, Actors Equity Association, and Syndicat des Acteurs Français.