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Thomas Jolly, born 1 February 1982 in Rouen, is an actor and stage director of French theatre and opera.

He is the artistic director of La Piccola Familia, the theater troupe he founded in Rouen in 2006, and director of Le Quai National Drama Centre in Angers since 2020. In 2022, Paris 2024 organizers selected Jolly to direct the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Biography
He started acting as of 1993 in Rouen and joined Nathalie Barrabé’s Children Theatre Troupe. He then joined the Drama course of the local Lycée Jeanne d’Arc and worked with the actors of the Théâtre des 2 Rives, also based in Rouen.

From 1999, alongside a bachelor’s degree in Drama study at the University of Caen Normandy, he set up a university theatre troupe and performed in several local festivals. In 2001, he joined the professional training of the ACTEA, directed by Olivier Lopez and based in Caen, and joined, in 2003, the École Nationale Supérieure of the Théâtre National de Bretagne (TNB) in Rennes, directed by Stanislas Nordey.

Alongside his schooling, he staged two performances: Mariana in 2004, an adaptation of the Letters of the Portuguese Nun, and Jean-Luc Lagarce’s La Photographie in 2005, as part of a carte blanche workshop at the TNB school. In 2005, he performed in Splendid’s by Jean Genet, staged by Cédric Gourmelon and, in 2006, under Stanislas Nordey’s direction, he performed in Fausto Paravidino’s Peanuts.

At the end of 2006, back in Normandy, he gathered several young actors and founded La Piccola Familia. He staged Arlequin poli par l’amour by Pierre de Marivaux in January of 2007 at the Trident, the national stage of Cherbourg-Octeville. His second stage direction, Toâ by Sacha Guitry, was created at the Trident in January of 2009, before going on tour. It received the "Odéon Audience Award" in 2009, as a part of the "Impatience" festival for young troupes.

He created Mark Ravenhill’s Pool (No Water) in January of 2011.

As of 2010, he put together the Shakespeare trilogy Henry VI in its entirety. He divided the work into two main cycles. The first one, which includes the whole of Henry VI, Part 1 and the three first acts of Henry VI, Part 2, was created in January 2012, at the Trident. The second one, which includes the last two acts of Henry VI, Part 2 and the whole of Henry VI, Part 3, was created in two successive stages: the third episode was created in November of 2013 at the Théâtre National de Bretagne, and the fourth episode was created at the 68th Festival d’Avignon, where the 18-hour show (13 hours without the intervals) was performed for the first time in its entirety on 21 July 2014, at La Fabrica.

In 2014, Thomas Jolly became an associate artist at the Théâtre National de Bretagne, in Rennes.

In 2015, he became an associate artist at the National Theatre of Strasbourg and staged Richard III, the sequel of Henry VI, programmed at the Odéon in Paris.

In 2016, he displayed two new creations at the Festival d’Avignon: Le radeau de la méduse¸ with the students of the Ecole supérieure d’art dramatique of Strasbourg and Le Ciel, La Nuit et la Pierre glorieuse. In September, he staged his first opera, Cavali’s Eliogabalo at the Paris Opera.

Stage director
2007: Arlequin poli par l'amour by Marivaux

2008: Toâ by Sacha Guitry

2010: Piscine (pas d'eau) [Pool (No Water)] by Mark Ravenhill

2011: Arlequin poli par l'amour by Marivaux (recreation)

2012: Henry VI by William Shakespeare (first cycle)

2013: Box Office by Damien Gabriac

2014: Henry VI by William Shakespeare (second cycle)

2015: Richard III by William Shakespeare

2016: Le radeau de la méduse

2016: Le ciel, la nuit et la pierre glorieuse

2016: Eliogabalo by Cavali

2017: Fantasio by Jacques Offenbach at the Théâtre National de l’Opéra-Comique

Actor
(not an exhaustive list)

2005: Splendid's by Jean Genet, stage direction by Cédric Gourmelon

2006: Peanuts by Fausto Paravidino, stage direction by Stanislas Nordey

2007: Arlequin poli par l'amour by Marivaux

2008: Toâ by Sacha Guitry

2010: Piscine (pas d'eau) [Pool (No Water)] by Mark Ravenhill

2012: Henry VI by William Shakespeare (first cycle)

2014: Henry VI by William Shakespeare (second cycle)

2015: Richard III by William Shakespeare

Filmography
2009: The Secret People

Awards
2009: Odéon Audience Award at the Impatience festival for Toâ

2013: Beaumarchais Award of the the best show for Henry VI

2014: Jean-Jacques Gautier Plaisir du théâtre Award

2015: Molière Award for Best Director, for Henry VI