The director Gabriel Garran, writer, poet and actor, founder of the Théâtre de la Commune d'Aubervilliers and the Théâtre International de Langue Française, died Friday in Paris, at the age of 95, we learned Saturday with his entourage.

"The disappearance of Gabriel Garran leaves orphans all those who have proclaimed themselves the "children of Aubervilliers" as well as several generations of artists who have been able to find with the one who called himself an "archangelet" an artistic and popular filiation deep “, pay tribute to his relatives in a press release, written in particular by his administrator Jean-Jacques Hocquard.

“Gabriel Garran was a great lord of French theater”, reacted on Facebook the former Minister of Culture Jack Lang, saying he was “tremendously sad to learn of his disappearance”.

Theater as a Liberation

Real name Gabriel Gersztenkorn, Gabriel Garran was born in 1927 in Paris to a couple of Polish Jews.

When war broke out, his father was deported to Auschwitz where he died.

Gabriel Garran is forced to flee the Occupation with the rest of his family and to practice various trades under a false identity, according to those around him.

After the Liberation, he became an animator and discovered the theater.

His meeting with Jack Ralite, elected communist to the town hall of Aubervilliers in Seine-Saint-Denis, inspired him to plan the first permanent popular theater in the suburbs, with the creation in 1965 of the Théâtre de la Commune d'Aubervilliers, a national drama center in 1971, which he led for 20 years.

“Until the end of his life his vitality was impressive.

He went from one founding idea to another, which made this theater an exceptional place.

He was also the one who introduced improvisation to France,” said theater director Marie-José Malis.

"The future of theater belongs to those who don't go there"

“He was someone very discreet, stubborn, courageous, innovative.

He leaves an immense legacy for Francophone theatre,” she added.

Gabriel Garran had indeed founded, in 1985, the International Theater of French Language, dedicated to French-language authors throughout the world, which he directed for 13 years, before creating in 2005 his last company, Le Parloir Contemporain with objective the meeting point between literature, theater and poetry, according to the press release.

Gabriel Garran wrote two plays, "The color of bread" and "Le Rire du fou", an autobiographical novel "Géographie Française", an adaptation "Tulipe ou la Protestation" and more than 1,000 poems, most of which are unknown to readers or published in the form of collections, recalls his entourage.

Revealing through his staging of many talents, including in particular African, North African and Quebec authors and artists unknown in France, Gabriel Garran was awarded in 2015 the Great Medal of Francophonie by the French Academy.

In a press release, the management of the Théâtre de la Commune recalled the slogan of its founder: "The future of the theater belongs to those who do not go there".

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