Alain Reynaud

Les Nouveaux Nez & Cie.

The Company

Sometimes we cushion the blow by saying “director-artist”. But the truth is, it’s this widegap between the two roles which keeps Alain hooked; he wears two hats: he is the director of the Cascade (National Circus Centre for the Auvergne Rhîne Alpes region of France) and he is also a clown. But he wears both hats as if they were one : political, poetic, idiotic, erudite, representing authority and also freedom; he’s a manager who thinks outside the box, cutting across paradoxes, carving out a career path where dreams and reality move forward together.
Defining himself as an eclectic-bulimic, he approaches his craft from different angles: actor-clown, teacher, director. In the end, it all comes down to putting things together, connecting, taking, passing on, cutting words into a thousand pieces; all this is very much the DNA of FĂ©lix Tampon, his august clown. FĂ©lix Tampon, lost, disorientated guide from an imaginary world, a go-between who dreams of bringing people together for one great big party.
A former student at the CNAC – Centre National des Arts du Cirque (Year Group no.2), Alain is one of the co-founders of the company “Les Nouveaux Nez & Cie” with whom he has created a multitude of shows : Cinq folies en Cirque mineur (Five Follies in Circus Minor), le Jour des Petites lunes (Day of the Little Moons), le ThĂ©Ăątre des Nouveaux Nez (The Nouveaux Nez’s Theatre), Mador Nomad… He has directed shows for the company A droite Gauche, the show Klaxon for the company Akoreacro and numerous site-specific shows for the Alba Circus Festival : La Grande Suite, Circo Barolo, Roue Libre (Free Wheel)… In 2015 the CNAC invited him to stage their 27th year group student show : Avec Vue sur la Piste. In 2016, he shared the stage with two other professional clowns : Heinzi Lorenzen and Gabriel ChamĂ© Buendia, in the show Triiio. He has been associate artist with the Luxembourg Philharmonie since 2018, directing the show ChapĂŽ ChapĂŽ, followed by Circo Piano, both projects fusing circus with live classical music.
In the field of teaching, he collaborates regularly with circus and drama schools such as the CNAC, ENSATT and la Comédie de St Etienne.

The show

Claricello Creation 2021

Les Nouveaux Nez & Cie

Roseline Guinet, Nicolas Bernard, Roger Bories, Alain Reynaud, students, and André Riot-Sarcey, professor of clowning, met in 1986 at the Centre National des Arts du Cirque de Chùlons en Champagne (2nd promotion). After graduating as the first clowns to receive a state diploma in December 1990, they created their company in January 1991 in Bourg Saint Andéol, ArdÚche, and moved into the former Reynaud carpentry shop in the Tourne district in 1992.

In parallel to their tours in France and around the world, anxious to establish themselves and to take part in the local life of Bourg Saint AndĂ©ol, they imagine and stage, in collaboration with the association Bourg Initiatives, the memorable Cabarets ChampĂȘtres which will enchant the summer evenings of the spectators of the district of Tourne from 1992 to 2008. The Nouveaux Nez created all their shows at the Menuiserie from 1992 to 2008. Moreover, they made it a place of artistic meetings, training and creations, around the clown, which will prefigure La Cascade, National Circus Center which will open its doors in 2008.

Since 2008, the company has been in permanent residence at La Cascade, directed by Alain Reynaud. The company is now composed of : Roseline Guinet, Raquel Esteve Mora, Nicolas Bernard, Alain Reynaud, André Riot-Sarcey.