French stage director, author, actor and educator. In 1973, François Lazaro along with Christian Chabaud and Michel Ploix participated in the creation of the Compagnie Daru which approached puppetry in a different way using images but no texts. In 1984, François Lazaro left Daru to create his own company, Théâtre-Espace-Marionnette, renamed Clastic Théâtre in 1996.

After Le Horla (1987) adapted from Guy de Maupassant, Lazaro created the play Samotnosc (Solitude, 1988) from a work by Bruno Schulz, in collaboration with the Banialuka theatre in Poland; Pour en finir encore (To Put An End Again, 1989) adapted from the non-theatrical texts of Samuel Beckett; Les Portes du regard (The Gaze’s Doors 1991), a montage of texts by Arthur Rimbaud, Gaston Bachelard, and the psychoanalyst Ronald D. Laing; L’Effacement (The Erasing, 1992) by Erik Louis.

Convinced of the necessity of bringing together living authors and puppets, from 1992, Lazaro focused his research on contemporary writing with what he called “interpretation by delegation”. Lazaro also wrote Dormir (To Sleep, 1998), with Nicolas Goussef. Since 1994, he collaborates with the writer Daniel Lemahieu and the sculptor Francis Marshall: Entre chien et loup (At Dusk), a show that will have two versions (in 1994 and in 1997); Paroles mortes ou lettres de Pologne (Dead Words, Or Letters from Poland, 1996); Le Rêve de votre vie (The Dream of Your Life, 1999). The Clastic Théâtre also performs in public spaces with shorter versions of contemporary texts: Un p’tit coup de théâtre (A Little Dramatic Turn of Events, 2001) and Pan sur le sida! (Bang on AIDS!, 2002) presented in bars and elsewhere.

Based in Clichy (Hauts-de-Seine) since 1998, the company offers a space for sharing and experimentation (le Laboratoire Clastic) and offers support for young puppeteers. In 1999, the company created the Festival Objets et Comédies with the municipal theatre.

François Lazaro taught at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette (ESNAM) in Charleville-Mézières where he was responsible, from 2001 to 2003, for the pedagogy curriculum. He is also a lecturer at the Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, also known as Paris III.

(See France.)