Charles Chemin is a French-American director, dramaturg, and lighting designer born in 1983.

​

In 2025, he becomes artistic director of The Watermill Center, a multidisciplinary arts center founded in 1992 by Robert Wilson in New York State. Previously, he was the director of the Summer Program & Festival, presenting works by numerous international emerging and established artists such as Ugo Rondinone, Isabella Rossellini, Robert Nava, Lucinda Childs, Regina Galindo, Alicja Kwade or Kelsey Lu.

​

As a director, he navigates from one medium to another in many countries. He was an associate artist at the National Theatre in Florence, creating interno/esterno based on Maeterlinck and presented at the Théâtre de la Ville, after a lasting collaboration with the National Theater of Craiova. He has staged contemporary operas such as Eric Breton's Le Messie at the Opéra d'Avignon and Roberto Valera's Cubanacan at the Havana Opera, and has created scenic sound pieces such as 20 silences at the Vicenza Festival with composer Dom Bouffard, based on research at NASA about the unconscious of astronauts. He also developed museum live works with artist Carlos Soto at the Performa Biennial in New York and the Moscow Biennial of Contemporary Art, and dance pieces with Caroline Breton, including at the Ménagerie de Verre in Paris and Orléans national Scene.

 

After a long career as an actor, he has been co-director and dramaturg for more than twenty Robert Wilson works since 2009, including Mary Said with Isabelle Huppert, PESSOA with Maria de Medeiros or Krapp’s Last Tape, in which he directed Wilson. He also adapted plays such as Three Women based on Albee and UBU based on Jarry.  In 2024, he created a new version of Carmen for the choreographer Israel Galvan, where he directs the singers, including at Paris Philharmonie.