Rachel Trépeau

Rachel Trépeau (fl. 1607 – fl. 1616), was a French stage actor.[1] She was one of the first French actresses known by name.[2]

She is the most well documented French actress of the early 17th-century together with the sisters Marie Vernier, Mlle La Porte, and Colombe Vernier, Mlle Montfleury, but very little is known of her.

She was a member of the Comédiens du Roi at the Hôtel de Bourgogne under her mentor Valleran le Conte between 1607 and 1612. She is noted to be a member of Gros-Guillaume theatre company in 1616.

Rachel Trépeau is the first actress named in a legal contract in the 17th-century: on December 1, 1607 she was included in an association of actors led by Valleran, “represented” by Nicolas Gasteau.[2] In 1610, she and Gasteau jointly held one-half shares in another troupe led by Valleran. Trépeau signed several legal documents between 1610 and 1612, and as she did not need the permission of a husband, which had been necessary for a wife in the law of the time period, she was evidently not married, but Nicolas Gasteau did represent her on occasion.[2]

While the roles played by the actors in Paris during this time period is generally not known, she was evidently a principal actress of the company, and the only contemporary female actor sharing in the income of the company Comediens du roi.[2]

References
  1. Georges Mongrédien, La Vie quotidienne des comédiens au temps de Molière, Librairie Hachette, 1966, page 59
  2. Scott, Virginia (2010). Women on the stage in early modern France : 1540-1750. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521896757.
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