Senouvo Agbota Zinsou

Senouo Agbota Zinsou was born in Lorné, Togo, in 1946. He continued his studies in France, receiving degrees in theatre and communications. In 1968 he co-founded a university theatre company, after working with several student companies, and began to be known outside Togo when his play "On joue la comédie" received first prize in Radio France Internationale's 1972 Festival of Black Arts and Culture in Logos, Nigeria. He directed a production of the same play which later toured France. Since 1978, Zinsou has been director of the Troupe Nationale du Togo, a theatre, ballet and music company. He directs the company in productions of his own plays, including "L'Arc en Ciel" and "Le Club". Zinsou premiered "La Torque qui Chante (The Singing Tortoise)" in 1966 during the Francophone Summit in Lomé in a production that was later performed in France at the 1987 Limoges Festival. Zinsou is also the prizewinning short story writer, whose fiction and plays are published in France by Hatier. Zinsou is also the writer and the author of: "La Tortue Qui Chante", "Yévi et L'éléphant Chanteur" and "Le Médicament"