Créactifs | Bio EN

Anne-Marie St-Louis is a theatre maker from Montreal who specializes in directing, teaching theatre and stage managing. Her main area of interest is creating site and person specific theatre: theatre that creatively responds to the spaces and communities around her.

ABOUT

BIO

Anne-Marie St-Louis was born in Montreal and always had a passion for making up and directing stories. She participated in over 20 productions during her high school and college years then decided to enrol at Concordia University in Theatre in Development, determined to transform her passion into a career. With an ever-growing fascination for ritual and performance of all sorts, a kind of highly sensory, romantic yet satiricial, bubble-gum punk aesthetic is what best defines her work.

EXPERIENCE

Anne-Marie graduated in 2017 from Theatre and Development, a program which trained her in cultural mediation and community-based theatre work. The program opened doors for her at various cultural organizations (YMCA, St-Columba House, Atwater Library, Oxy-Jeunes, Share the Warmth and Fusion Jeunesse) with which she still collaborates today. Since finishing school, she gained more stage managing and directing experience by working on shows for 3 theatre festivals (Arena, You Are Here and the Montreal Fringe) and collaborating with emerging artists on productions presented in different Montreal theatre establishments (Espace Libre, MainLine, Conservatoire d’Art dramatique, Segal).

VISION

Anne-Marie is as equally commited to perfecting the theatre craft than she is to caring for the community that participates in the play. Througout her career, she aims to develop projects that foster dialogue and render the theatre process and institution accessible to all. She hopes to create her own theatre company one day and continue working in Montreal on meaningful and thought-provoking productions.

Costumes and photo by Isabella Donnati-Simons

MY PROCESS

I am a very process-oriented artist and believe the journey is just as important as the destination. Connecting with others and developing an inclusive way of working is my top priority. With every project I am involved in, this is something I hope shines through the final product.

The pictures below showcase the values that define me, the ideas that inspire me and the cool discoveries I made along the way.

With this photo, I wanted to reflect on the importance of the rehearsal hall, and how I value it as the place my team and I can come together and test out ideas. In general, I am fascinated by the adaptation and research creation process, and much prefer starting from a theme than with a finalized script. Using different media, improvisation, journal writing and research, I love reclaiming a text, discovering and sculpting stage images with my actors and then adapting those into the final script

The opportunity for collaboration and the chance to build a community is perhaps what first drew me to theatre. I enjoyed writing when I was little, but was not passionate about it being a solitary art practice. What drives me about theatre is the team work, the precious contribution of each artist to the final product. I value a non-hierarchical and inclusive process, where all involved can feel free to collaborate.

In each project I lead, I believe in the importance of building a family of artists supporting each other. A big part of my process is facilitating spaces for encounters and opportunities for sharing, through conversations, feedback sessions, get togethers and of course food! This year, our whole cast and crew went on a three day artist retreat in a country house to develop Le meilleur des mondes. This experience allowed us to create in a community setting and a atmosphere of openness and growth.

As artists, I believe it’s important to confront ourselves to new perspectives and new challenges. For me, this expresses itself in learning from art forms I’m not necessarily familiar with and providing my audiences with experiences they’ve never encountered at the theatre. Innovation brings openness and healthy questioning. Working in the same venue twice also makes it easier for me to ask myself: how do I use the space differently? How can I say something that is new and pertinent in 2018?

Creating a world. That’s what I love most about theatre and why I’ve decided to make it my career. I love the process of imagining a world, deciphering its codes, deciding which elements belong in it and which don’t… Then comes the part of collaborating with designers and deciding what materials, images, sounds and objects best illustrate this world. How can we convey it to the audience? How can they taste, touch it, challenge it?

In the Tragedy of Dick III, my collaborators and I wanted to playfully represent our own biases on stage and portray an exagerated version of ourselves. This pushed us to examine who we are, what challenges us and what we can bring to the table of Montreal theatre

Feminism (and by which I mean intersectional feminism) is one of my core values. I try to learn as much as I can from the women around me and stage scenes of female empoweremenrt. I also try to be aware of my own privilege as a white woman and fight against reproducing stereotypes.

A new hobby I’ve discovered is collage. It speaks to an action I absolutely adore doing, in just about every context, which is juxtaposing images. In the plays I create, I find meaning and humor can emerge from sticking two contradictory stage pictures next to each other or on top of each other. This photo is from the melancholic ending of Le meilleur des mondes, where Lenina experiences the beauty of pain for the first time, in a world that pushes pleasure and happiness down your throat.

Whether I’m teaching children or working with professionals, I value creativity in my process above all else. I am passionate about enabling people to express themselves and sharing with others what theatre can do

Blowing bubbles, making pies, kareoke, card games, handing out milk and cookies to audience members? Definitely! A big part of my process is interacting with the audience and creating temporary community.

MY THEATRE PRACTICE

I would best describe my overall theatre practice, be it directing, producing, stage managing or teaching, as closer to that of “facilitating”: facilitating spaces of creativity and discussion, facilitating platforms to tackle socially relevant issues through a multitude of stories and voices. I am passionate about building stronger & more inclusive communities and reclaiming cultural environments that bring people together and empower them through art.

For more information on my past and current projects, please consult the images below for the description and documentation of the selected project. I hope you enjoy this colourful selection of bold, thought-provoking and poetic works of theatre

Acte de mise en table
My Master’s project at École Supérieure de Théâtre- UQAM
En vie – What is living
A children’s play about grieving and loss. See the page above dedicated to that project

PB&J / Vérité et vérité
PB&J is latest project I directed: a fun, québécois, contemporary adaptation of the cult classic, the Breakfast Club

Vérité et Vérité :: générale | mise en scène :: Anne-Marie St-Louis | mars 2020 | crédit photo : © Luma R. Brieuc

Racines Racines is the big project I am currently working on which I am excited to announce will be produced at Théâtre Espace Libre in February next year. Racine(s) is a community-based initiative that invites people who live in the Centre-Sud neighborhood and who are of immigrant background to create through the sharing of stories, traditions and memories. The project aims to bring community members on stage, to fuel social dialogues through art and to change the perception we have of the theatre.

Le meilleur des mondes Framed as a gala celebrating Ford and capitalism, this show explored themes of pleasure and entertainment through an video, live performance and music. After Éclose, I wanted to continue adapting source texts while exploring site-specific and interactive theatre, but this time with a stationary audience around who the action unfolds. Act I is the sensory construction of a pleasure-loving world. Act II ruptures this completely and shifts the focus to John L’Étranger.

Éclose Éclose was the first ever full length show I ever produced and directed. Through that process, I encountered many obstacles first-timers know all about: mainly having a big team and a small budget. Yet, these difficulties taught me how to be resourceful and ignited in me a true passion for site specific work. Transforming every corner of a church basement into tiny little stages amounted into very inspiring work and opened up new ways of creating a scene and relating to the audience.

III- AUDIOVISUAL

For my podcast listen here : https://soundcloud.com/anne-marie-st-louis-149177583

For my radio-show, Vérité ou vérité, listen here : https://soundcloud.com/anne-marie-st-louis-149177583/sets/radio-theatre-verite-ou-verite

Some videos…

This video is what welcomed audiences as they entered the multi-sensory playing space at the beginning of Le meilleur des mondes. With a gallery-like opening, spectators were given hospital slippers and asked to explore the different pleasure stations while the members of the dystopia chanted propaganda, spritzed happiness spray, swallowed their soma pills, blew bubbles and offered the lucky few some pleasure-flavored madeleines.
Video made by Alexis Gartion. Costume Design by Kate Stockburger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwFkAK6c8TY This interview was done by students at UdeM to promote the first full-length production I ever directed in May 2017, Éclose. Inspired by theatre makers such as Jordan Tannahill and Anne Bogart, I mainly describe how I view the theatre as an engaging and breathing art form that must reach and challenge its audience to survive. It must speak to the audience, and speak using a diversity of contemporary visual languages and medias. I also discuss how I believe in encouraging young theatre troupes and emerging artists like myself.Video made by Clara-Marie Nasser.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK7JMQf2RKg This teaser was made in December 2017 to promote my second full-length production, Le meilleur des mondes. In adapting this dystopia, we wanted to focus on society’s obsession with consumption and pleasure. This is why we created the glimmering Aphrodite figure, a character who represents and embodies the ever-present and endlessly multiplied surface of screens.

Video made by Peter Shaw. Costume Design by Kate Stockburger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfrwOTNQaKU What is soma? In this video, we hear Aphrodite describe the effects of soma– the pleasure drug Aldous Huxley invented in Brave New World. In our adaptation, we established that soma could take many forms: alcohol, sex, food, Netflix. Here, the text performed is a dramaturgical interplay of Huxley and Proust, a reimagining of the ecstasy-inducing madeleine. During the show, this video played while Benassi’s Satisfaction blasted from the speakers and the characters entered a sort of sexual trance.Video made by Alexis Gartion. Costume Design by Kate Stockburger.

Please contact me to hear from (and hire!) the wonderful collaborators that helped all these shows happen.

WANT TO COLLABORATE?

Email me at annemarie.stlouis@gmail.com!

Credits des collaborateurs : Isabella Donnati Simons, Diana Chiu, Kate Stockburger, Karine Boillat-Madfouny, Éléonore Brieuc, Lucas Gizard, Juliane Choquette-Lelarge, Peter Shaw, Jean St-Louis, Luma R. Brieuc, Alex Gartion et Anthony Kennedy.