From 1985 to 2000, Marie Brassard’s career was closely linked to that of Robert Lepage, both in theater and in film. In 2001, she created her first solo work, Jimmy, créature de rêve, presented at the Festival de théâtre des Amériques.
The play’s strong success inspired her to launch a solo career and establish her own production company, Infrarouge, of which she is artistic director. Since then, she has written, directed, and performed the following works: La noirceur (2003), Peepshow (2005), The Glass Eye (2007), L’invisible (2008), and Moi qui me parle à moi-même dans le futur (2010). In these plays, Marie continued to experiment with technology, exploring the uses of sound and light, and her particular approach has made her stand out as a singular voice in contemporary theater.
Since then, in collaboration with guest artists from different disciplines and origins, the artist
has created surrealist pieces with virtuoso acting skills and innovative video, light, and sound installations. Her unique work, performed both in English and French, received widespread acclaim in many cities across America, Europe, and Australia. She is the artistic director of both production companies Infrarouge and Ultraviolet.
Marie Brassard collaborated to the dramaturgy and direction of The Same Eyes as Yours and Night Mechanics.
Frédéric Auger is involved in the creation of a living sound material, played live. His recent activities have concentrated on integrating sound environments in performative contexts, using sampling, duplication, dynamic treatment and the spatialization of acoustic objects and bodies. He focuses on integrating his practice and research to the creative and experimental process of the artists with whom he collaborates. Among other artistic associations, he works as sound designer for the Orchestre d’hommes-orchestres, the Bureau de l’APA, Rude Ingénierie Theater, the documentary theater company Porte Parole, Infrarouge/Marie Brassard, La Nef/Claire Gignac. He worked as a sound enginneer with Sibyllines/Brigitte Haentjens, Akousma festival, Elektra festival, Ex Machina/Robert Lepage. He worked as chief sound engineer at Usine C, centre de création et de diffusion pluridisciplinaire, from 2005 to 2011. He presently teaches sound engineering at École nationale de théâtre du Canada.
Frédéric Auger collaborated to the music of Night Mechanics.
Marilène Bastien works as a costume and set designer in theater, circus and dance. In 2006, she joins Marie Chouinard Cie as a stage manager. For 6 years, she travels the world with a dozen pieces from the company's repertoire. She also collaborates with Ginette Laurin for the costumes and sets of Le sacre du printemps (CCN – Ballet de Lorraine and Opéra National de Lorraine, 2011), Khaos (O Vertigo, 2012) and for the costumes of Soif (O Vertigo, 2014). Her passion for dance bring her to more artistic encounters: Louise Bédard, Chantal Caron (73˚ nord), Victor Quijada (Enter woven, for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago) and Manuel Roque (Ne meurs pas tout de suite, on nous regarde and Data). Since 2012, Marilène joins each year the creative team of the festival Montréal Complètement Cirque, designing costumes for some 40 artists, acrobats and dancers, under the direction of Anthony Venisse. In 2015, she designs the costumes of circus shows Ruelle (Jeff Hall) and Hommage à Beau Dommage (Cirque du Soleil). In theater, works alongside directors Kristian Frédric, Bernard Meney, Jacques Rossi and Sabrina Reeves.
Marilène Bastien created the costumes for Night Mechanics and the duet Only You.
Colorado born, Oklahoma raised. James Gregg is an international choreographer who has created choreographic works on Bodytraffic, Whim W’Him, Danceworks Chicago, Dark Circles Contemporary Dance, Ballet X, Northwest Dance Project, Nashville Ballet's Emergence, Springboard Danse Project Montreal, River North Dance Company, Elements Contemporary Ballet, Cirque du Soleil at Sea and L’Ecole Superieure de Danse de Quebec.
James is also the co-artistic director of a Los Angeles based multi-disciplinary dance collective known as Wewolf. Its focus is on creating and working on different projects that bring RubberLegz and James’ methods of dance and visual arts together.
James was the recipient of the 2015 Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship Award. He was also the winner for Ballet Austin's 2014 New American talent choreographic competition, a finalist in Milwaukee Ballet's 2013 Genesis Choreographic competition, and in 2011 the winner of the International Choreographic Competition at Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur.
As a performer, James has worked with many companies and choreographers such as BJM Danse, Aszure & Artists, Rubberband Dance Group, Bodytraffic, River North Dance Chicago, Barak Marshall, Aszure Barton, Crystal Pite, Mia Michaels, Gustavo Ramirez, Rodrigo Pedernieras, Frank Chauves, Danny Ezralow, Mauro Bigonzetti, Annabelle Lopez-Ochoa, and Cayetano Soto. James also has been featured in several music videos, feature films, and in TV documentaries and specials, such as Elton John, Lyon, Kresha Turner, Ils Dansent, On the road, and Soul Survivors.
These experiences to work with such a variety of artists and different artistic avenues has given James the tools to create his own language and helped mold his voice and vision.
James dances with Anne in the duet Only You.
Yan Lee Chan, based in Montreal, has been designing lighting for contemporary dance and theater for more than 15 years. He collaborated with many choreographers and companies in Canada, including Marie Chouinard, Denise Filiatrault, Théâtre Momentum, Paula de Vasconcelos, Sylvie Moreau, Hélène Langevin, Marc Boivin, Lin Snelling, Andrew Harwood, Nicole Mion, Stéphane Gladyszewski, and Victor Quijada (RUBBERBANDance). In 2017, Yan Lee Chan designed the lighting of the newest creation, Réversible, of the circus company Les 7 doigts de la main.
Yan Lee Chan designed the lighting and worked as technical director on The Same Eyes as Yours and Night Mechanics.
Julie Charland is a Montreal visual artist who works as a costume designer, stylist, and art illustrator. She was noticed for her surprising and singular costume creations alongside director Brigitte Haentjens, with whom she has been collaborating for 20 years. Starting in 2017, she created some forty illustrations for the French Theater seasons at the National Arts Center in Ottawa. Her recent collaborations include, for theater, In the Solitude of the Coton Fields by B-M Koltès, for cinema, Ravenous by Robin Aubert, for humor, Préfère novembre by Louis-José Houde, and for the music scene, Rêves américains by Thomas Hellman.
Julie Charland created the costume of The Same Eyes as Yours.
Originally from Saskatchewan, Canadian choreographer Shawn Hounsell danced professionally with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal between 1989 and 2003. An award winning choreographer, Shawn has created and staged pieces for numerous Canadian companies including the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal, Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, Ballet British Columbia, Ballet Kelowna, Le Jeune Ballet du Québec, and Festival Dance Company. In addition, his works have been performed by American companies such as Ballet Pacifica and Collage Dance Collective as well as in Europe by the Ballet of the National Theatre of Prague. From 2006 to 2009, Mr. Hounsell also served as Rehearsal Director with LaLaLa Human Steps for the world tour of Amjad. Equally a freelance teacher and coach, Mr. Hounsell currently resides in Montreal, Quebec.
Shawn Hounsell works with Anne as rehearsal director since 2017.
Njo Kong Kie is a composer for dance, opera, and theater. His works include music for the play Infinity by Hannah Moscovitch and the music theater work Mr. Shi and His Lover (with Wong Teng Chi), the first ever Chinese language production at Canada’s National Arts Centre English Theatre. Long-serving music director of La La La Human Steps, Kong Kie has also worked with choreographers Anne Plamondon, Aszure Barton, Shawn Hounsell, and others, providing original music to their productions for companies such as Nederlands Dans Theater, Ballet National de L’Opéra du Rhin, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Singapore Dance Theatre, and Ballet BC.
More at www.musicpicnic.com.
Njo Kong Kie collaborated to the music of The Same Eyes as Yours and Night Mechanics.
Last Ex is the new instrumental rock ensemble led by Simon Trottier and Olivier Fairfield, both longtime fixtures of experimental/punk scenes rooted in the cross-province axis of Hull/Ottawa/Montreal (straddling the border of Quebec and Ontario, respectively). In addition to duties in various groups orbiting Fairfield's E-Tron Records (including H. de Heutz, Ferriswheel and many others), the two are perhaps best known as core members of haunted blues-folk ensemble Timber Timbre, which spawned the Last Ex project.
Last Ex collaborated to the music of Night Mechanics.
Olivier Fairfield collaborated to the music of Counter Cantor and created the score of Only You.
Anick La Bissonière approaches the theater stage not as a site for sets but as a space for creative investment. Since 1993, she has designed sets for more than fifty shows, working with Omnibus and Carbone 14 as well as the Cirque du Soleil. In 1999, she joined forces with Brigitte Haentjens on shows attesting to this creative duo’s artistic complicity. Prior to being appointed to UQAM’s École Supérieure de théâtre in 2010, she was an invited professor at the University of Montreal, teaching in the Master of Architecture program. Finalist for the prestigious Siminovitch prize in both 2006 and 2009, Anick was among the international elite honoured at the 40th Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space. She was also awarded the Siminovitch prize in 2015.
Anick La Bissonnière created the scenography of The Same Eyes as Yours.
Antonin Sorel, an artist and self-taught designer, was born in Montreal in 1971. Between 2001 and 2009, he works with collective KEZACO INC., a company specializing in the design of objects and spaces, as well as the organization of on-location events. Since 2009, he works under the brand Antonin Sorel Design to create urban furniture and design, both public and private. His most recent realizations include the interior design of Foxy Restaurant (with Eric Filteau and his team from MO Design Workshop & Architecture), as well as the design of fashion store Les Étoffes. He also works in theater and cinema, assuming the role of artistic director on movie productions by Karim Hussein, Vanya Rose and Sophie Deraspe. In theater, he designs the scenography for a number of shows created by actor, author and director Marie Brassard, among which The Glass Eye, La Fureur de ce que je pense and Dissidences, alumni project of l’École régionale des acteurs de Cannes.
Antonin Sorel created the scenography of Night Mechanics.
Garth Stevenson is a Brooklyn-based film composer and double bassist. In the past four years, Garth has released two full-length solo albums, informed by his experiences carrying his 150-year-old double bass to the woods, the beach, and the desert. His most recent and critically acclaimed release, Flying, is a seventy-five minute homage to a recent life-changing trip to Antarctica. Stevenson composed the original scores to Chappaquiddick, Tracks, Ten Thousand Saints, The
Red Knot, Tater Tot and Patton, Resilience, Seed: The Untold Story, A Fierce Green Fire, The Young Lakota, Elon + Emmanuelle, On Meditation, and L’Aubade. In 2008, Stevenson was awarded with the International Society of Bassists composition competition first prize for his innovative piece “Grandfather: for double bass and electronics” and subsequently served as a judge for the competition in 2010. Stevenson is a founding member of 5707, the ambient duo with guitarist Ryan Ferreira and TAQ, a Polish piano trio with Marcin Masecki and Ziv Ravitz. As a freelance bassist he has recorded on over 50 albums and has performed with John Shannon, the Crash Test Dummies, Fitz and the Tantrums, Annie and the Beekeepers, and Lucy Wainwright.
Garth Stevenson collaborated to the music of The Same Eyes as Yours.
Nicolas Descôteaux designed the lighting of the duet Only You.
Mathieu Leroux acted as dramaturg on the duet Only You. Writer, theatre director, actor/dancer, and dance dramaturge, Mathieu Leroux is a graduate of L'École Supérieure de théâtre of UQAM (performance profile). He co-founded Les Néos, writing and performing some 100 short plays in five years, while also being artistic director of this theatre collective. He created the solo work (La naissance de Superman), and a group piece (Scrap). Mathieu was part of the impressive cast in the cycle, Les Atrides, after co-signing the adaptation of the six-part greek tragedy with director Louis-Karl Tremblay. More recently, he acted as dramaturge on the tanzmainz production Twist for Mainz’s Staatstheater, performed in Michelle Parent’s play Le sixième sens at Théâtre-Denise-Pelletier; created and performed the dance duet Bones & Wires with Sébastien Provencher at Tangente (May 2021).
Leroux has built sustainable partnerships with prominent choreographers and has been dramaturge for Victor Quijada, Helen Simard, Alexandre Morin, Andrea Peña and Alexandra Spicey Landé for many years. He his part of the Danse à la carte mentoring team and is the editor of L’instant même’s theatre collection. Leroux earned his master’s degree in French literature at l'Université de Montréal (2011). His first novel, Dans la cage, was published to rave reviews by Héliotrope, and his short plays accompanying an essay on performing the self, Quelque chose en moi choisit le coup de poing, can be found at La Mèche. He recently published his new novel, Avec un poignard (September 2020, Héliotrope).
Isabelle Poirier works as a rehearsal director with the company since 2019.