PROLOGUE(S) #3: RIDEAU REPRESENT

Much taken by matter of origin, Charlotte L’Orage draws circles to touch one of those place where the world might have begin, which isn’t as simple as she would have thought. In her performance Prologue, she risks a dialogue with the public in her dear projet of theatrical jams. For her, creation and birth are the same thing. We saw Charlotte in a few akward postures, where she searches for what will save us from wanting to save us. The earthbound makes her feel great. 

Established in Ottawa region for 5 years now, Charlotte still doesn’t know how to write a bio. Neither what theatre making really means. She tries anyway, with ways that provoke, and that she develops from projets to blackening of scenes, as well as with her small enterprise Creations Lunaires, where she, with people and businesses, helps find the soul back. Maybe together we will find a place to live. Either way, she’ll go there alone.   

A 2008 graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, Mani Soleymanlou has lived in Tehran, Paris, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, and has worked with such acclaimed directors as Alice Ronfard (Les pieds des anges), Brigitte Haentjens (L’opéra de quat’sous), Claude Poissant (Rouge gueule, The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi), Serge Denoncourt (Projet Andromaque, Les trois mousquetaires), Olivier Kemeid (Furieux et désespérés), Denis Bernard (Ce moment-là) and Eric Jean (Variations sur un temps).

He is best known as the founding artistic director (2011) of the Montreal-based theatre company Orange Noyée. His distinctive artistic practice investigates notions of community identity (Un/One, Deux/Two, Trois/Three) and social relationships (Ils étaient quatre, Cinq à sept, 8). He pursued this approach more recently in Neuf [working title] and Zéro presented in fall 2019 in Montreal and Ottawa, and also in various artistic collaborations over the years: Lapin blanc, Lapin rouge, Les Lettres arabes II, and À te regarder, ils s’habitueront. Mani Soleymanlou was part of the impressive team behind Gabriel Dumont’s Wild West Show (premiered at the NAC in October 2017), as director and co-artistic director.

Mani Soleymanlou assumed the position of Artistic Director of NAC French Theatre on September 1, 2021.