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Our history

Founded in Sherbrooke in 1998 by a group of visionaries from the performing arts and various sectors of civil society, the Théâtre des Petites Lanternes quickly captured public attention with its creativity and commitment to engaged artistic practice. Over the years, the creators associated with TPL have continually pushed their limits to discover innovative approaches to this committed artistic practice.

2024-2025

The Théâtre des Petites Lanternes is entering a new creative era with the appointment of Kristelle Holliday and Cyril Assathiany as co-artistic directors. One is beginning her 13th year with the company, while the other is just starting out; however, they are entering their 10th year of collaboration. Their well-established rapport is built on a shared love of working in unconventional spaces and is grounded in the principles of horizontal collaboration, where they leverage their strengths and talents to contribute to a shared vision. This active, egalitarian partnership will be key to achieving their ambitious goals. In this spirit, they aspire to create a theater that fully reflects their creativity and commitment to profound human reflection.

As part of Rivières de Lumières’ 10th anniversary, the ambulatory will return to its place of origin on Wellington Street, and our lantern workshops will be offered from Fleurimont to Rock Forest! From September 2 to 14, our artists’ phantasmagorical creations will occupy every corner of our city.

Angèle

Séguin

Founder and Artistic Director
OCTOBER 1998- JUNE 2024

SEE ANGÈLE'S WORDS

2023-2024

Angèle Séguin, the artistic director and founder of the Théâtre des Petites Lanternes, announces her decision to step down as artistic director to make way for the next generation. This transition has been carefully planned to ensure the continuity and evolution of the company’s founding principles. The new artistic co-directors, Kristelle Holliday and Cyril Assathiany, will be supported by Véronique Barbara Viens as general manager as they develop their vision and projects in alignment with the company’s artistic and dramaturgical work.

2022-2023

Projet Monarques premiered in Sherbrooke on November 8, 2022. Translated into English, the show embarked on its first bilingual tour of Quebec in the spring of 2023. In the fall, the tour expanded to Ontario, the Maritimes, and back to Quebec. Thanks to the acquisition of a self-supporting structure that allows for an autumnal setup, we can perform at a wide variety of venues. Invited by the 2nd Division of National Defence, performances are held on military bases, as well as in conventional theaters. In total, 40 performances have reached over 8,000 spectators from both civilian and military backgrounds.

This creation is also the subject of research by three universities: Université de Sherbrooke, Université de Chicoutimi, and Université du Québec à Montréal.

Territoires: Bringing Art and Nature Together

With this new proposal, Kristelle Holliday aims to challenge our sense of belonging to the territory, our connection with nature, and the role of humans in their environment. The goal of this new landscape-theater creation is to offer a fresh perspective on the world around us, encouraging a more attentive look at the minute elements that comprise it. Inspired by various readings, artistic creations, scientific and philosophical reflections, and time spent in the Estrie region, artists Kristelle Holliday and Amélie Lemay-Choquette invite the community to engage in multiple encounters that question humanity’s place in the ecology of our planet.

We spent considerable time building partnerships and engaged in meaningful discussions to fully understand the issues surrounding the arts and the environment, as well as to develop the visual aspects of the project. The Nuit des Idées event served as our first laboratory of exploration for Territoires, providing creative opportunities with artists we had not previously collaborated with. Activities multiplied from January 2023 onward, notably including a writing residency led by André Gélineau. In winter 2023, Emmanuelle Laroche joined the team as a guest artist to bring her new creation to fruition.

In November 2023, the Théâtre des Petites Lanternes opened its 25th-anniversary activities with Angèle Séguin and Paul Lefebvre’s reinterpretation of the founding work Les Lanternes oubliées ou Allégorie d’une planète en quête de Lumière.

2018-2021

In 2018, Bongo Té, Tika toured the Democratic Republic of Congo, presenting 69 shows between mid-February 2018 and March 2019, reaching over 37,210 people. In the same year, Kristelle Holliday, who was still the General Director, took on the role of artistic co-director, fully assuming leadership of Rivières de Lumières and Quatre-Quarts. In addition to contributing to TPL’s artistic development, she continued her research-creation on landscape theatre in urban spaces.

That year also saw the creation of Quatre-Quarts, the first Théâtre de Paysage production under Kristelle Holliday’s artistic direction, in collaboration with LaboKracBoom, the Société d’histoire de Sherbrooke, and La Maison des arts de la parole. Quatre-Quarts is an interactive and immersive theatrical experience designed to unveil the faces and anecdotes of the past and present, while also imagining the future of four micro-neighborhoods in downtown Sherbrooke, which we have named in our own way. During the first year (2018), the project went through several phases of research, creation, and public engagement in the Quartier Alexandre, Quartier des Musées, Quartier de la Création, and Quartier de la Cathédrale.

The second year (2019) featured neighborhood parties inspired by the walks of the first year, culminating in the third and final year of the project (2020) with a landscape theatre project in downtown Sherbrooke. Andréanne Joubert joined Kristelle Holliday in writing the text, and Tamara Brown directed.

In 2019, another creation, Projet Monarques, was developed. Its launch took place the following year, in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. This bilingual, Canada-wide theater project aims to give a voice to veterans, military families, and their loved ones regarding their operational and post-traumatic stress injuries, their marginalization, and the countless repercussions on themselves, their communities, and those around them. In 2021, guided writing workshops were held across Canada to gather the stories of more than 200 veterans, military personnel, and their families.

During the 2019-2021 season, Amélie Bergeron was invited to join the company as a guest co-director, focusing on the artistic development of emerging artists. She will also collaborate with Angèle Séguin, with whom she is co-writing the piece Projet Monarques, with the support of Paul Lefebvre. They will participate in a residency at CEAD’s Salle des Machines in autumn 2021.

2014-2017

In February 2014, following the tragedy of July 6, 2013, the CSSS de Lac-Mégantic and the recovery team, supported by La Croix-Rouge, approached the Théâtre des Petites Lanternes to assess the feasibility of a creation project throughout the MRC du Granit territory. This initiated a new creation process, leading to lantern workshops and writing workshops across the territory, which culminated in the play Comme un grand trou dans le ventre, produced in Lac-Mégantic in autumn 2015.

In 2015, Kristelle Holliday developed Rivières de Lumières, a festive festival inspired by the concept of Welfare State International parades. Firmly rooted in the downtown core, the festival features three main activities: lantern workshops, an ambulatory event, and a colorful night market. Rivières de Lumières aims to offer all citizens of the region moments of encounter and wonder.

Also in 2015, Bongo Té, Tika (Pas comme ça, arrête!) was co-written by Angèle Séguin and Congolese author Marie-Louise Bibish Mumbu at the request of Oxfam-Québec. In 2017, 600 women and 210 men from 10 communes in Kinshasa agreed to write about their realities concerning violence against women and girls. In October of the same year, the Congolese artistic team spent a month in Sherbrooke for a creative residency.

In the summer of 2017, after seeing Comme un grand trou dans le ventre, the Eastern Townships Veterans Committee inquired about the possibility of creating a work that would address the stigma surrounding operational and post-traumatic stress injuries experienced by veterans and military personnel, as well as their marginalization and the countless repercussions on themselves and those around them.

2008-2013

From 2008 to 2009, Angèle Séguin wrote the play Ni noir, Ni blanc, which depicts the sinuous journey of men and women who chose religious commitment in the 1950s. Ni noir, Ni blanc was presented in Sherbrooke in autumn 2009.

In 2008, Angèle Séguin was invited by IDEA to travel to London to participate in international exchanges and offer a workshop. At the same time, IDEA proposed the establishment of an international creation project in Brazil for 2010. In 2009, 900 young people aged 18 to 30 from 30 countries and speaking five languages took part in the initiative. With the collaboration of Viviane Champagne, Angèle Séguin wrote Le Soleil se lève (The Sun Rises) in youth language. In July 2010, she directed rehearsals in Brazil. Théâtre des Petites Lanternes and IDEA co-produced Le Soleil se lève sur une langue jeunesse in five languages, in the heart of the Amazon, featuring 26 artists from 26 countries.

In September 2010, following the earthquake in Haiti, the One Drop Foundation and Oxfam-Québec asked Théâtre des Petites Lanternes to give voice to those who had lived through the earthquake, in collaboration with the company Atelier ToTo B. In 2011, Angèle Séguin led writing workshops at Maison d’Haïti in Montreal and in Haiti, in refugee camps, on the streets, and in schools. After condensing the texts, she co-wrote Ayiti, Pawòl lapli ak lakansyèl/Haïti, Mots de pluie with Dieuvéla Étienne. Between 2012 and 2013, there were over 275 performances in urban and rural areas, attended by nearly 70,000 Haitians.

In 2012, Kristelle Holliday joined the company as General Manager. Between 2012 and 2014, two other creative projects were developed: Mutation, as part of the Jeux du Québec in Sherbrooke, and Voyage Identitaire, with Sociétés Culturelles in New Brunswick.

2005-2007

In 2005, Angèle Séguin returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo at the invitation of the Institut National des Arts and the Canadian Embassy in Kinshasa. In addition to offering another training course in forum theater to Congolese artists, she traveled to three refugee camps with the help of Oxfam-Québec, where she began research for a new creation titled Jusque dans la peau, nous sommes ensemble. A reading took place in May 2006 at the Salle Maurice-O’Bready, Centre culturel, Université de Sherbrooke.

That same year, upon their return from the Congo, Angèle Séguin and Sylvia Rolfe, Director of Community Relations, went to a residency with Théâtre l’Artifice in France. They hoped that their exchanges with artistic director Christian Duchange and his team would open new perspectives, allowing them to explore different ways of creating and engaging with the community. Thanks to Sylvia Rolfe’s networking efforts, over 700 writers participated in La Grande Cueillette des Mots, c’est pas des paroles en l’air, produced by Théâtre des Petites Lanternes in June 2007. The following month, Angèle Séguin was invited by the international organization IDEA (International Drama and Education Association) to travel to Hong Kong to offer a conference and various workshops to artists from across Asia.

Since 2007, Théâtre des Petites Lanternes has been based at the Centre des arts de la scène Jean-Besré as a resident company alongside six other co-founding companies.

2002-2004

After meeting with various groups of men from different backgrounds, author Gilles-Philippe Pelletier wrote the text for Comme un seul homme. The play explores the different realities of three generations of men from the same family and is directed by René Lefebvre. It premiered in Sherbrooke on February 11, 2004.

Between 1999 and 2003, while simultaneously touring Les Lanternes oubliées ou Allégorie d’une planète en quête de Lumières (LLO), six short 15-minute vignettes were extracted from the original work and presented in a salon-theater format. Following a tour that ran from 1999 to 2005, the play concluded its run in France in 2006. It will be revived in November 2023 as a public reading to mark the company’s 25th anniversary.

In 2002, the first international collaborations began. Angèle Séguin was invited to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo by Atelier-Théâtr’actions to direct a theatre-forum creation with artists from 17 professional troupes. The play Tokombola, which addresses the theme of sanitation, was presented at the Théâtre National.

Since 2001, with the support of the Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon in Montreal’s Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district, the Théâtre des Petites Lanternes has been initiating a series of “Résidences – Ateliers – Théâtre” with the Centre Le Perlier as part of a professional integration program for women living in poverty. Inspired by this experience, two new residencies-workshops-theater were established: Femmes en Mouvement in Magog in 2003 and Projet TERRE for immigrant women in collaboration with the Centre Saint-Michel in Sherbrooke from 2006 to 2012.

1998-2001

The Théâtre des Petites Lanternes was founded in Sherbrooke in 1998. Bringing together artistic talents and minds from diverse social backgrounds, it was born out of the need to establish a creative space that integrates research-creation with citizen participation. Every voice, whether artistic or civic, is of the utmost importance, shedding essential light on the company’s creative movements. This vision inspired the name Théâtre des Petites Lanternes. On November 10, 1999, the company raised the curtain on its first creation, Les Lanternes oubliées ou Allégorie d’une planète en quête de lumière, a work written and directed by Angèle Séguin.

Between 1999 and 2017, alongside theatrical creations, forum theater also played an important role in the company. More than thirty short co-creations were developed using this interactive format. In this way, the Théâtre des Petites Lanternes aims to make the theatrical experience a space for dialogue and a means of collectively transforming perceptions and prejudices, accessible to all who see theater as a tool for social change.

OUR CREATIONS ARE DRIVEN BY PEOPLE