© La Balsamine
L'Impératrice des continents
L'impératrice des continents (working title) is a three-phase residency project, with the aim of creating a theatrical docu-drama. Our aim is to observe social, cultural, political and climatic differences among Carla's multiple origins into a unique, authentic, informative and moving piece. We want to demonstrate, through the documentary aspect, the contrasts and similarities with Carla's life today. In the fictional part, we'll try to imagine new identities for her, transposing her into the social realities of the countries she might have inhabited like a laboratory rat that we transpose into different ecosystems. Each of these ecosystems, revealing a different version of Carla, corresponds to a phase of the project.
Credits
Carla Mezquita Honhon - Pierre-Olivier Roussel
Mezquita, his father's Spanish origins. Honhon is her mother's Belgian side. Carla is an actress of Rwandan origin, who was born in Belgium who considers herself a pure Québécoise. She graduated 2022 at the Conservatoire d'art dramatique de Québec, where she was very involved in student life (responsible for the committee and the Aiguisoir writing competition), Carla has always loved playing with words: she is passionate not only about games, but also about poetic and dramatic writing, humor, spoken word and rap. In 2022, Carla co-wrote and performed the self-fictional solo Umuryango at Théâtre Périscope with the collective À gorge déployée, as well as participating in the creation and cross-Canada tour of Mani Soleymanlou's Trois. In 2023, Carla set the stage on fire at the Théâtre du Trident with N'essuie jamais de larmes sans gants by Alexandre Fecteau, and L'éveil du printemps by Olivier Arteau (co-produced with Théâtre Denise-Pelletier).
A native of Sainte-Luce, Pierre-Olivier Roussel is a multidisciplinary artist, author, musician and actor. Following studies in sexology, he chose to perfect his acting skills at the Conservatoire d'art dramatique de Québec. Upon graduating, he presented Lettres d'amour (2021) and Carnet de Voyage (2022) at Théâtre Périscope, plays co-written and co-directed with his collective À Gorge Déployée. In April 2023, he presents his first solo production, Les Fabuleuses, at the Théâtre Premier Acte, a play he also wrote. After two years of participation in chantiers/constructions artistiques, as well as several writing residencies, he is now embarking on the creation of the Alter Ego project, an ambulatory on mental health, in collaboration with the Relief research chair in mental health, VITA-Lab and Théâtre Particules Par Milliers. In his texts, Pierre-Olivier seeks to denounce, inform and normalize taboo subjects rarely tackled in the theater. His aim is to present different realities with great accuracy.