The Creator of THE ANDERSEN PROJECT: Robert Lepage
ROBERT LEPAGE
Born: December 12, 1957
Hometown: Quebec City
Career Highlights:
- In 1982 he joined Théâtre Repère
- In 1985 The Dragon’s Trilogy won him immediate international attention
- Artistic director of the National Arts Centre’s Théâtre français in Ottawa from 1989 to 1993
- In 1994, Lepage founded the multidisciplinary production company, Ex
Machina - In 1994, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada”for his particularly imaginative and innovative work”
- For Quebec City’s 400th anniversary in 2008, Robert Lepage and Ex Machina created the largest architectural projection ever achieved: The Image Mill
- Lepage has been involved in many different art forms including directing a Peter Gabriel music tour, producing art exhibits and directing two Cirque du Soleil shows
Interesting Facts:
- At age five, he was diagnosed with a rare form of alopecia, which caused complete hair loss over his whole body.
- As a teenager he struggled with depression, and turned to drama classes to conquer his shyness.
- Lepage’s first interest was actually geography, which he says still influences how he creates work and his interest in touring and cross-cultural interactions
- Studied at Québec City’s Conservatoire d’Art Dramatique for three years before studying in Paris with Alain Knapp’s theatre school
- Still a self-proclaimed “shy person” despite performing many one-man shows
- When asking collaborators for help creating a name for his new theatre company, he had one condition: the name could not contain the word theatre
- The Andersen Project is both based on the biography of Hans Christian Anderson and the autobiography of Robert Lepage
Quotes:
“I think I’m what you may call an interdisciplinary artist, which is very, very 
complex and very, it’s more, it’s a fashionable term but I’d say it describes what I do quite well… I like being kind of vague in… how I define myself, and I believe in chaos very much. I believe that the only real invention comes out of chaos, and so it’s better not to know who you are, where you are when you start off if you want to accomplish something good.” (BBC Radio interview with John Tusa; read more & listen to the rest of the interview here.)
complex and very, it’s more, it’s a fashionable term but I’d say it describes what I do quite well… I like being kind of vague in… how I define myself, and I believe in chaos very much. I believe that the only real invention comes out of chaos, and so it’s better not to know who you are, where you are when you start off if you want to accomplish something good.” (BBC Radio interview with John Tusa; read more & listen to the rest of the interview here.)
“I think theatre naturally brings you to the spoken word, but you have to be ready for that and, and if it takes a whole career to get there then, and, and I prefer that because I think that unfortunately the word is too often the starting point of theatre and, and that gives way to one kind of theatrical expression. I think an image could also trigger theatrical expression and maybe the word is the final thing.”
“[Hans Christian Andersen] writes children’s tales, and we have an image of this tall, naive nerd who is inoffensive and all about fantasy, and actually he was very much about sexual fantasies.”
Make sure to catch Robert Lepage’s latest one-man show The Andersen Project MARCH 24-APRIL 1 at the Cutler Majestic Theatre.http://artsemerson.tumblr.com/post/19411468602/the-creator-of-the-andersen-project-robert-lepage
ord became popular in the 1960s with The Last Poets, an underground African-American community that sprung from the Civil Rights Movement. In 1970, Gil Scott Heron brought the art form to the mainstream’s attention with his piece 
following, especially in the form of social activists and younger populations. MTV featured a very successful Spoken Word special in the 1990s, which featured established poets and musicians. The poetry slam movement continued to be popularized by Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry, an HBO television series that premiered in 2002. (Watch Universes, the company behind the upcoming production of Ameriville at ArtsEmerson, perform on Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry 
Spoken word is visceral. Unstructured, rhythmic and socially charged, this surprising and dynamic art form refuses to be easily defined—you just have to experience it for yourself. 
ove for the 20th century writer didn’t stop there… Today Conor is considered by many to be “the definitive Beckett performer,” bringing the culture of Ireland to cities around the world with his wife and director, Judy Hegarty Lovett. The actor-and-director married duo are the joint artistic directors of the Irish theatre company Gare St. Lazare Players Ireland (GSLPI). In fact, their theatre company has an extensive repertoire of Beckett works including nine prose pieces. 
founded by Bob Meyer in 1983. Meyer’s company was first based in Chicago, and then found a new home base in Paris in 1988. Judy joined the company in 1991 as assistant to the Artistic Director, and a year later Conor joined the group as a performer. In 1996, Judy and Conor founded the Irish branch of the company with the intent to increase the Irish cultural footprint on a global scale. GSLPI continues to premiere their performances in Ireland and then tour internationally, having showcased their work in over twenty countries.
dy nor Conor had actually read the novel until a couple of years ago. Connor explains, “Judy read it and immediately was taken by the confessional nature, which she thought would work well onstage with one person.” So they set to work, paring down the lengthy narrative into a one-man show, while still staying true to the writer’s voice. In a recent article, Conor describes the process of adapting the works of past writers: “Gare St. Lazare’s vision is about making the text your own so that you perform it as if it is your words, your story, your truth. In this way the actor and director appear to disappear and the audience is left, we hope, with a direct link to the writer.” 
“finding your place in the world” had its premiere at the Kilkenny Arts Festival this past summer. Conor says, “[Eno] knows our work very well, and he knows how Judy and I operate and he knows what we’re interested in. He’s written something that’s right up our street.” Title and Deed is set to play in NYC next spring, as Judy and Conor continue to deliver powerful works to the world at large. 
ives of wealthy housewives as they shop, gossip, get plastic surgery and live “the good life.” The goal of many of these women is to look as young and hot as possible. One housewife in particular underwent breast augmentation surgery at the request of her husband, after he realized the majority of his friends’ wives were well-endowed. In Season 1, Jo’s boyfriend gifts her Mercedes cars and a mansion in exchange for her to be a housewife. In her own words, “Slade is pretty much keeping me.”
Never leaving the house without makeup on and Hermes bag in hand, Kim has been referred to as a modern day walking, talking Barbie doll. Along with her surgically enhanced sisters, Kim stays true to their reference toward the “Joneses”: she spends money like it’s her job. Hold up, maybe it is…
This series showcases the happenings of Hugh Hefner’s girlfriends and their lives together in the Playboy Mansion. The girls pose, shop, travel, party, and try to please the shared man in their lives. Former girlfriend Holly Madison reported that at first she was not Hefner’s physical ideal, but that some plastic surgery, tanning makeup and hair treatment fixed that. 
