Louis Fortier
After performing with the University of Montreal Theatre Company, Louis Fortier moved to Sarajevo, in 1995-1996, in order to encounter and work with the wartime artistic resistance movement. This exceptional experience determined the course of his life. He studied under the direction of Mustapha Nadarovic, at the Sarajevo Academy of Performing Arts. .
He moved to Paris, where he studied with Jacques Lecoq and later became Mario Gonzalez’s first assistant at The National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in Paris, between 1999 and 2003.
In 2005, following a proposition from South Korean author Roh Kyeong-Shik, he created an adaptation of The Train to Seoul, both playing the main role and being the co director. This show toured South Korea in 2005 and 2008.
In 2006, he danced the role of Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker, by Tchaikovsky, directed by U.S.A. choreographer Brooke Desnoes.
He then became one of the lead actors in Teatro Malandro, directed by director Omar Porras. He performed in Brecht’s play Master Puntila and his servant Matti.
This masked show was performed worldwide for two years including performances in Theatre de la Ville, Paris as well as in Japan and in several other countries.
With Sophie Brech, he took part in Omar Porras’s latest theatre project, Romeo and Juliet, which was created at the Shizuoka Performing Arts Centre, in Japan. This show was created with Tadashi Suzuki and Satoshi Miyagi’s group of actors and toured Japan in 2012.
Louis Fortier has written and directed Our Hamlet, and adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy for eight actresses, performed in Canada both in 2006 and 2008. He has also directed several plays in France, including an operatic adaptation of Kafka’s novel, The Castle, which was performed in Bulgaria, France, Hungary and Romania, in 2010.
He is also playing in With Sophie Brech, he created Theatre Fools and Feathers, a company based in Paris. Together, they wrote, directed and are currently performing The Tragicomic Destiny of Tubby and Nottubby, which director Robert Lepage hailed as "an ode to dreams and a tribute to the power of imagination"
This Shakespearian production brings together the worlds of clown, tragedy and comedy, has received great reviews and has had a tremendous success around the world, notably in Canada and in France. It was short-listed as “Best foreign production 2011” by the Quebec Association of Theatre Critics, and was invited by the British Art Council, the French Institute as well as the British, French and German embassies in Afghanistan, to be performed in Kabul in June 2013.
Since 2001, Louis Fortier has directed many workshops for professional actors as well as young people on tragedy, chorus work, clowns and masked theatre in relation to Shakespeare's work, in countries such as Afghanistan, Bosnia, Canada, France, Hungary, Iran, Italy and South-Korea.
He also directed actors who trained in prestigious schools such as “The Lee Strasberg School of Acting"; the National Acting Schools of Bulgaria, Canada, Hungary, France and Romania; “The International School of Jacques Lecoq", and The International Marcel Marceau Mime School, …
Louis Fortier is currently working as an actor and co-author with director Robert Lepage on his latest creation: "Playing Cards: Hearts", touring internationally.