After studying singing at the Conservatoire de musique de Chicoutimi and acting at the National Theatre School of Canada, Gervais Gaudreault continued to train as an actor at Atelier-Studio Kaléidoscope, directed by Marthe Mercure. In 1973, he began to work with various Montreal companies. He was then invited by Gilles Maheu to join Les Enfants du Paradis (which later became Carbone 14), where he furthered his research on voice and space.

In 1975, with Suzanne Lebeau, Gervais Gaudreault founded Le Carrousel and acted in the company’s early productions. He was soon bitten by the directing bug; in 1981, he directed Une lune entre deux maisons, Le Carrousel’s first play to be produced internationally. In 1987, he directed Gil, adapted from the novel by Howard Buten Quand j’avais cinq ans, je m’ai tué. The play received the award for best production for young audiences from the Association québécoise des critiques de théâtre (AQCT). Between 1989 and 1991, he directed Comment vivre avec les hommes quand on est un géant and Conte du jour et de la nuit at Le Carrousel, as well as Baby Blues by Carole Fréchette at Théâtre d'Aujourd'hui. He was also a co-writer of the screenplay for Une histoire inventée, by Quebec filmmaker Marc-André Forcier.

Gervais Gaudreault directed Conte d’enfants réels (1993), which received the award for best production for young audiences from the AQCT and the Académie québécoise du théâtre, and Salvador (1994) by Suzanne Lebeau. These two shows went on to long and successful international careers and encouraged Quebec and foreign theatres to co-produce the following Le Carrousel productions, all directed by Gaudreault: Petit Navire by Normand Chaurette (1996), L’Ogrelet, Petit Pierre, and Souliers de sable by Suzanne Lebeau (1997, 2002, 2006), and L’Autoroute by Dominick Parenteau-Lebeuf (1999), and Le Pays des genoux by Geneviève Billette (2005). He has also directed Contes à rebours (1997), a montage of tales for adults by his partner, Suzanne Lebeau, Le Cid by Corneille at Théâtre du Trident in Quebec City (2004), and a reading of Je suis d’un would be pays by François Godin as part of CEAD’s Dramaturgy Week (Prime à la création 2005), a play that he directed in the fall of 2007 at Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui. In 2006, he collaborated with the Mexican company Marionetas de la Esquina to mount the French-language première of Una luna entre dos casas at the ManiganSes festival in Jonquière.

Gervais Gaudreault is also an experienced teacher; he taught vocal techniques at Collège Lionel-Groulx from 1992 to 2001, he is regularly invited to direct public readings at the National Theatre School of Canada, and he teaches advanced vocal techniques to many experienced actors. His expertise has led to frequent requests to teach in Mexico, Argentina, and France, notably in Mexico City, Querétaro, Buenos Aires, and Cordoba, and in France at the École supérieure d’art dramatique de Strasbourg and La Chartreuse, Centre National des Écritures du Spectacle. Since 2003, he has been a patron of the Grand Théâtre de Lorient in France.

To offer an opening to the arts and provide a truer understanding of Le Carrousel’s creative work, Gervais Gaudreault acts as curator in the context of the company’s cultural activities. In 1985, he created Traces, an exhibition marking Le Carrousel’s 10th anniversary, and in 1993 Lorsque le conte et la réalité se jouent l’un de l’autre, in conjunction with the show Contes d’enfants réels. In 1998, for the Quebec première of L’Ogrelet at Maison Théâtre, he produced La forêt s’expose; this exhibition of contemporary art was shown again in the fall of 2001 at the Centre d’exposition de Mont-Laurier. As part of the tour premièring Petit Pierre in France, Gervais Gaudreault curated Entre les lignes – parcours d’une mise en scène, an exhibition that provides insight into the world of the Petit Pierre production team.

Photos and illustrations:
Manon André, Patrick Bergé, Véro Boncompagni, Caroline Bourbonnais, Bernard Brault, Nathalie Caron, Maxime Côté, Marc Cramer, Jacques Driol, Yves Dubé, Stéphane Dumais, Marc Dussault, François-Xavier Gaudreault, Jean-François Hamon, Kiko, Josée Lambert, Laurence Leblanc, Suzanne Ostein, Bernard Préfontaine, Olivier Prialnic, Isabelle Rancier, Monic Richard, Daniel Robillard, André P. Therrien, Julien Tremblay.

This site was designed in 1996 by Orénoque interactif
and has been updated since 2003 by Le Carrousel.

© Le Carrousel, theatre company - 1996-2008 - www.lecarrousel.net
E-mail : theatre@lecarrousel.net - Telephone: 514 529-6309