Aurélie DEBUIRE
Actress, author & stage director
Aurélie received a grant to finance her studies at the Théâtre National de Strasbourg.
What is your artistic background ?
I was born in Béthune, in the Hauts-de-France region of France: in the delivery room, the doctor was on one side, and on the other, Art watched me mischievously as if to greet me and inform me that there was going to be a force on earth that would always attract me like a magnet. My first love was ballet, and I joined the Béthune ballet conservatory. Then I took a few drawing lessons, joined various choirs, wrote stories, wanted to be an actress, a prima ballerina, an artist’s agent, a film director... In short, throughout my childhood and adolescence, I was preoccupied by different ways of practicing art, and I felt deeply that this was the path I wanted to take as a future profession. So I opted for the music and theater options at the Lycée Louis Blaringhem in Béthune. These were great experiences that allowed me to immerse myself in an artistic curriculum starting in high school. Then I joined the Comédie de Béthune's preparatory class for drama schools. During this year of preparation, I found myself traveling all over France and came face to face with the Théâtre National de Strasbourg, the national school where I am currently enrolled. I ended up in the acting department and have been learning acting ever since. I've also been able to continue experimenting with dance, singing, instruments, acting and writing. This year, 2024-2025, I'm lucky enough to be able to stage my first play, Service de la perdition et du beau temps, thanks to the Carte Blanche program at the Théâtre National de Strasbourg.
How do you view your profession today ?
I always yearn for renewal, I see a beautiful yet laborious vision in front of me. “New forms, that's what we need, and if there aren't any, then better nothing at all” said Treplev in La Mouette. I'm fascinated by this phrase: on the one hand, it attracts me and I understand it; on the other, I'm looking for and asking myself, what are these new forms we're constantly seeking in our profession? I have a deep-seated desire to destroy my own plays and put them back together with scotch tape. My view of the profession is that it is demanding, that I want to be hard-working, benevolent, fresh, creative, political, popular, accessible, enthusiastic and, last but not least, that I want to keep learning from this profession so as to reinvent it a thousand times over.
How do you see yourself in 5 years ? In 10 years ?
Seeing myself in all the places where the 8-year-old Aurélie, who had no artistic background and aspires to this profession, wanted to see herself: director, author, actress, film actress, producer, setting up a company, continuing to learn from others, with others, having had the opportunity to perform and set up projects that inspire me deeply, seeing the theater I see in my head materialized on stage, seeing myself everywhere and nowhere at the same time, having a stake in my presence: that of being able to share the words that my teams and I will want to proclaim loud and clear, to hope that in ten years' time I'll have discovered new artistic flavors as much as culinary ones, a creator of incredible adventures, a fulfilled human being with and without art. Anyway, she's in the corner of the room, looking mischievous.
Interview conducted in 2024
Photography credit : Lys Arango