Louisa MERCIER
Stage manager & lighting designer

Louisa received a grant to help her finance her studies at the Théâtre National de Strasbourg. 

What is your artistic background?
I am currently a student in stage management and creation in group 45 at the Ecole Supérieure d'Art Dramatique du Théâtre National de Strasbourg. I have always been interested in the creative professions. As I studied for three years in the scenography workshop at the Haute Ecole des Arts du Rhin in Strasbourg, the creative dimension has always been strongly present at every stage of my career, like at the Ecole Supérieure d'Art et de Design de Grenoble, among others. As a child, I was already in the world of the performing arts, with ten years of dance at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Grenoble, and my fascination with the stage and its mechanisms has continued to assert itself through my plans for the future. The practice of dance at a semi-professional pace has given me values, a view and a sensitivity to creation. The artistic way of life is a choice that I wished for and now want to pursue at TNS and well beyond in my future professional life. 

How do you see your profession today ?
Novelty is a powerful force in the art world, I hope for new forms and other ways of thinking and acting. My profession as a stage manager and lighting designer does not exist without a broader reflection on the future of the theatre. Above all, it is this approach that is interesting. One of the characteristics of my generation is the training in collectives, against a pyramidal artistic system, together for a common voice. New technologies and the evolution of societies directly influence the stage voice and the creative profession in showbusiness. It is obvious, for me, that we need to "live the world", to better anchor our words as artists, technical artists, stage managers and creators…

How do you see yourself in five years ? In 10 years ?
Putting myself "in danger", exploring other artistic, temporal and technical constraints, is a guideline that I would like to follow. To encounter other universes, such as museographic lighting, is a goal for me in the next 10 years. Exploring forms in the public space and following directors and choreographers of my generation, it is also through these voices that I wish to develop. To continue to create through light, in other words, to make my work available to a common voice. When I imagine my first 10 years of activities in movement, I hope not to fall into a comfort of reflection on theatre, light, the work of space and time. Working for several companies and different artistic circles is the idea I have for when I leave school.

This interview was conducted in 2017
Photo credit: Céline Anaya Gautier