Raphaëlle received a grant to help her in the creation of her play Discussion avec DS.

What is your artistic background ?
I discovered theatre as a young teenager, in my region, the south of France. On my drama teacher’s initiative, I took part in a 'competition' for comedians in Montpellier called the Tremplins du Rire. After that, when I was 14, I started doing one-man shows. It wasn't quite stand-up, but I performed alone on stage and played a gallery of characters. This lasted two years. I was opening shows for comedians in my region. Initially, my theatrical experience was that of the ‘café-théâtre’, of a direct relationship with the audience. After an unfortunate event following a performance, I wanted to give up the one-man-show format and devote myself to my studies. After two years in a literary preparatory class and training in media communications at CELSA, I finally got back into theatre and joined the Cours Florent free class, before joining the class of 2010 of the TNB school under the direction of Arthur Nauzyciel and Laurent Poitrenaux. It was these years of training that opened other theatrical perspectives for me and enabled me to come to terms once and for all with where I come from. Discussion avec DS, my first production, is a one-man show.

How do you view your profession today ?
I believe that acting is one of the most beautiful professions in the world. It's undoubtedly difficult at times, and thankless, but it's a place where you can work with everything that you experience, where everything can make sense, where grief, failures, joys, encounters, and life events can converge and serve the work. For me, it's more than a job, it's a relationship with the world.

 How do you see yourself in 5 years ? In 10 years ?
I don't know and I certainly wouldn't want to know! I think that being an actress is no different from being a woman. In my opinion, it's absolutely the same thing. I can't say what I'll be like in 10 years' time, what kind of woman I'll have become, and that's what I like about it. Will I be in love? Will I have children? Who will I have met in my life? Who will have left? Who will have come along? I can't imagine. During my first years of theatre training, five years ago, I was full of certainties about the woman, actress and artist I was going to become or wanted to become. Since then, my apprenticeship in the theatre - and in life in general - both at school and afterwards, my experiences have shown me that we are always a surprise to ourselves, for better or for worse... All I know is that I will be made up of my encounters, my choices and my renunciations. I hope to continue to amaze myself, to keep the desire, the childhood state, the carefree spirit that drives me to create. I hope to stay new. That's what theatre is all about: starting afresh every night. I hope I'll always start again.

Interview conducted in 2023
Photography credit : Lys Arango