Andreu Martinez i Costa

Actor-puppeteer

After working for companies such as Philppe Genty and El Conde de Torrefiel, Andreu created his own, Sociedad de Aguas, where he added his experience to the one of Nikolai Karpov, Joan Baixas, Jushka Weigel, René Baker, Mal Pelo and the Forman Brothers. Trained at the Mar Navarro School of Creation (Jacques Lecoq, Madrid), he pursued his studies in Gesture Theatre at the Institut del Teatre de Barcelona. He received the 2015 Young Creation Prize from the Spanish Ministry of Culture and in 2016 he was appointed as associate artist at the Mercat de les Flors (House of Dance). He is currently professor of visual theater at the Barcelona Conservatory.

Collaboration with Plexus Polaire for Ashes and Moby Dick.

Alice Chéné

Actress-puppeteer

Alice Chéné discovered the art of puppetry during her woodwork studies, where she learnt how to sculpt wooden marionettes with the puppeteer Bruno Frascone. She then spent a year at the Théâtre aux Mains Nues to get trained as a puppeteer herself. She pursued her training at the National School of Puppetry Arts in 2011. Since her graduation in 2013, she has been working as a puppeteer with Sylvain Maurice on the show Histoire d'Ernesto and on Les Nouvelles aventures de Peer. Gynt. She also created a solo, L'Os, inspired by a short story from Nicole Caligaris, and is now an associate artist of the company 23H50.

Collaboration with Plexus Polaire for Ashes and Moby Dick.

Sarah Lascar

Actress-puppeteer

Sarah first studied theatre in high school, then at the University of Nanterre. It was during her training at Samovar school that she discovered puppetry. She joined the 7th promotion of ESNAM (National School of Puppetry Arts) in Charleville-Mézières. As soon as she graduated, she created her own company, Théâtre Elabore, and directed three shows: Chut..., Wanted Calamity Jane and Fleuve. Sarah has also been a performer for other companies. Since 2009, she has been working as a Liliputian for the Giants of the Royal de Luxe company. She has also been involved, as an actress and puppeteer, in the work of V.O company, Théâtre de l'Entrouvert, Théâtre de la Girandole and the Art Zygote company.

Collaboration with Plexus Polaire for Moby Dick.

Maja Kunsic

Actress-puppeteer

Maja graduated from the Puppet Theater Studio in Ljubljana in 2001, and from the Pedagogical University of Ljubljana in 2003, where she was involved in the Social Pedagogics program. Since 2001, she has been working at Ljubljana Puppet Theater as actress and puppeteer in more than 46 shows. In 2017, she received the Best Puppeteer prize at the 9th Biennial of Puppeteer Artists in Slovenia.

Collaboration with Plexus Polaire for Moby Dick.

Pierre Devérines

Actor

Pierre Devérines was trained at the Studio School of Asnières with Jean-Louis Martin-Barbaz, Hervé Van der Meulen and Yvelyne Hamon. He worked with Sylvain Creuzevault - Baal de Bertolt Brecht, Le Père tralalère, Notre terreur et Le Capital et son Singe, créations collectives D’ores et déjà - Lise Maussion (Jackson Pan), Antoine Cegarra (Wald), Hélène François (Procès ivre de Bernard-Marie Koltès), Christian Gonon (Euripide), Caroline Arrouas (Les Quatre Morts de Marie de Carole Fréchette), Jean-Louis Martin- Barbaz (Dom Juan de Molière). He performed Pierre, a dance solo, At the Festival Artdanthé of Vanves Theatre, created by Antoine Cegarra. He was also in Lucrèce Borgia in 2013, directed by Lucie Berelowitsch. He participated in "Antigone 82" directed by Jean-Paul Wenzel and created in 2017 at MC2 in Grenoble. In 2018, he performed in the play "Perdu knowledge" directed by Adrien Béal created at TdB in Dijon.

Collaboration with Plexus Polaire for Moby Dick.

Charlotte Dubery 

Actress-puppeteer

Charlotte graduated from the University of Exeter (England), where she also received the Israel Bertie Black “Most Outstanding Student” award. Her passion for visual storytelling and collective creation took her to École Jacques Lecoq in Paris, where she stayed for two years. Since her graduation in 2010, Charlotte has written, created, directed and performed in numerous shows in England as well as internationally. Her experience as a dancer continues to nourish her work. For the last nine years she has dedicated herself to collective creations within the field of puppetry and physical theatre. She is co-creator of her own company You, Me and Geoff as well as associate artist with the Theater-Rites and Ad Infinitum companies. She also worked for The Jim Henson Company, Netflix, The National Theater, 1927 and Abel and Gordon.

Collaboration with Plexus Polaire for Opéra Opaque.

Laëtitia Labre

Actress-puppeteer

Laëtitia was born in France in 1984. She grew up in Toulouse from 5 to 20 years old, sharing her free time between theater and visual arts. After graduating in 2002 and a few detours (graduating in Applied Arts at the High School of Arènes in 2003, Plastic Arts and Modern Letters at the University of Mirail and Training Actress at the Cave Poetry in 2004), she integrated ESNAM (the National Superior School of the Puppet Arts) in Charleville-Mézières, France, in 2005 where she met Yngvild Aspeli. Since 2008, Laëtitia works with various companies, sometimes as a puppeteer, sometimes as a puppetmaker, sometimes both. For her own shows or for other companies, she stages, performs, manipulates objects/puppets, builds models/puppets/scenographies, or participates in the making of animation films.

As a fellow graduate of Yngvild Aspeli, she has been supporting the work of Plexus Polaire since 2008. Her collaboration with the company intensified in 2018 when she started performing in Ashes. She pursued her collaboration with the show Moby Dick.

Daniel Collados-Blasco

Actor-puppeteer

Daniel is an actor, director, author and teacher. After training at Ecole Florent and at the École du Théâtre National de Chaillot, Daniel joined the École Jacques Lecoq in Paris where he met Yngvild Aspeli. He specializes in visual and physical theater and works for different companies in France and abroad. He collaborates among others with Nar6 Théâtre (FR), Satellite Théâtre (CA), Le Bel Après Minuit (FR), The Collective La Robe à l'envers (FR). Between 2006 and 2017, he co-wrote and performed his duet Les P’tites Grandes Choses. In 2010, he joined Jos Houben in a version of The Art of Laughter for the United States and England. In 2014, the Bouffe show that he co-written and directed for Satellite Théâtre received the prize Éloize for best Acadian show. At the same time, the same year, he published a children's disc book Les Petites Cocottes Minutes, with the collaboration of different artists including Julie Ferrier, Cali, Camille, Carmen Maria Vega etc.

Daniel has started his collaboration with Plexus Polaire on the creation of the show Moby Dick in 2020.

Madeleine Barosen Herholdt

Actress-puppeteer

Madeleine Barosen Herholdt is an actress based in Oslo, Norway. She graduated from the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris in 2016, where she also studied in the LEM course (Laboratoire d'Étude du Mouvement) led by architect and scenographer Pascale Lecoq. Since returning to her home country, she has been working with both institutional theatres and independent companies. Madeleine discovered the art of puppet theatre for the first time through working with the company Kattas Figurteater, led by Anne Helgesen. Since then she has worked as a puppeteer with Riksteatret (the Norwegian National Traveling Theatre) and worked as an actress in both physical theatre genres (Ubu Roiwith Thesbiteateret) and classical theatre (Viola in Twelfth Night, Thesbiteateret; Hilde Wangel in Hilde og Halvard, Teater Ibsen).

Madeleine started her collaboration with Plexus Polaire on Moby Dick.

Sebastian Moya

Actor-puppeteer

Sebastian Moya is a Chilean actor who has been living in France since 2018. He discovers the subtlety of the clown and the puppet arts with the companies AKANA TEATRO and VITAMINACLOWN in 2010. Fascinated, he then decides to devote his life to the theater and studied this art at Finis Terrae University in Santiago de Chile, from 2013 to 2017. After graduating, he teaches at this same university as a professor of physical education for the stage and professor of theatrical mask. During these years in the Chilean capital, he became part of several theater companies: Falso Testimonio, Colectivo La Mami, Teatro La Misantropa, Los Pata e ’Perro, Ciclo De Los Nervios, Comité Intervención and El Perro Bufo. In order to pursue his acting career, he flew to France to join the Jacques Lecoq international theater school. Sebastián is currently working on various projects in France with the companies: Ohlavaka Ensemble, Cie Sitio, Tac Teatro and Plexus Polaire.

Collaboration with Plexus Plaire on Dracula.

Scott Koehler

Actor-puppeteer

Scott is an actor, puppeteer, musician and director. After numerous theater roles and productions in Australia, his native country, Scott traveled around the world and studied with several theater and dance practitioners, including the New World Performance Laboratory (United States) and the Philippe Gaulier School in London (UK). In 2002, he moved to France and collaborated with Philippe Genty as an actor/puppeteer (Ligne de Fuite, Boliloc, Paysages Interieurs). He also leads since 2003 for the Compagnie Genty numerous courses and workshops around puppettry and movement. In 2004, he created a solo: La Chasse au Snark based on the poem by Lewis Carroll. In 2009, he joined the Irina Brook Company and performed in Tempête!, Peer Gynt and Une Odyssée. Scott co-directed L’Hirondelle trouvera-t-elle le printemps? (CDN Poitou-Charentes, 2013) and Suleyken Stories (HÖR-und SCHAUbühne, Stuttgart 2018) and he was puppeteer consultant for the musical show Robin des Bois (Palais des Congrès, Paris 2013).

Collaboration with Plexus Polaire on Moby Dick.

Amador Artiga

Actor-puppeteer

Amador comes from Valence, in Spain. Particularly curious, he decides to get a training in both acting and visual arts. He has lived between France and Spain since 2009, after starting working for Philippe Genty Cie (Voyageurs Immobiles, La llamada del Mar, Paysages Intérieurs). In 2014, he collaborates with the choreographer Nikola Krizkova l Cie Chantier des Images, with whom he directs both Artemis Face au miroir and Give me 10 Seconds. Since 2015, he has directed the visual show, Requiem, for La INdependent company (Spain). As a pedagogue, he is specialised in scenic movement and has a particular interest in the connection between the body and the object.

Amador started his collaboration with Plexus Polaire with Ashes.

Cristina Iosif

Actress-puppeteer

After obtaining a Masters in Performing Arts - puppet section - at the National University of Theatrical and Cinematographic Art in Bucharest, Romania, Cristina joined the 8th promotion of ESNAM (the National Superior School of the Puppet Arts) in Charleville-Mézières, France in 2008. In this context, she created a solo entitled Once upon a time, on the traffic of human beings and the forced prostitution of Eastern European women. She also puts on stage her diploma project, Imago, a show taking about death as a metaphor of the process of insect evolution. In 2013, she presented her first professional show, Made in, a show about exile, based on a text by Alexandra Badea. Then, she directed Harmonie, a scenic installation intended to capture the portrait of what is human throughout the object. At the same time, she worked as assistant director and as a puppeteer for artists such as Maud Lefebvre, Basil Twist, Amélie Poirier and Yngvild Aspeli.

Cristina started her collaboration with Plexus Polaire with the show Moby Dick.

Olmo Hidalgo

Actor-puppeteer

He began his training in Madrid at William Layton’s Laboratory where he formed his first company, LePetit Teatro, with which he created two shows. After majoring in physical theater at Mar Navarro’s School, he ended up joining the company Imaginaria. He graduated from the Laboratoire des Études du Mouvement (LEM) at the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris where he participated in the pedagogy of Manifesto Poetico company. He has also trained with Antonio Gil, Arnold Taraborrelli and Gennadi Bogdanov. After working with members of Théâtre du Soleil, La Veronal, Igor & Moreno and under the direction of Josep Ma Flotats or La Fura del Baus, he moved to Paris where he discovered his interest in pedagogy and he now gives workshops in France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands or Portugal.

Olmo started his collaboration with Plexus Polaire with the show Moby Dick. 

Kyra Vandenenden

Actress-puppeteer

Kyra Vandenenden is originally from Canada, and is currently based in France. She has studied theatre in both countries, starting in Canada with Toronto Metropolitan University, followed by École international de théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris. Congruently with her theatre studies she began her professional career in Toronto as the titular role in Eurydice with Styx and Stones Productions. Following this she participated in several ten minute play festivals as a performer, and began to write and perform her own work. She performed her one woman show “Introducing Analeise” several times in various locations in Toronto Canada, and once in Paris, France. She then developed it into a two person play titled “The Super Sad and Really Tragical Story of Analeise” with Twelve Lemons theatre, which she performed in Toronto as well as in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Following the completion of her studies at Jacques Lecoq she has remained in France and began working as a puppeteer and actress with several theatre companies including Ohlavaka Ensemble, Wakka Wakka Productions and Sitio Cie. 

Collaboration with Plexus Polaire on Dracula.

Marina Simonova

Actress-puppeteer

Originally from Russia, Marina Simonova began her career in performing arts at the “Kuklomania” Puppet Studio-Theatre (Tatiana and Vladislav Cherniavskie) in Voronezh (2010).

She then studied at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Saint Petersburg (2013-17) where she graduated as an actress-puppeteer. After working in various projects as a puppeteer and actress, Marina joined the 12th promotion of ESNAM (2018-21). She is inspired by the short story Funes ou la Mémoire from Jorge Luis Borges to create her 3rd year solo, le Mémorieux. It was with the end-of-studies show, Everest, whose production was delegated to the company Tro-Héol, that she made herself known to Yngvild Aspeli.

Marina Simonova is now in companionship with Yngvild Aspeli and the company Plexus Polaire. She is therefore part of the cast of Yngvild's new production, Dracula. She is also accompanied on her first show, How I Turned Into.

Laura Sillanpää

Actress-puppeteer

Laura is a puppeteer, actress and yoga teacher. She studied at the National School of Puppetry Arts in Charleville-Mézières (2003-2008). She has written two plays in French: Fastoche from Pierre Tual and Wanted Calamity Jane from Sarah Lascar. In 2017, Laura created the solo show, Crab. She worked at the Finnish hospital clown organization, Sairaalaklovnit ry. She has performed in shows that combine visual art, dance, movement and puppetry, directed by Merja Pöyhönen and Maiju Tainio. She has also worked with refugees in projects combining words and images with the aim of integrating them into Finnish society. She is currently working on another solo piece for children with the working title Arborist.

Collaboration with Polar Plexus for Signaux and Ashes.

Alexandre Pallu

Actor

Alexandre Pallu is an actor trained at Théatre National de Strasbourg’s School.

He then worked with directors he met during his training such as Daniel Jeanneteau, Marie Christine Soma, Rémy Barché, Maelle Poésy. He also performed for Cédric Gourmelon, Julien Fiserà, Jean Baptiste Sastre, Laurent Vacher, Mirabelle Rousseau. Thanks to Rémy Barché, he met Ludovic Lagarde who was part of the artistic collective of La Comédie de Reims. That is how he ended up working with them for five years. On another hand, he went to Buenos Aires for cinema and theatre projects with Sacha Amaral, Federico Leon and Nora Moseinco.

His genuine interest for music leads him to work with the singer Claire Diterzi for L’Arbre en poche. He creates a band in 2019, Texcoko, with two other musicians, Flavien Ramel and Guillaume Rouillard, right after working on the show, Mexica.

He discovered the art of puppetry with the show Moby Dick, while reciting for Yngvild Aspeli.

Yejin Choi

Actress-puppeteer

Originally from South Korea, Yejin Choi began her artistic journey with theater and musical theater at Kaywon High school of Arts. At Dankook University (2012-2016), she majored in theater and film and meet Playback Theater (improvised physical theater with public participation).

After her studies at Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris (2018-2020), she participated in several workshops with Peter Brook (Tempest Project, The man who…) at the Bouffes du Nord theater and at the Printemps des Comédiens which allowed her to meet the artists she is currently working with, in particular Collectif 2222 (Traverser…, Pourquoi les vieux…, physical theater, half-mask), Les Choses ont Leurs Secrets (The Winter’s Tale, Shakespeare, directed by Sylvain Levitte).

She began her career as a puppeteer by meeting Yngvild Aspeli of Plexus Polaire (Dracula, puppet, visual theater). She also works with Company Site (Les Engloutis, L’Ascension, visual theater, grotesque, puppet, directed by François Couder) as a performer and creator.

Yann Claudel

Actor-puppeteer

After growing up abroad, Yann Claudel was admitted to the École du Studio in Asnières-sur-Seine, while following theater studies at the Sorbonne-Nouvelle (Paris). In order to improve his skills, Yann took a master's degree in international management and did an internship at the UN. He then flew to Burma. He spent a year with the French Institute organizing various events and shows in the name of cultural exchange between Burmese and French. Back in France, he joined the Jacques Lecoq School from 2016 to 2018. He immediately toured China with the absurd show MADMAN by Ata Chun-Tat, and in France with the young audience show La Princesse aux Joues Rouges by Cie Oak Theater. He then collaborated on the show DREAM by Irina Brook and the collective physical and sound creation BONHEUR by Soufiane Guerraoui.

Collaboration with Plexus Polaire on Moby Dick.

Vera Rozanova

Actress-puppeteer

Vera is nowadays a puppeteer and director. After training at the Saint Petersburg Theater Academy, specializing in “directing” and at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette (Charleville-Mézières), she was accompanied by Théâtre aux Mains Nues for the creation of her project Across the Cherry Orchard. Then, with the company La Neige sur les cils, she was accompanied by Théâtre pour deux mains (Nantes) and again by Théâtre à la Coque (Hennebont) for her staging of the show À ta place (In your shoes).

At the same time, she directs projects in partnership with Klaïpéda Theater (Lithuania), leads cultural action projects for audiences of all ages (Lille -2015, Senegal – 2016, Paris – 2017, Laval -2018, Nantes- 2019 - 2022, Dieppe – 2020-21, Saint-Nazaire - 2022-2024).

She continues her collaboration with other companies as a performer at the same time: Les Ateliers de Pénélope (Faire la Guerre, 2015), Glitch company (#Humains, 2018), Cie Tourneboulé (Je brûle d’être toi (I burn to be you), 2019 ), Cie La Mécanique du Fluide (Sortir?, 2021), Daddy Compagnie (AMAMER, 2022), Plexus Polaire (reprise in Moby Dick, 2022) and as a puppet builder for the Senegalese company Djarama (Petit bout de bois, 2018).

In December 2022, she created the show Ne m'attends pas... (Don’t wait for me) with Cie La Neige sur les cils.

Collaboration with Plexus Polaire on Moby Dick.