Audrey-Anne Bouchard is a stage director and a lighting designer. After completing a BFA in Theatre Design at Concordia University she worked primarily as a lighting designer in Montreal and internationally for theatre, dance and music performances. To consult her online portfolio: http://www.audreyannebouchard.com/
In 2009, she was awarded a scholarship by the European Commission to undertake her artistic research in Europe. This research was pursued through the framework of an Ersmus Mundus international Masters program in Performing Arts Theory and Practice (jointly offered by Université de Nice and Université Libre de Bruxelles). Audrey-Anne wrote her Master’s thesis on the integration of video projection into new artistic practices and the interaction arising among moving images of light and performers. With a phenomenological approach, she studied specifically the perceptual and sensorial experience of performers and spectators and the potential of one’s imagination in the creation of sensations. This research proved very engaging for Audrey-Anne for it made her realize that her art was a primarily visual one while, paradoxically, she lives with a visual disability. In 2016, inspired by her situation as a person living with low vision, she initiated the research project Au-delà du visual. With a team of collaborators from different disciplines, they explored the following research question: How to create and communicate dance and theatre beyond the visual relationship that prevails amongst performer and spectator? The collective developed a new Au-delà du visuel creative methodology and now creates immersive performances that involve all of the audience’s senses but sight and that are therefore accessible to people who are blind, partially sighted and sighted. Their first show Camille, acclaimed by the media and audiences was presented 75 times in Montreal and Toronto between 2019 and 2024. The team is now developing a second piece titled Fragments. For Camille, Audrey-Anne received the META (Montreal English Theatre Award) for Outstanding Direction and the Monique Lefebvre Universal Accessibility Award presented to a person who has made an exceptional contribution to the deployment of cultural accessibility. For more information on Au-delà du visual visit: https://www.audeladuvisuel.com/
Besides her artistic practice, Audrey-Anne also works as an accessibility consultant for artists and organizations such as the Montreal Arts Council and the City of Montreal. Audrey-Anne taught theatre Design and Lighting Design at Concordia University between 2015 and 2018. Since 2015, she is also an active mentor and teacher at the National Theatre School of Canada. She has been involve in academic research with the Chaire de recherche du Canada sur la citoyenneté culturelle des personnes sourdes et les pratiques d’équité culturelle de Montréal at UQAM and is now happy to join the Centre for Sensory Studies at Concordia University.
