ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
MESSAGE FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Intentional Dreaming: To dream awake, to make the invisible visible.
I had a dream; to have a bilingual company where actors could work together and create with other artists who share the same school of thought, a common spirit with a synonymous vision; a place where we could express ourselves freely and completely, in harmony with who we are. Each artist actor being unique, we each possess our own individual artistic expression. Each one of us has his or her own perception of reality, our own personal interpretation of a character and its world, using our own personal creative process.
I wanted a place we could call our own; a place we could call home; a place where we could come to share, work out and learn and experiment between auditions and other work contracts. It was to be an environment where an artist would have the freedom to try and do things that we rarely have time for or get the opportunity to do at auditions or in production. This would be a place where we could practise, make mistakes and feel safe about it and learn and grow from them, become more autonomous, increase our self awareness and our trust in our own personal artistic process and expression.
It would also be a company that would provide production opportunities to its members, shows where they could put the results of their experiments to the test, in front of audiences.
In my dream this company would include teachers, actors, directors and writers; artists working together to provide on-going training and create continued work opportunities through the constant development of original productions both for stage and for film. We would also work with and produce known plays and classics whenever we felt like it.
Welcome to our company:
Intentional Dreams Productions.
BIOGRAPHY
Gilles Plouffe was born and raised in northern Ontario until the age of eleven. His mother, Réjeanne Bélanger was born in Montreal, his father Julien Plouffe in Buckingham, Quebec. The couple had settled in a mining town where Gilles'grandfather had moved to during the great depression. From early childhood Gilles was fascinated by imaginary worlds. He spent countless hours play-acting, creating imaginary stories. His mother had him take piano and dance lessons, while his father had him training and fighting at the local Boxing Club. He went to high school in Ottawa Ontario, where he also learned to play the clarinet and saxophone in the music class, doing gymnastics and discovering Theatre in the drama program. He later became an amateur stand-up comic, joined a sketch comedy troop that led to community theatre where he performed in several consecutive plays. He has been a professional working actor now since 1992. He landed his first film role in a short independent film in 1993. Over the next few years he worked as an extra, a stand-in and played a variety of small roles on camera. In 1997, after studying several months with a group of american actors, he formed his own group here in Canada called The Actor's Gym. A dozen actors would meet a few times a week to practise acting exercises and scenes and organize workshops with guest teachers including known directors. This led to his first supporting and lead roles in independent Canadian film productions. Word got out about this training group and soon a local talent agency asked Gilles to teach acting to their agency clients. This was to be the beginning of his acting teaching career. He has taught acting at ACTRA, the National Screen Institute, the Algonquin College Theatre Program, Dynamic Theatre Factory, Theatre North America, the John Strasberg Studios and Ubisoft. He first received teacher training in 1997 from Actraworks, the Actra Performers Guild National training program. He then worked as Program Director and head trainer of the Actra Actor's Workshop for 3 years. In 2002 he met and began studying with Master Teacher John Strasberg, son of the world famous Lee Strasberg. In 2004 they formed a partnership and Mr. Strasberg shared his teaching technique, the "Organic Creative Process," with Gilles. Mr. Strasberg directed a major production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Nights Dream in 2003 in which Gilles was a cast member in the role of Egeus/Philostratus. Gilles continues to study and develop his knowledge of realistic acting with Mr. Strasberg and he now teaches a variety of classes here in Montreal. So far Gilles has worked as an actor on more than 100 Film, Television, Video and Theatre productions and numerous television commercials. He continues to actively work as an actor. He has also worked as a volunteer Actra Performer's Guild Branch President and Actra National Councillor. In 2002, he was Public Relations Representative with Theatre North America. He co-produced and directed his first film in 2003 and his first play in 2006. He is the initiator, co-founder and Artistic Director of Intentional Dreams Productions, a non-profit film and theatre production company based in Montreal Quebec.
He is a full member of ACTRA, CAEA and UDA.