Carolie Delisle

Coming back to school created new pathways in the arts for Carolie Delisle.

What’s your program been like?

It’s been a whirlwind. I first started in Fibers and Material Practices and transitioned into theater, where I started to grow as an artist. It's been intense finding my voice through my art as well. I've always been a collaborator, so I’m doing a lot of building new relationships and networks.

What do you like most about studying Design for the Theatre?

Studying Design for Theatre has been a great experience of finding collaborators, both people I’ve become good friends with and people that I work well with. We have very small cohorts of less than 20 people, so it’s the students who bring the entire project together. Since your teachers are also working in the industry, they also have the potential to become your collaborators outside of school. I've had multiple professional opportunities while doing my undergraduate degree to work with my professors. In Montreal, the Francophone and Anglophone theatres function differently, so it’s good having professors with experience in both sides who can bring diverse perspectives to the classroom.

What are you involved with outside of your program?

I’m a research assistant for Meghan Moe Beitiks on the Angles of Consequence project. We’re doing research and prototyping the project as part of the Milieux Institute. As part of the Sustainability Office of Fine Arts committee under the supervision of Alice Jarry, I’m working on building the Sustainability Action Plan for the Faculty of Fine Arts along with a few others. I also work at the costume storage in the Concordia theatre.

What research have you done in your program?

Last summer, I got a Concordia Undergraduate Student Research Award to do research on sustainability policies within the theater. The initial project was to create a database of information around sustainability and resources because that’s not something we have in our theatre department. We worked on changing the theatre department website to add more information on sustainable practices and making it more user-friendly. I’m a returning student and had a career for 10 years in IT database management, so I felt well-suited to do it.

What’s it like coming back to Concordia after already having a career?

I come from a professional background, so I was able to develop strong relationships with faculty in my program. I like that some of them are around my age, so I was able to bond as if they were colleagues. There were a few other mature students in theatre too, so we became fast friends and began collaborating.

(The program Design for the Theater is now called Scenography.)