The Compa/ny
The Lorraine company La Mue/tte is a partnership between actress and puppeteer Delphine Bardot and Argentinian musician and puppeteer Santiago Moreno. They have created seven shows since 2014, inventing a visual and musical form of theatre that allows both bodies and objects to speak, questioning relationships between men and women, power, and violence.
While Delphine Bardot creates a puppeteering language of her own, using the concept of the puppet theatre woman, Santiago Moreno responds by developing variations around the figure of the one-man-band and the idea of the body as a musical instrument.
La Mue/tte is associated with Le Mouffetard, puppet theater in Paris from 2022 to 2025 and with Le LEM, Place of Puppetry Experimentation in Nancy from 2022 to 2024. The artistic team is supported by the Grand Est Regional Authority.
Team
Co-Artistic Director
An actor, puppeteer, plastic artist and director, Delphine Bardot has been exploring puppetry and its fields of possibilities with different companies in the Grand Est region for 15 years.
With LA SOUPE Cie, she developed personal work on the relationship between the body and the object, as in the shows Vanité, Sous le Jupon and Body Building. Early on, she experimented with concepts unique to contemporary puppetry, such as body theatre, segmented body and metamorphosis, somewhere between the illusion of living beings and mirage.
In 2014, she created Cie La Mue/tte with Santiago Moreno. She anchored each of these artistic themes and enhanced them with research on the relationship between sound and image, the musicality of gesture and the choreographic harmony between puppet and puppeteer. Her work is fairy-tale-like, wordless and tainted with poetic violence in support of topics of activism.
She co-directed and performed in the shows L’Un dans l’autre, Les Folles, Fais-moi mâle and Battre encore, for which she also made the puppets and scenery, and has accompanied Santiago Moreno in variations on l’Homme-Orchestre.
In parallel, she continues to work on the design, handling direction and production of shows with other companies (Cies Hold up, Pezize, Omnibus, Neige Scariot, Giovanni Zazzera, Paul-Émile Fourny – Opéra de Metz and Scopitone&Cie).
Co-Artistic Director
Born in Argentina, this musician and puppeteer currently lives in France. He is the co-founder of the Italian-Argentinian band Aparecidos, and the puppet theatre company Dromosofista, with the show El Cubo Libre (which toured the international street theatre festival circuit). He has worked with several companies in eastern France (La S.O.U.P.E. Cie and Cie Blah Blah Blah).
As a member of the company La Mue/tte, he pursues his work around the one-man-band and the dissociation of the musician, in keeping with the principles of puppetry, from intimate shows to thundering street concerts.
Les Intimités de l’Homme-Orchestre and L’Homme-Orchestre, since their creation in 2014 until the end of the year 2019, will have already played 312 performances in France and abroad (Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Estonia, Luxembourg, Barhein, USA …).
Alongside his research and personal creations, Santiago Moreno also plays with an international one-man-band trio, OKtopus OrKestars, in collaboration with Martin Kaspar (The Hangman) and Karl Stets.
Tour manager
Fascinated by the world of show business from an early age, Elora started volunteering at street arts festivals at the age of 16. Her many experiences led to some wonderful encounters and enabled her to learn a great deal by working with others. During her BA in Cultural Studies and her DU in Theatre at the University of Lorraine, Elora took part in a number of work placements, notably at the Opéra de Tours and the CCAM – Scène Nationale de Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy (where she later worked on a 6-month production assignment), but also at festivals and with companies, notably the Rouages circus and La Mâchoire 36. Trained in production and distribution since 2019, Elora is also in charge of production for the companies Les Fruits du Hasard and Brounïak. The latest addition to the company, she is delighted to have joined La Mue/tte in March 2024!
Production and Distribution Manager
With a Baccalaureate in science, a Master’s degree in Political Science and another in Cultural Engineering under her belt, Claire has been working for more than 10 years now to support, produce and distribute theatre companies with a renewed sense of enthusiasm.
As the years have gone by, the collaborative projects Claire has been involved in have seen her move towards Puppetry Arts, both in France (La Mue/tte, La Bande Passante) and abroad (Blah Blah Production), in addition to regional projects (Blah Blah Blah) or performances where the goal is to form a closer connection with audiences through the way in which they are staged (La Valise, La Soeur de Shakespeare).
Claire was treasurer of THEMAA – the Association Nationale des Théâtres de marionnettes et Arts Associés (the National Association of Puppet Theatres and Associated Arts) – a role in which she devised a support system for young administrative staff. She gives production classes at vocational degree level at the Metz faculty of the University of Lorraine.
Technical Manager
Set builder, stage or lighting manager, stage manager – it doesn’t matter what job you do, as long as you’re part of a collective creative adventure.
Accompanying artists as they bring their projects to fruition is what drives him, and this behind-the-scenes role suits him well.
After studying performing arts in Lyon, he joined the Luc Amoros company, continuing his apprenticeship by training as a stagehand at the ISTS in Avignon, and for the last 20 years he has alternated between rural and international tours.
In 2021 he begins a new collaboration with La Mue/tte.
Administration and Production Manager
Having graduated with a degree in accounting, Aurélie has been working with theatre companies for more than 10 years as either a production or administrative manager. Following a period of nine years spent working with the company La Valise, she joined the team Blah Blah Blah, La Mue/tte and La Bande Passante, all based in Lorraine.
Head of Communication
Following a period of ten years spent working as a production and distribution manager in contemporary dance before switching exclusively to puppetry and associated arts (Scopitone et Cie, La Générale Électrique, RoiZIZO theatre, Collectif Label Brut, La Bande Passante), Sandrine undertook training in web, DTP and editorial techniques. Her work has focused more specifically on communication media and tools used in the distribution of art projects. In 2018, she joined La Mue/tte, and pursued her work in communication with the RoiZIZO theatre and Bakelite companies based in Brittany.
