In November 2018 as they were both graduating from Acting Coach Scotland, Victoria J Valliere and Cecile Durel founded a small production company - Rove St. Productions - to create and produce meaningful new theatre.
Rove St. was founded on a shared belief that theatre and cinema can do good: can discuss meaningful issues, give a voice to those who have been denied one, and start important conversations. Rove St. now seeks to create and support art under the simple mandate: First, do no harm. Primum Non Nocere.
Rove St. brings together young artists to both initiate and facilitate new projects and collaborations. We believe that young artists have so much to offer, and deserve to be heard and seen. Rove St. is a place where young artists supported, encouraged, and valued.
Based in Glasgow, the company works hard to establish links between the Scottish, Canadian, and French entertainment industries, celebrating the best each has to offer.
Victoria and Cecile both have a strong attachment to the Edinburgh Fringe, and in their founding year the festival is a key element to launching the company.
Rove St. works on exploring drama and comedy through female driven projects - promoting equality, respect and kindness.
Cecile Durel is an actress, writer, director, and producer based in Glasgow. Born and raised in Normandy, she graduated with a BA in Screen Writing from the University of Caen in 2016. In 2018, she graduated from Acting Coach Scotland in Glasgow with a full time Stage and Screen Acting diploma.
In 2015, she wrote, directed, produced, and acted in her first play (in French) Les Flammes d'Internet for the Saint-lo Youth Festival. The following year, she released her first solo EP Pictures On A Wall and toured Northern France accompanied by Valentin Valtat on cello. Her last French project before moving to the U.K. was a musical she wrote, directed, and acted in with composer Manuel Lucas.
In 2018, she took part in a full run of the Edinburgh Fringe with ACS in an original play written by Mark Westbrook and directed by Olivia Millar-Ross called I, Sniper. She portrayed Lyudmila Pavlichenko in this ensemble piece about the life of the World War II Russian sniper.
Later the same year, she created Rove St. Productions in with Victoria J Valliere to produce her own work in Scotland and England. Her new play There Is No Problem (Here) is a fast paced comedy that will be performed for the first time at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival by a young and talented group of performers.
Victoria J Valliere is an actor, director, and writer from Canada currently based in Glasgow. She holds a First Class Degree Honours in English, Psychology, and Theatre from Mount Allison University, and a Professional Diploma in Stage and Screen Acting from Acting Coach Scotland. From 2009-2012 Victoria studied acting craft and Shakespearean performance at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, ON. She has also studied performance at the Cindy Tanas Actor’s Studio in Toronto.
Victoria has been, in turn, an actor, a stage manager, a lighting technician, a designer, a director, and now a playwright and producer. Since founding Rove St. Productions in 2018 with Cecile, Victoria has been working on her original play for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2019, entitled Hello? Hello. or Everything I Ever Wanted to Tell You, a celebration of the empowering nature of community and friendship.
Through her work in theatre, her love of reading, and her studies into human psychology, Victoria has come to believe that theatre has the profound responsibility to bring positive change to the world, whether that be through a provocative play that starts important societal conversations, or a two-hour escape of laughter and imagination, theatre has the power to heal, and to bring together. Where else can you truly walk in someone else’s shoes? And that’s why Victoria ‘does’ theatre. That’s why she’ll never stop.
Scroll over Victoria's picture for full details of her experience. You can connect with Victoria on her website: victoriajvalliere.com.
