Paulette Collet has lost none of her energy.
In 1969, encouraged by the St. Mike’s French Department, she single-handedly founded La Troupe des Anciens de L’Université de Toronto, a Molière-inspired theatre troupe that captivates audiences, champions francophone plays, and helps students learn French. At 50, it’s still going strong.
Originally from Verviers, Belgium, Paulette is an emerita UofT French professor, and learning matters as much to her as performance.
Pronunciation, she says, is an area where students especially need to improve.
“[People] don’t enunciate things anymore!” she says wistfully.
La Troupe has given the University of St. Michael’s College Archives an archival collection featuring posters, programs, photos, DVDs, VHS cassettes, and newspaper articles, as well as a book commemorating the troupe’s 50th anniversary: La Troupe des Anciens de l’Université de Toronto (1969-2019): 50 ans de théâtre français à Toronto (2019). Paulette also gave a copy of the book to the St. Mike’s John M. Kelly Library.
USMC Archivist Jessica Bar is delighted with the donation.
“It’s a valuable collection of materials,” she says. “We have video recordings and photos of performances and participants, [so] we’ll be able to preserve the memory of this group of active students and alumni.”
After fleeing to England from Belgium to escape the Nazis during World War II, Paulette finished high school in London and obtained both a B.A. and a teacher’s diploma at King’s College, University of London.
Then came Mauritius–an island nation in the Indian Ocean 2,000 kilometres east of Africa. Hired there as an education officer in Her Majesty’s Colonial Service (1952 – 1960), Paulette taught, inspected high schools, and briefly directed the only government school for girls on the island. But she was just getting started. Paulette defended a Ph.D. at Laval in Quebec City and taught in the United States before settling down as a French professor at the University of St. Michael’s College.
She’s an educator all right. But Paulette can also sing and act–talents she and her troupe have used to help high school and university students appreciate, speak, and grasp French better.
Why did the company give materials to St. Mike’s? Well, La Troupe des Anciens have a fond relationship with the College.
In 1969, they went under a different name–le Cercle français de Saint Michael’s College–because most of the cast and crew hailed from USMC. Gradually, students from other colleges such as Victoria and Trinity began taking part and, finally, the group changed its name to La Troupe des Anciens in 1996.
At first, Le Cercle began performing classic French plays–mostly Molière–in Brennan Hall.
It was awful. There was no lighting, says Paulette, and the acoustics were terrible. From Brennan Hall the company moved to a hall in the Basilian seminary, and then Victoria College, before ending up back at St. Mike’s in Alumni Hall in the early 1990s.
Alumni Hall had a new fancy built-in theatre. The players loved it.
Throughout the 1990s until 2003, La Troupe des Anciens brought Molière to life at Alumni Hall. Then–to the troupe’s disappointment–St. Mike’s had to close the Alumni Hall theatre. The provincial decision to scrap grade 13 meant a sudden flood of first-year students seeking seats in classrooms: the College had to cede the space.
These days, the stage doors have been painted over and the theatre’s been refashioned as a lecture hall (Alumni Hall Room 100). Yet racks of costumes hang above the former theatre on the building’s second floor, where La Troupe still has a wardrobe.
The Alumni Hall theatre may have closed, but there’s good news too. In 2007, Trinity College opened its George Ignatieff Theatre to La Troupe des Anciens, and they’ve been performing there ever since.