Since its foundation, in 2004, La Tête de pioche (The Pickaxe Head) has created eight shows, presented more than 500 performances in front of close to 50,000 spectators, and visited around fifteen cities in Quebec and in Europe. More than 100 artists and craftsmen have worked on the various creations of the company.
La Tête de pioche is constantly seeking to renew the relationship between the performance and the audience. For each of the projects, the artistic and craftsmen team is trying out and developing a new stage design concept, to induce the encounter of various artistic fields, aesthetic trends and scenic techniques.
La Tête de pioche favours proximity to the audience as well as the input of the public’s imagination. The company therefore tends to create works with inventive forms, such as objects theatre, urban strolling, performances for large audiences or intimate shows. La Tête de pioche appears in unusual and original interior or outside venues, where the audience does not expect it to happen…
In Quebec, many major cultural events have presented La Tête de pioche’s productions, such as the 375th Anniversary of Montreal, the Quebec City International Summer Festival, Just For Laugh Festival, the International Puppetry Arts Festival in Saguenay, the Street Theatre Festival in Shawinigan, the Street Theatre Festival in Lachine and the 400th Anniversary of Quebec City. Abroad, the production Les Joyeux Bouchers (The Joyous Butchers) has performed on two occasions in the World Puppetry Theatres Festival in Charleville-Mézières, France, as well as in Spain, at the Muestra Internacional de Artes Fantásticas in Santander, and at the prestigious Titirimundi International Puppetry Theatres in Segovia.
In parallel to presenting its creations repertoire, La Tête de pioche often participates in custom-made productions that would adopt different forms: theatrical course, outside performance, urban scenography, architectural projection or cultural mediation.