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The English Theatre Studios of Michael Chekhov And University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/57044 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. The English Theatre Studios of Michael Chekhov and Michel Saint-Denis, 1935-1965 A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Literature Thomas Cornford, University of Warwick, Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies May 2012 1 Contents List of illustrations........................................................................................... 4 Declaration..................................................................................................... 8 Abstract........................................................................................................... 9 Preface............................................................................................................ 10 Introduction 1 The Theatre Studio in Context........................................ 12 Introduction 2 Chekhov and Saint-Denis in Parallel............................... 28 Section 1 The Chekhov Theatre Studio at Dartington, 1936- 1938................................................................................ 33 1.1 Context: The Evolution of Chekhov’s Technique before 1936.................................................................... 45 1.2 Practice: Training at the Chekhov Theatre Studio at Dartington...................................................................... 60 1.3 Legacy: Chekhov’s Technique in Practice and Theory............................................................................. 105 Appendix to Section 1..................................................... 122 Section 2 The Theatre Centres of Michel Saint-Denis, 1936-1952....................................................................... 124 2.1 Context: Backgrounds of the London Theatre 127 Studio............................................................................. 2.2 Practice: Training and Performance at the London 160 Theatre Studio and the Old Vic Theatre Centre............. 2 2.3 Legacy: The Closure of the Old Vic Theatre Centre and Saint-Denis’ Artistic Influence.................................. 211 Appendix to Section 2..................................................... 249 Section 3 Saint-Denis and Chekhov at the Royal Shakespeare Company, 1961-1965..................................................... 263 3.1 The After-Lives of the Chekhov and Saint-Denis Studios, An Overview...................................................... 265 3.2 Saint-Denis at the RSC Studio, 1962-1965................ 274 3.3 Saint-Denis in Rehearsal: The Cherry Orchard........ 298 3.4 Chekhov at the RSC: Paul Rogers in The Homecoming ........................................................... 317 3.5 After 1965: The Legacy of Saint-Denis’ RSC Studio... 330 Conclusion The Studio into the Future: Towards a Manifesto.......... 347 Bibliography.................................................................................................... 361 3 List of Illustrations Fig. 1 Michael Chekhov as Dr Brulov in Spellbound (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1945) .................................................... 28 Fig. 2 Michel Saint-Denis as the coachman in The Secret Agent (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1936) .................................................... 28 Fig. 3 Michel Saint-Denis as the coachman in The Secret Agent ....... 29 Fig. 4 Michael Chekhov as Dr Brulov in Spellbound .......................... 29 Fig. 5 Peter Ustinov and Paul Rogers in Billy Budd (dir. Ustinov, 1962) .................................................................. 30 Fig. 6 Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst at Dartington Hall (c. 1925) .... 33 Fig. 7 Beatrice Straight and Michael Chekhov at Dartington Hall (c. 1936) ................................................................................... 33 Fig. 8 Elmhirst and Rabindranath Tagore at Dartington ................... 35 Fig. 9 Students in the School of Dance-Mime at Dartington ............. 38 Fig. 10 Dorothy Carter, Beatrice Straight and Leslie Burrowes in Comus (1929) ........................................................................... 38 Fig. 11 The Chekhov Theatre Studio’s promotional booklet (1936) ... 40 Fig. 12 Group photograph of the Chekhov Theatre Studio at Dartington ............................................................................... 60 Fig. 13 Chekhov directing at Dartington ............................................. 67 Fig. 14 The opening of the Chekhov Theatre Studio (5 October 1936) 78 Figs. 15-17 Students from the Chekhov Theatre Studio in a movement exercise at Dartington ............................................................. 78-79 Fig. 17a Altered version of Fig. 17 ......................................................... 81 4 Fig. 18 The outdoor theatre at Dartington .......................................... 81 Fig. 19 The Monterey Pine at Dartington ............................................ 81 Fig. 20 Rex Gardner’s design for the Dartington Hall News of the Day (1934) ............................................................................... 95 Fig. 21 Michael Chekhov’s Chart for Inspired Acting (1949) ............... 95 Fig. 22 Kurt Jooss and Rudolf Laban studying a script in Labanotation ........................................................................... 96 Fig. 23 Kurt Jooss working with dancers in the outdoor theatre at Dartington ............................................................................... 96 Fig. 24 Mark Tobey’s painting ‘Broadway Norm’ (1935) ..................... 98 Fig. 25 Bernard Leach observing the Japanese Hamada Shoji ............ 100 Fig. 26 Leach working in his studio at St. Ives (1963) .......................... 100 Fig. 27 Willi Soukop with his sculptures .............................................. 100 Fig. 28 Willi Soukop ‘Two Seated Figures’ (1941) ............................... 100 Fig. 29 Chekhov and his students in the grounds of Dartington Hall 105 Figs. 30-40 Beatrice Straight and William Holden in Network (dir. Sidney Lumet) .................................................................. 108-111 Fig. 41 Saint-Denis speaking to students at the London Theatre Studio ....................................................................................... 124 Fig. 42 Staff and students of the Old Vic School ................................. 124 Fig. 43 Rupert Doone’s manifesto for the Group Theatre (1935) ....... 147 Fig. 44 Programme for The Sowers of the Hills (Westminster Theatre, 1935) .................................................. 151 Fig. 45 The Motleys in their Studio ..................................................... 152 5 Fig. 46 The entrance to the London Theatre Studio building in Providence Place ..................................................................... 160 Fig. 47 The Three Sisters (1938) .......................................................... 170 Fig. 48 Michael Regrave as Tusenbach and George Devine as Andrey dancing in The Three Sisters (1938) ......................................... 172 Fig. 49 Laurence Olivier as Macbeth (Old Vic, 1937) .......................... 176 Fig. 50 Laurence Olivier as Macbeth (Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, 1955) ......................................................................... 176 Fig. 51 Martita Hunt as Miss Havisham in Great Expectations (dir. George Devine, 1940) ...................................................... 179 Fig. 52 Martita Hunt as Miss Havisham in Great Expectations (dir. David Lean, 1947) ............................................................. 179 Fig. 53 Michel Saint-Denis, George Devine and the directors of the Old Vic Theatre Company: Ralph Richardson, Laurence Olivier and John Burrell ............................................ 183 Fig. 54 The directors of the Old Vic Centre: Glen Byam Shaw, Michel Saint-Denis and George Devine ................................... 189 Fig. 55 Jed Harris ................................................................................. 236 Fig. 56 Disney’s Big Bad Wolf .............................................................. 236 Fig. 57 Laurence Olivier as Richard III (1955) ...................................... 236 Fig. 58 Michael Redgrave as Shylock and Yvonne Mitchell as Jessica (Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, 1953) .................................. 238 Fig. 59 Laurence Olivier as Oedipus with Nicholas Hannen as the Chorus Leader (Old Vic, 1945) ................................................. 243 6 Fig. 60 Laurence Olivier as Oedipus with the Chorus (Old Vic, 1945) 243 Fig. 61 George Devine teaching at a Royal Court Studio ..................... 267 Fig. 62 Eric Porter as Dr. Faustus with the Seven Deadly Sins (dir. Clifford Williams, RSC, 1968) ............................................ 284 Figs. 63-97 Images from the televised version of Michel Saint-Denis’ The Cherry Orchard (dir. Michael Elliott, BBC, 1962) ............... 298-315 Fig. 98 The Homecoming (dir. Peter Hall, Broadway, 1967) ............... 317 Figs. 99- Images from The Homecoming (dir. Peter Hall, 120 American Film Theatre, 1973) ................................................
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