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31295001842243.Pdf (6.082Mb) c... AN ACTOR 1 S PREPARATION FOR THE ROlE OF JEAN PAUL MARAT DJ PETER WEISS 1 MARAT/SADE by RICHARD FRANK GRABISH, B.S. in Ed. A THESIS IN THEATRE AR~~S Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech Uni vcr.:dty in Partial Fulfilh~nt of the Rcouirernents for· the Legree of MASTER OF AP:rs ApDroved Accepted - August, 1972 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am deeply indebted to Professor Ronald Schulz for his direction of Marat/Sade and for his guidance of this thesis. I also wish tc express my gratitude to Dr. Sam Smiley and Dr. Larry D. Clark for their inspiration. ii TABIE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWIEOOMENTS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • . ii INI'RODUCTION • • • • . 1 I. JEAN PAUL MARAT: A BIOORAPHICAL SKETCH. • • • • • • • • 5 II. PAR.AN'OIA • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 35 III. A STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF JEAN PAUL MARAT •••••••• 56 CONCillSION. 77 BIBLIOORAPHY. • . 78 APPENDIX. • • . • • • • . 81 A. NEHSP APER REVIEWS . 82 B • PROG RAl'll • • • • • . 86 C. PRODUCTION PHaiDGRAPH. • . 88 iii JNrRODUGriON As one of the purposes of a research thesis is to instruct a student in scholarship and make him aware of the problems of good research, so the creative thesis in the preparation of an acting role should give the student actor experience in the analytic process of acting. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate this process of analysis for the role of Jean Paul Marat in Peter Weiss' The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul r'Iarat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Man::Iuis I€ Sade (hereinafter referred to as IVIarat/ Sade) performed at the University Theatre, Texas Tech University. In Creating a Role, Constantin Stanislavski referred to the process of analysis in this manner: Its purpose is to search out creative stimuli to attract the actor, lacking which there can be no identi­ fication ~nth a part; the purpose of the analysis is the emotional deepening of the soul of a part in order to comprehend the component elements of this soul, its ex­ ternal and internal nature, and indeed its whole life as a human spirit. Analysis studies the external circumstances and events in the life of a human spirit in the part; it searches in the actor's own soul for emotions common to the role and himself, for sensations, experiences, for any elements promoting ties between him and his part ; and it seeks out any spiritual or other material germane to creativeness. l 2 Analysis dissects, discovers, examines, studies, weighs, recognizes, reflects, confirms; it uncovers the basic direction and thought of a play and part, the superobjective. This is the material it feeds to imagination, feelings, thoughts, and will. 1 Although the stimulus to investigate the role of Marat corres from Stanis lavski, the method of analysis is derived from a multiplicity of experiences this actor has gone through. Acting is a personal venture. Consequently, an approach to a role is an individual one. The actor may be bombarded with information from acting classes, text books, and research material, but the eventual approach to the role, the analysis of the part the actor will have to play must be his own. According to Stanislavski, a character is the flesh and soul of the actor and is born of the union of all spiritual and physical elements of the role and the actor. 2 This thesis shall attempt to investigate and delineate the union of physical and spiritual elements this actor has with this particular role. The approach to a character is "the conception and birth of a new being-­ the person in the part. "3 Thus, the approach set forth herein is a manifestation of the union between actor and role. 1cons tantin Stanis lavski, Creating a Role, trans . by Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood, ed. by Hermine I. Popper (New York: Theatre Arts Books, 1961), pp. 151-52. 2sonia Moore, The Stanislavski System: 'Ihe Professional Training of an Actor (New York: Viking Press, 1960), p. 76. 3constantin Stanislavski, An Actor Prepares, trans. by Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood (New York: Theatre Arts Books, 1948), p. 294. 3 The investigation is divided into three basic sections. The first section deals with historical research on Jean Paul Marat, the French Revolutionary ".friend of the people." Weiss states in the "Author's Notes on the Historical Background to the Play" that "IVT.arat' s words in the play corTespond in content and often almost exactly in expression with the writings he [Marat] left behind. 'What is said about the various phases of 4 his life is also authentic." An -~iderstanding of the historical figure is essential for an understanding of the dramatic character of :.1arat. rrhis first section presents research solely for the edification of the actor. It is in no way an attempt at an historical. biography of the eighteenth-century Frenchman . The second section on paranoia is stimulated by the fact that Weiss chose a paranoiac ·p~~:2nt to play the role of Marat. Again, no pretense is made to an in-depth study of the psychosis of paranoia.. :iather, this section is needed to enlighten the actor on th~ manifestations of paranoia and supply him with the necessary tools for an edequate representation of the psychosis on the stage. 'Ihe final section is a dramatic analysis of the character. 'Ihere are many methods of analysis and the method used here is 4Peter Weiss, The Persecution and P.ssassination of Jean-Paul Marat As Performed by the lnr:':ates of the Asylum of Cllarenton Under the Direction of the 1-'larquis I:e Sade, English version by Geoffrey Skelton, verse adaptation by Adr::an 1'-'Iitchell, with an Introduction by Peter Brook ~New York: Atheneum, 1966), pp. 107-8. not necessarily the best for every role. The approach to characterization used in this thesis is based on aTiethod of structural anal~sis created by Dr. Sam Smiley and on actor training under the direction of Dr. Larry D. Clark. The analysis provides the information needed to go into a rehearsal process with other cast members and create a role that is a credible and integral part of the total production. Directorial decisions~ personal relationships~ and scenic elements which constitute the rehearsal and production process are not included in this thesis. The scope of the investigation involves only that process which is needed to enter into such a situation. This thesis sets forth a nersonal method of investiga­ tion and analysis which serves as the foundation for the portrayal of the character of Jean Paul Marat. 0 CHAPTER I JEAN PAUL JVfARAT: A BI03RAPHICAL SKETCH Simplicity was the key to JV!m-'at 's character, vvrote Fabre d'Eglantine, the creator of the fanciful revolutionary calendar. riJarat, the revolutionary "friend of the people," defined his thoughts , words and actions . His insight accounted for deeds by their most natural causes, and his genius had re­ course to the most simple means. 1 Consequently, he appeared extravagant to men who were the slaves of habit and prejudice, followers of routine, submissive to social cant and the pre- valent humbug of the day. Truth and justice, r!Jarat repeated, were his earthly divinities, and he estimated men by their per- sonal aualities--not by success--resnecting vrisdom and admiring the notion of right. He convinced a multitude of his sincerity in these matters. His indi~ation against enemies, his pity for the onpressed, and his dramatic talents were imposed on 2 himself and on his contemporaries; and this led to his apotheosis. 1J. Mills Whitham, A Biogranhical History of the French Revolution (Freeport, New York: Books for Library Press, 1931), p. 264. 2Whitharn, A Biog-.,raphical History, pp. 263--64. 5 6 Jean Paul Marat was born into a lower middle-class home in Neuch~tel, Switzerland, in 1743. He was the oldest of six children. His father (who spelled his name "rwa") was a Sardinian Catholic, who, having turned Calvinist at his rnarTiage, was forced to leave his native country and move to Switzerland. He has been variously described as a monk, a doctor, a teacher of languages, and a designer of figures on cloth. Contemporary documents mention only the last two occupations.3 Whitham states that he "had considerable ability as a linguist and probably lived toward the end of a harried life as a teacher of languages." 4 His life story sets the atmosphere for the trauma that his son was to go through later in his ovm life. Marat' s father, pre- ferring the freedom of the world to a monastic life of restric- tions, ran away from the Sardinian abbey in which he had been raised. He eventually found himself in Switzerland where he married l.Duise Cabrol, a Genevan Calvinist, and moved to Neucnatel. Louise Cabrol Mara bore six children. 'Jhe first of these was Jean Paul Mara, who later changed his narre to rlJarat, in order to appear more French. IVJarat 's mother greatly influenced her son's sensitivity to poverty and oppression. 3Louis R. Gottschalk, Jean Paul Marat: A Study in Radicalism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967), p. 3. 4Whitham, A Biographical History, p. 244. 7 Marat paid fulsome tribute to her in his rn:mhood, owing all that was humane in himself to her devotion and magnanimity, her intense syrrroathy with all unhappy creatures. She endowed him with a sensitive spirj_t, a tempestuous character frank and tenacious, his heart open to heroic passions, above all to the love of glory and a hatred of cruelty, of all inflicted pain.5 As long as Jean Paul was living with the family, they seem to have lived in moderate circumstances.
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