Jacques Copeau!

By Frances Mathews Early Years & Background

➢ He was born in , France in 1879 and died in 1949 (aged 70 years) ➢ As an adolescent, he attended many prestigious schools, showing a major interest in from a young age ➢ At 18 he directed Brouillard du Matin as part of the alumni at Lycée Condorcet ➢ He studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, but still continued theatre-related hobbies and directed more plays The Théâtre du Vieux Colombier

"For our new undertaking, just give us a bare platform." Registres I, p. 32 ➢ In 1912, the notorious Vieux Colombier was founded by Copeau ➢ He wanted to make a theatre inspired by the simplicity of Elizabethan performances, far away from the gentrified, overly complicated and elitist theatre scene happening in Paris at the time ➢ His ideals revolved around being everything he felt that theatre (at the time) was not - he created simple sets with a privately trained group of performers with as little artificiality and complicatedness as possible ➢ They performed things like Shakespeare, , Moliere, etc. The Théâtre du Vieux Colombier (ctn.)

➢ Copeau strived to make his crew as perfectly versatile and harmoniously great as Elizabethan theatre troupes, having an ensemble made up entirely of individually selected and trained individuals ➢ They used a versatile stage with simple lighting and design, as he wanted the audience (more hip, younger revolutionaries that lived in the area) to focus on the actors performances rather than just artificial lights and unnatural colors ➢ Before performing, his troupe trained vigorously for a long while, kind of to create a harmonious, well-oiled machine of a group ➢ They could perform just about any play after this, seeing as they worked so well and hard together In Conclusion

The Théâtre du Vieux Colombier was an extremely influential theater (nay, movement!) that shaped the theatre scene in Paris (and around the world!) in important ways, introducing new ways of thinking about and training actors in the scene and much more. can be credited with introducing crazy important thoughts and feelings into the theatre universe, even their temporary closing due to WWI stirred up emotion in the scene. He wrote many plays that we still perform today, and was just generally extremely important and influential. “Theater is not born where life is full, where one is satisfied. Theater is born

where there are wounds, where there are gaps.” Bonus Pictures Bibliography

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Copeau#The_Théâtre_du_Vieux-Colombier)

Britannica

(https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jacques-Copeau)

Browse Biography

(http://www.browsebiography.com/bio-jacques_copeau_en.html)