View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Queen Mary Research Online Beyond the playwright: the creative process of Els Joglars and Teatro de la Abadía Breden, Simon David The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author For additional information about this publication click this link. https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/jspui/handle/123456789/402 Information about this research object was correct at the time of download; we occasionally make corrections to records, please therefore check the published record when citing. For more information contact [email protected] Beyond the Playwright: The Creative Process of Els Joglars and Teatro de la Abadía Simon David Breden Queen Mary, University of London PhD 1 I hereby certify that this thesis represents my own work in accordance with University regulations. Simon David Breden 2 Abstract The rehearsal processes of theatre companies are an oft-neglected area of research in Drama and Performance Studies. My study of the Catalan devising collective Els Joglars and the Madrid producing venue Teatro de la Abadía seeks to redress the balance with a close analysis of methodologies employed in rehearsal. In both cases I have witnessed rehearsals first-hand; with Els Joglars observing preparations for En un lugar de Manhattan (2005); in the case of the Abadía working as assistant director on El burlador de Sevilla (2008). These observations are fundamental to a thesis where I have sought to place both companies in a local, national and international context. The thesis examines Els Joglars’ roots in mime and how they have generated a practice-based methodology by means of a hands-on exploration of ideas derived from practitioners as varied as Etienne Decroux and Peter Brook. With Teatro de la Abadía, the focus shifts to how the founder and Artistic Director José Luis Gómez developed exercises drawn from European practitioners such as Jacques Lecoq and Michael Chekhov in order to create his own actor-training centre in Madrid. In effect, both companies have created distinctive rehearsal processes by applying ideas and techniques from a wider European context to a Spanish theatre scene which had been seen to follow rather than develop trends and techniques visible in theatre across France, Italy and Germany. Critically, their hybrid rehearsal processes generate heightened theatrical results for the audience. This could be described as an experiential engagement, where the creative process has been consciously geared towards placing the audience in a ‘distinct situation’ and requiring them to respond accordingly. Thus the thesis shifts the focus of academic 3 study away from product and towards process, demonstrating how an understanding of process assists in the reading of the theatrical product. 4 Contents Acknowledgments 7 Referencing 8 INTRODUCTION 9 i. A Methodology for Rehearsal 9 ii. A Spanish Legacy – Major Influences at Home 25 iii. Ramón María del Valle Inclán: The Polemic Commentator 29 iv. Federico García Lorca and the Avant Garde 36 v. Antonio Buero Vallejo and Censorship 46 vi. The Directors and the Rehearsal Room 55 vii. Positioning Boadella and Gómez 70 PART I – ELS JOGLARS 75 Chapter I – Els Joglars, Introduction & History 76 I.i Els Joglars: An Introduction to the Company 76 I.ii. Els Joglars: Company Aims 80 I.iii. History and Evolution of Els Joglars 88 I.iii.a 1962-1968 - Towards Mime 88 I.iii.b 1968-1977 - Towards Devising 90 I.iii.c 1978-2005 - Towards a Methodology 104 Chapter II – Els Joglars, Theory & Practice 108 II.i. Origin of the Idea: Practice Based Theory 109 II.ii. Beyond Mime 111 II.iii. Beyond Devising 117 II.iv. The Practitioner/Theorist: Making a Method 127 II.v. Origin of the Idea: From the Author to the Collective 137 Chapter III – Els Joglars - Development and Improvisation 165 III.i. Rehearsal as Play: The Context of the Rehearsal Room 165 III.ii. Involving the Collective 173 Chapter IV – Els Joglars - Experiential Performance 194 5 PART II – TEATRO DE LA ABADÍA 208 Chapter I – Teatro de la Abadía, Introduction & History 210 I.i. An Introduction to José Luis Gómez & Teatro de la Abadía 210 I.ii. Genesis of Teatro de la Abadía 215 I.iii. Teatro de la Abadía: Aims & Objectives 219 I.iv. Teatro de la Abadía: History & Evolution 228 Chapter II – Teatro de la Abadía - Rehearsal Room Ethos 236 Chapter III – Teatro de la Abadía - Theory & Practice 263 III.i. Practice Based Theory 263 Chapter IV – Teatro de la Abadía - Holy Theatre 286 CONCLUSION 307 BIBLIOGRAPHY 321 Els Joglars 323 Teatro de la Abadía 330 Theories and Practices of Theatre Making 332 Theatre in Spain 336 Cultural Theory 338 Other Works Cited 338 Interviews & Correspondence 339 6 Acknowledgments Many thanks to the Central Research Fund of the University of London and the Coffin trust for supporting this thesis by awarding me with a travel fund. Many thanks also to Queen Mary University of London, Department of English & Drama for supporting by means of the school research fund. I would also like to thank all those who have spoken to me and assisted me in compiling material and developing the work contained in this thesis, including Carlos Aladro, Ester Bellver, Xavier Boada, Albert Boadella, Ronald Brouwer, Carlos Buero, Óscar Cornago- Bernal, Tim Etchells, Cristina Ferrández, David George, José Luis Gómez, Jen Harvie, Dan Jemmett, Jordi Larios, David Luque, Luis Moreno, Marcos Ordóñez, Gabriel Quirós-Alpera. I would like to express my deepest thanks to everyone at Els Joglars and Teatro de la Abadía for allowing me to witness rehearsals, providing me with personal notes, recorded material and interviews. The access I was granted to their resources has been absolutely vital in carrying out this research. I am indebted to my supervisors, Prof. Maria M. Delgado and Dr. Omar García without whom this work would not have been possible. Finally thanks to my parents for their support and encouragement throughout. 7 Referencing This thesis uses the Author-Date referencing system. 8 INTRODUCTION Such a feeling life, such sensation, yes? Then pile the words on top. And watch them seep down. Will Eno, Thom Pain (Based on Nothing) (Eno, 2004: 35-36) i. A Methodology for Rehearsal There is a fundamental dichotomy between the nature of perception and the words with which we clumsily attempt to define those same perceptions – a dichotomy at the core of all art and one which is aptly recognised in the above excerpt from Will Eno’s 2004 monologue Thom Pain (Based on Nothing). Effectively, we do not have the capacity to do justice to our experiences by recounting them verbally, and as a result, we encounter difficulties when trying to define any emotional experience. However, describing emotive involvement lies at the heart of the analysis of theatre. That some of these theatrical experiences should remain in our memories long after others have faded away is not simply a matter of personal taste, but undoubtedly an indication of how physically and mentally involved we felt at the time as spectators. Speaking of Spanish theatre in particular, a chasm separates the violent promenade excesses of La Fura dels Baus and the placid proscenium texts of Alejandro Casona or Enrique Jardiel Poncela. This chasm is not necessarily just an artistic one, although clearly the concerns of all artists differ wildly. In terms of the audience experience, however, the key to the differences resides in how these artists choose to communicate and what sensations they choose to stimulate. This is a problem of definition that has always faced academics and theatre 9 practitioners: ‘we find in language the notion of sensation, which seems immediate and obvious: I have a sensation of redness, of blueness, of hot or cold. It will, however, be seen that nothing could in fact be more confused’ (Merleau-Ponty, 2007: 3). Many strategies have been employed in an attempt to reduce the confusion, shifting the focus of academic analysis away from the product as a text and towards a live product that requires a more sensorial involvement. Even within the bounds of literature, the School of Constanza developed the theory of aesthetic response, again in an effort to explore the gap between the product and interpretation that takes place in the individual reader or spectator: ‘As a literary text can only produce a response when it is read, it is virtually impossible to describe this response without also analyzing the reading process’ (Iser, 1978: ix). Theatre director Anne Bogart speaks in similar terms of how art can arrest the attention of its viewer: An authentic work of art embodies intense energy. It demands response. You can either avoid it, shut it out, or meet it and tussle. It contains attractive and complicated energy fields and a logic of its own. It does not create desire or movement in the receiver, rather it engenders what James Joyce labelled ‘aesthetic arrest’. You are stopped in your tracks. You cannot easily walk by it and go on with your life. You find yourself in relation to something that you cannot readily dismiss. (Bogart, 2001: 63) However, it is more unusual to examine the process of creation in order to establish exactly how this relationship of ‘aesthetic arrest’ between creator and receiver is generated. A rehearsal process is in its simplest terms a period of practice before placing a theatrical production in front of an audience. However, the artistic process that 10 informs this act of preparation can take many different forms. Speaking on the nature of art, Aristotle emphasised that primarily ‘all art is concerned with coming into being […] art must be a matter of making’, and so he defined the particular state of mind necessary to enter a ‘reasoned state of capacity to make’ (Aristotle, 1998: 141).