Education for the Dramatic Play (EPJD): a French theater school

Abstract:

The article aims to comprehend the Parisian theater school Education for the Dramatic Play [Éducation Par le Jeu Dramatique] (EPJD), active between 1946 and 1952. Through bibliographical and documentary research, it was possible to reconstruct some information, to understand historical and theatrical contexts, to know aspects of functioning, pedagogical proposals and networks of influences. The EPJD was headed by Jean-Marie Conty (1904-1999) and had the collaboration of leading French theater and dance personalities. It had influence in other countries, including Brazil, notably through Maria Clara Machado. The EPJD was the first school in which Jacques Lecoq (1921-1999) taught. Thus, considerations of EPJD with Lecoq are established.

Keywords:
Theater Teaching; French Theater; Theater History; Jean-Marie Conty; Jacques Lecoq

Resumo:

O artigo tem por objetivo compreender a escola de teatro parisiense Educação Pelo Jogo Dramático [Éducation Par le Jeu Dramatique] (EPJD), ativa entre 1946 e 1952. Por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica e documental, foi possível reconstituir algumas informações, compreender contextos históricos e teatrais, conhecer aspectos de funcionamento, propostas pedagógicas e redes de influências. A EPJD foi encabeçada por Jean-Marie Conty (1904-1999) e teve a colaboração de importantes personalidades do teatro e da dança franceses. Teve influência em outros países, incluindo o Brasil, notadamente por meio de Maria Clara Machado. A EPJD foi a primeira escola em que lecionou Jacques Lecoq (1921-1999). Assim, são estabelecidas considerações da EPJD com Lecoq.

Palavras-chave:
Ensino do Teatro; Teatro Francês; História do Teatro; Jean-Marie Conty; Jacques Lecoq

Résumé:

Cet article vise à comprendre l’école de théâtre parisienne Éducation Par le Jeu Dramatique (EPJD), active de 1946 à 1952. Par une recherche bibliographique et documentaire, il a été possible reconstruire certaines informations, de comprendre les contextes historiques et théâtraux, de connaître des aspects du fonctionnement, des propositions pédagogiques et des réseaux d'influences. L’EPJD était dirigée par Jean-Marie Conty (1904-1999) et avait la collaboration de personnalités françaises du théâtre et de la danse. Il a eu une influence dans d'autres pays, dont le Brésil, notamment par Maria Clara Machado. L'EPJD a été la première école à enseigner Jacques Lecoq (1921-1999). Ainsi, les considérations d'EPJD avec Lecoq sont établies.

Mots-clés:
Enseignement du Théâtre; Théâtre Français; Histoire du Théâtre; Jean-Marie Conty; Jacques Lecoq

Introduction

In May 1946, Jean-Marie Conty started in Paris, France, the theater school which was named Education for the Dramatic Play [Éducation Par le Jeu Dramatique] (EPJD), which was active until 1952. Important names of the French theater and dance of the time had some kind of relationship with the EPJD and one can identify repercussions of this school even in other countries. However, even in France, although there are occasional mentions, there is a lack of knowledge of the history, pedagogy and contributions of the EPJD.

One of the personalities that testify the existence of the EPJD, and the motivation point for the study, is Jacques Lecoq, creator, in 1956, of the Jacques Lecoq International Theater School (in operation to the current days). Lecoq’s first experience as a drama teacher was at the EPJD.

This article aims to introduce the EPJD in both its historical and pedagogical aspects, taking the bibliographic references available in France, analyzing documents and broadening the discussions and statements regarding the school. It also intends to establish historical and pedagogical relations with Jacques Lecoq and to verify correspondences between this institution and the Lecoquian pedagogy.

At first, some professional information about Conty will be indicated. Next, two articulated French initiatives related to the World War II will be briefly contextualized: the Young France [Jeune France], during the period of the German occupation, and the Work and Culture Association [Association Travail et Culture] (TEC), during the Liberation. These two contexts allow us to recognize a movement that preceded the EPJD.

As a point of reference, a brief retrospective of Jacques Lecoq’s professional formation will be made, identifying his relations with Jean-Marie Conty.

In continuity, a brief introduction of existing documents and studies about the EPJD will be presented, focusing on historical aspects of its creation, its pedagogy and teaching program. A show produced by the EPJD in 1951, La nuit du volador [The night of the flying], will also be considered. From a critical analysis of this spectacle, it is possible to draw some reflections.

Lastly, some hypotheses about the closure of the school, recognizing its importance beyond France, will be presented.

This study was elaborated through documentary and bibliographical research, and integrates my doctoral²⁷ research, and its content was revised for this publication.

Jean-Marie Conty: sportsman and engineer

Jean-Marie Conty (1904-1999) was the major responsible for the establishment of the EPJD. According to the researcher Yves Lorrelle (2007), Conty is one of the people who ended up on the sidelines of the historiography of the French theater, with his contribution not being widely recognized (even biographical information is punctual and scattered).

Son of a diplomat (his father, among other places, was the French Ambassador to Brazil, in 1919), Conty completed his professional training in 1924 (when he was 20 years old) through the Polytechnic School. He joined Aeropostale, in 1927, as one of the pioneer airlines in intercontinental aviation, established shortly after World War I, meeting and becoming friends with aviator and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Antoine..., 2018). Conty worked on the infrastructure of the landings for aviation (Cousin, 2000). He got in charge of Air France missions to Iran, China and the USSR (Antoine..., 2018).

Yves Lorelle (2007) states that Conty held the position of 3^rd Class Sports Inspector during World War II, working at the High Commissioner for Youth.

Conty, like other men who assumed leadership roles in the scope of physical education during the German occupation in the Vichy government, had been, before World War II, an internationally renowned and prominent basketball player.

Conty was the director of the Bagatelle Polo School, an institution that aimed to train physical education instructors to work with youth in youth-supporting centers and activities during the German Nazi Occupation in France, under the Vichy Regime (1940-1944).

Among the activities proposed as a complement to the training of the physical education instructors in Bagattelle, Conty promoted occasional theatrical activities, such as experiences, workshops and conferences, aiming to expand the training, with the collaboration of artists like his friend Jean-Louis Barrault (1910-1994).

Following the Liberation of France, in 1944, Conty, at age 40, obtained another position in the government as Inspector General for Youth and Sports (Cousin, 2000).

An Ideal in Two Times: Young France and TEC

The founding of the EPJD did not happen as an isolated event, but, instead, in the flow of an artistic and educational movement that had begun years earlier. In general, it is possible to indicate two more closely related instances, considering the early years of the 1940s: the period of World War II, when France was occupied by Germany (1940 to 1944), and the initial phase of Liberation (1944 and following years).

According to the researcher Véronique Chabrol (1974), the Young France Association [Association Jeune France] was founded in October 1940, under the Vichy Regime, and was dissolved in March 1942, lasting only about 17 months. It emerged on the initiative of people who identified with the Resistance and wished to renew culture and art at all levels through seven artistic sections: theater; music and dance; visual arts; literature; architecture; popular arts and crafts; radio and cinema. It promoted conferences, shows, publications, exhibitions, showss and artistic training, especially targeting a young and popular audience. This privately owned association was linked and maintained with government resources under the tutelage of the State Secretariat for National Education and Youth, which made it the target of criticism for some ideological ambiguity: it was against the government, but it was maintained by it - which, eventually, led it to its closure in 1942 (Added, 1992).

The Young France played an intense role during its existence, promoting actions in both the free and the occupied zones, animating, controlling and supervising practically everything that was artistically done outside of Paris, organizing and installing various artistic services. It was an attempt to nationally organize the artistic life in Paris as well as in the interior, circulating production in a decentralizing spirit, including even small villages (Gontard, 1973). It played an important role for many artists to find financial resources, grants and means of work during this period.

It also had as objective of action to animate celebrations of commemorative dates, to organize presentations for large audiences, in general outdoors (a practice already done in previous years by the Copiaus²⁸, by Léon Chancerel in the scout context, among others), to participate in political events that mobilized thousands of people, not as a political message vector, but as an attractive and artistic animation.

The Young France had, thus, a formative and educational role with the aims of remaking culture. Its actions corresponded, therefore, to the aid to the creation, to the educational formation and to the diffusion/animation. Theater was art privileged within the Young France, which was based on the spirit of Jacques Copeau and the heritage of the Cartel²⁹. In the occupied zone, the theater was under the direction of Jean Vilar. Jean Dasté also participated in this project³⁰.

The Work and Culture Association [Association Travail et Culture] (TEC) was founded in September 1944. It brought together quite diverse cultural personalities who met during the occupation and shared ideas about popular education and artistic experiences under the impulse of Young France (Lorelle, 2007; Robinson, 1990).

The TEC had a school and a cooperative of spectators aiming to give access to art (being the theatrical field that effectively prevailed). It offered tickets at popular prices, promoted lectures and various art workshops (Scheffler, 2013).

In parallel with his professional government activity, Conty collaborated with the creation and administration of the TEC along with other leaders from different institutions involved in actions directed towards youth, industry works, education and popular cultures.

At the TEC, Charles Dullin acted with the artistic committee, being a key figure, as researcher Francine Galliard-Risler (1998, p. 157) pointed out:

The TEC is made up of groups of all ages, having prepared for four years in Resistance and Occupation. They did intense work imagining recovery projects in the Culture and Youth plan. [...] It was in Liberation that, from Charles Dullin’s teaching, came the idea of the Cooperatives of shows³¹.

The TEC’s main theatrical reference came from Dullin and his disciples who attended the courses taught.

In February 1946 (eighteen months after its founding), a major crisis set in at the TEC. In addition to a significant reduction in financial resources, a conflict broke out over Conty, accused of collaborating with the Vichy regime³². In May of that year, four members of the TEC steering committee were dismissed, including Jean-Marie Conty (Lorelle, 2007). From this crisis, a closer relationship was established by the TEC with the General Confederation of Labor (GCL), aimed at “[...] securing a permanent clientele for spectator cooperatives” (Galliard-Risler, 1998, p. 159). The GCL, according to Lorelle (2007), was reducing the TEC to a union box office and to varied schedules, abandoning the night art courses and the art conferences, gradually diluting the initial work model.

At that same month of the dismissals, May 1946, Conty started a new theater teaching project: Education for the Dramatic Play (EPJD), virtually passing without interruption from the TEC to the EPJD³³.

Jacques Lecoq and his Relationship with Jean-Marie Conty and the EPJD

It was at the Bagattelle Polo School that Jacques Lecoq (1921-1999) was trained as a physical education instructor and met Jean-Marie Conty. Lecoq’s training took place from 1941 and in the following years³⁴ (Lecoq, 2016).

Lecoq was also a student at the TEC in the Liberation between late 1944 and early 1945, following an invitation from Conty (Cousin, 2000), attending Claude Martin’s theater improvisation and Jean Serry’s expressive dance courses (Lecoq, 2010).

From the TEC, Lecoq followed with a group formed there performing large popular performances in different cities of the French countryside with the group St. John’s Companions [Les Compagnons de la Saint-Jean] (in the first half of 1945), a group directed by Jean Serry (a proposal that refers us to the great actions carried out by Young France a few years earlier).

This group was invited by Jean Dasté to join the company The Actors of Grenoble, coordinated by him, in the city of Grenoble. Both initiatives were motivated by a desire to decentralize theater beyond Paris. Jacques Lecoq’s entry into this company marked the beginning of his professional career in the theater, establishing a certain affiliation with the tradition of Jacques Copeau (Dasté’s master and father-in-law). This experience, lived between 1945 and 1947, was an important basis for Lecoq’s theatrical formation (Lecoq, 2010).

The EPJD was over a year of existence when, in June 1947, Dasté decided to leave Grenoble with his troupe to settle in the city of Saint-Étienne in August-September. However, not all Dasté actors followed along: “[...] at this moment, Lecoq, at Conty’s request, also leaves Paris to teach the movement in the EPDJ” (Cousin, 2000).

Jacques Lecoq reported that, upon returning from Grenoble to Paris, he began teaching at the EPJD, where he taught actor’s body expression, “of this actor discovered in Grenoble” (Lecoq, 1987, p. 109). According to Lecoq (1987, p. 109), “[...] in France, it was a new school whose ambition was to ‘make people alive’ [‘faire des vivants’], as a book that was published at the time recalled. It was a place of exchange”³⁵.

It is possible to point out several qualifications that made Lecoq an interesting candidate to be a teacher at the EPJD: his training as a physical education and physical therapy instructor, his experience with young people in Youth Centers during the war, his theatrical training in both the TEC and Copeau’s descent via Dasté, and his decentralized practical experience linked to the popular milieu. By inviting him to teach, Conty recognized him with a status other than a student, such as their old relationship. Conty and Lecoq had known each other for about five years and he had followed (though not always directly) all the stages of young Lecoq and seen his maturity.

Looking closely at the chronology, it is clear that Lecoq’s passage as a teacher at the EPJD was brief, corresponding to six or seven months. He returned from Grenoble to Paris in July 1947 and in September began teaching at the EPJD: “two hours a week, at first, then three hours, plus a night course” (Lecoq, 2016, p. 90), being a professor there until March 1948. He also took over some classes at the TEC.

In October 1948, Lecoq left for Italy, where he worked at the Padua University Theater (Lecoq, 2016).

Of the EPJD Studies and Records

Lecoq was quite brief in referring to the EPJD; but his mention is one of the testimonies of recognition of the relevance of this institution, which, as Lorelle (2007) pointed out, does not figure in the studies on the history of the French theater with amplitude. References are few and punctual, as are the mentions of Jean-Louis Barrault (2010) and Mignon (1999). Furthermore, Georges Bilbille (2003), who for many years ran the House for All on Mouffetard Street [Maison pour tous de la rue Mouffetard], a House of Youth and Culture, witnessed his experience at the Bagatelle School and the EPJD.

Yves Lorelle (2007) sought to acknowledge the existence of the EPJD by developing a study on the subject (chapter Utopie oubliée: L’EPJD de Jean-Marie Conty’s [Forgotten Utopia: Jean-Marie Conty’s EPJD], 2007), using quite varied³⁶ sources that were fundamental indications for the present research. In short, the EPJD is mentioned in the French theatrical bibliography, but always very briefly, without really making the project known.

In addition to Lorelle, researchers Jacqueline Robinson (1990) and Christiane Page (2010) make a brief presentation of the EPJD, based on the document entitled Aperçu sur le but, les méthodes, le fonctionnement de la Société Coopérative ‘Education par le jeu dramatique’ [General presentation of the purpose, methods, and functioning of the Cooperative Society ‘Education for the Dramatic Play’]³⁷.

This document is actually composed of four texts by different authors:

- Extraits de la Présentation à la Conférence-Démonstration du 12 février 1947 au Studio Pelouze [Excerpts from the February 12, 1947 conference-demonstration presentation at Studio Pelouze], a text signed by Pauly³⁸;

• D’une école [Of a School], by Pierre Mauduit;

• La section ‘Educateurs’ dans l’EPJD, [The ‘Educators’ section at the EPJD], by Marie-Cécile Gélinier;

• Activités de l’EPJD durant l’année 1946-1947 [The EPJD’s Activities during the year of 1946-1947], part composed of some topics.

Considering information from these four texts, it can be deduced that this compilation was made at the end of the first semester of 1947, the end of the first school year of the EPJD (1946-1947).

Also, in 1947, Conty published articles in two journals: Chroniques Intempestives (referred to as the ‘book’ Faire des Vivantes: Éducation Par le Jeu Dramatique)³⁹ and in the magazine La Maison des Jeunes [The House of Youth]⁴⁰. The theoretical foundation was exposed through conceptual and technical principles and also included the description of exercises.

The Creation of the EPJD

The creation of the Education for the Dramatic Play Cooperative Society, in May 1946, was driven by Jean-Marie Conty and his partner, actress Mytho Bourgoin⁴¹. It included six theatrical directors: Jean-Louis Barrault, Roger Blin, André Clavé, Marie-Hélène Dasté, Claude Martin and Jean Vilar (Robinson, 1990)⁴². All of them (perhaps with the exception of Vilar) had already crossed Lecoq’s path in the previous years.

Jean Vilar’s relationship with the EPJD is unclear, for in no other reference have I found his name associated other than Pauly’s conference. Lorelle (2003), based on documentation, stated that Conty invited Vilar and that he accepted, although he was not present at the opening meeting. In the program of the show La nuit du volador⁴³, of 1951 (close the end of the school’s existence), Vilar’s name is not present as one of the founding directors, only Barrault, Blin, Clavé, M.-H. Dasté and Martin’s. It is also unclear the type of involvement of Marie-Hélène and Barrault, since, according to the documents found so far, they have not had a constant presence in the EPJD. They probably gave occasional lessons and supported the initiative, unlike Blin, Clavé and Martin, who were also more regular teachers.

As Lorelle (2007) and Page (2010) have also noted, most of these six directors who composed the founding society of the EPJD, as well as most of the past teachers, were former students trained by Charles Dullin, and who, therefore, shared the same pedagogical, technical and artistic principles. There is, to some extent, as researcher Irène Dupret-Jargot (2009) points out, in her research on the influences and inheritance left by Dullin, a certain pedagogical link between the EPJD and Dullin’s Atelier school, even if unofficial. According to her, Jean-Marie Conty called only Dullin former students to teach improvisation, because that was the reference that Conty was interested in, so that the EPJD ended up spreading Dullin’s techniques in this field.

Pauly defined the Education for Dramatic Play Cooperative Society as “[...] not the result of intellectual theories, but the result of tested and approved experiences with young workers by men of the theater mostly impregnated by the ideas of Copeau and Dullin, and by educators, having a solid knowledge of men and youth” (Pauly, 2010, p. 267). He thus pointed to two origins, one theatrical and the other educational: concern for youth, the working class, and education; and Copeau and Dullin’s revamping pedagogical ideas in the theater.

The interest in the popular class continued after the TEC, and the objective of the EPJD was also to educate Popular Culture educators/instructors. Jacqueline Robinson (1990) pointed out that most of the people who were linked to the EPJD had already been associated with the TEC, and, therefore, had a certain popular culture ideology.

Christiane Page (2010) points out that the thinking surrounding the TEC and the EPJD consisted of openness and inclusion, which aimed to enable all people, even the economically disadvantaged (such as young workers and students), access to quality artistic expression and, especially, the theatrical. This mindset, in my view, is very close to that of the great Theatrical Decentralization movement in France, in which the desire was to enable the geographically disadvantaged (i.e., those who lived far from the capital Paris) access to quality theater, regardless of where they lived.

This Pauly conference, dated of February 1947, was held at a time when The Actors of Grenoble group, a first movement of what came to be known as Theatrical Decentralization in France (Gontard, 1973), was in full flow of operation, for about a year and a half (although the initiative was not yet officially supported by the French government). The Decentralization was consolidating itself in the promotion of the Young Companies Competition which had its first edition at that time and the first official Dramatic Center was being installed in the city of Colmar.

It was tied to this spirit that the EPJD intended to contribute, as Pauly stated: “The purpose of the EPJD is to train young actors in general and, especially, for the province, in order to foster theatrical decentralization” (2010, p. 268).

Of the Pedagogy and the Teaching Program at the EPJD

Yves Lorelle argued that there is a double paternity of the EPJD: in addition to Conty, actor and director Jean-Louis Barrault. Partnerships between them have been frequent for, at least, the decade prior to the establishment of the EPJD (since 1935). Lorelle pointed out that declarations of mutual collaboration can be found from both⁴⁴.

Lorelle, however, developed a somewhat fragile argument, in my view, arguing that, prior to the society that created the EPJD, in May 1946, there had been, around 1941-1942, a first version of the EPJD (Lorelle, 2007). He used various fragments of information, especially the statements by Barrault (1972) and Roger Blin (Peskine, 1986). Reviewing the information in these sources, it can be assumed that the temporal distance between the facts and the reports leaves room for inaccuracy (or confusion) of these memories; and it is upon them that Lorelle seeks to substantiate a point of view. It is undeniable that there are initiatives and practices of a very close nature to the EPJD led by Conty in collaboration with Barrault, in the early years of the German Occupation (1941 and 1942), but I do not believe that it is justified to defend these initiatives as a “first version” of the EPJD.

Francine Galliard-Risler, who interviewed Conty in December 1985, made a brief statement that I believe to be more precise and which elucidates Lorelle’s confusion: “During the war, he [Conty] had appealed to a large number of actors, trained by Dullin, to conduct dramatic improvisation courses at Youth Centers” (Galliard-Risler, 1998, p. 160). These centers were the main environments for which the Bagatelle Polo School formed its physical education instructors.

In the same interview with Galliard-Risler, Conty (1998, p. 161) stated:

Jean-Louis Barrault’s project, which I have known since Autour d’une mère [1935], his first show, was to establish a method of education based on improvisation. After the war, it was natural to assemble a certain number of theater men in order to extend the work undertaken. [...] The School [EPJD] comprised two groups of students: those, the most numerous, who aspired to the theater, and those who wanted to become educators.

In the text signed by Marie-Cécile Gélinier (2010), La section ‘éducateurs’ dans l’EPJD, from the Aperçu... compilation, we can find some information about the project of training of artists-educators. The EPJD’s proposal in this sense was to fill a national gap in the training of educators able to handle the different techniques of expression. What can be observed is that, although the EPJD had a marked connection with the dramatic play, Gélinier’s text does not refer to the training of theater teachers, but to the training of educators in general: “The EPJD seeks to remedy this deficiency and begins a training for educators outlining what could or should be done in a NORMAL SCHOOL of POPULAR CULTURE” (Gélinier, 2010, p. 274, emphasis in the original).

Gélinier (2010) reported that this training was organized in three stages carried out over a period of two years, primarily corresponding to a personal formation of exploration, discovery and self-knowledge, followed by a process of knowledge of the demands of this profession (psychology, pedagogy) and vocation verification⁴⁵. The third stage, developed in the second year, corresponded to technical training with possibilities for artistic specialization, practical work in internships in education organizations with young offenders, kindergarten and intellectual works of readings, abstracts and researches in libraries.

The starting point in all training processes for physical education instructors in Bagatelle and in the TEC courses was always the personal work of exploration, discovery and self-knowledge, a process regarded as a prerogative for the educational renewal movements linked to the éducation nouvelle (known in Brazil as New School or Active School). Pedagogically, the New School has influenced the thinking and practices of Jacques Copeau, Charles Dullin, and Jean-Marie Conty, as well as in the EPJD (Scheffler, 2013).

Pauly highlighted this great EPJD guideline: “It is, first and foremost, an education of sensitivity for improvisation” (2010, p. 267). Based on the idea that “each one carries with him numerous possibilities that life represses”, and challenging an education directed mainly to intelligence, Pauly argued that:

It is necessary to rediscover this natural sensitivity, then to refine it, to guide it: it is a School of sincerity, of truth, necessary not only for future actors but also for future educators, whoever they may be, because it gives each one the possibility of being themselves, and ‘the actor of their own life’ (2010, p. 267).

Marie-Cécile Gélinier (2010, p. 273) recognizes the importance of the work that the EPJD proposed in the training of educators: “While the New School takes an ever greater place in expression in all its forms, there is currently no specialized school or body in France, seriously preparing educators to be able to handle the different expression techniques”.

The confirmation that the New School was at the foundation and in the agenda of the EPJD also appears in Faire des vivants, when Conty stated that “[...] the fundamental principle of the best New School methods tends precisely to make the child evolve very progressively from concrete to abstract and from global to analytical” (Conty, 1947, p. 92).

Yves Lorelle (2007) argues that the choice of the dramatic play name was driven by the desire for renewal and of distinguishing it from the leisure or literary theater and that the influence of Gordon Craig and Jacques Copeau is visible in this matter. He also stated that the school took Artaud as a base by putting body techniques in the foreground.

These opinions seem reasonable, but, as I read Conty’s writings (1947), it seems clear that the basis of the dramatic play rests on the precepts of the New School. It is not only the theater, but the pedagogical thinking that determines this teaching methodology that was proposed by Copeau at the Old Dovecote Theater School [Vieux-Colombier] and which Charles Dullin (1946) had been practicing since the 1920s.

The improvisation or dramatic play has a keen sense for the principles propagated by the New School in which action and play were pointed out as the best ways to educate and form human beings. At the TEC, the courses that stood out were the ones of dramatic play. At the EPJD, they were assumed with significant importance, given the name attributed to the venture.

Pauly listed elements of the program offered by the EPJD that resemble several proposals defended by the New School, such as the inclusion of the practice of singing, gymnastics, dance and relaxation, activities that would contribute to the education of sensitivity. Pauly (2010) also mentioned that teaching was complemented by theater history, text analysis, psychology classes and varied conferences on theater, film, music, painting, medicine, among others, to offer a broad culture, having, in that way, a close profile to Dullin’s Atelier school and Copeau’s Old Dovecote Theater.

The reference to the Old Dovecote Theater School, founded by Copeau, in Paris, in the early 1920s, was evidenced in the text D’une école, signed by Pierre Mauduit (2010), in the document Aperçu…. The author evoked Copeau’s experience and values, reflecting on the model and principles of the doctrine (as he refers) defended for actor training: the need to tackle puerile and petty pretension and exhibitionism; the need for a broad theatrical renewal that meant discussing even the role of the actor, going beyond vocational training, to a re-education on the human plane. “The great mistake of a School would be to direct its effort only in the field of aesthetic research. If there isn’t, in the base, no flame of a new ethic, no renewal of value can be pursued or even attempted” (Mauduit, 2010, p. 270).

This text by Pierre Mauduit is characterized as a reflection, but it does not mention the EPJD, and may have been a conference or an article revealing the values that the EPJD would take as a reference for the Copeau Old Dovecote School and was, therefore, part of the compilation.

By listing some subjects and their teachers, it is possible to better visualize the directions of teaching. The length of permanence of each teacher in the EPJD must have been quite varied. From different sources, you can identify as teachers in EPJD:

• Ludolf Schild [in the field of dance] (Robinson, 1990);

• Jean Serry [in the field of dance] (Bordier, 1987);

• Jacqueline Levant⁴⁶, with a course of expressive dance (Lorelle, 2007);

• Jacqueline Robinson (a former student and then dance teacher) (Robinson, 1990);

• Jacques Dufilho, with a course of sensory improvisation (Lorelle, 2007);

• Marcel Marceau, with mime (Flach, 2010);

• Régis Outin, with scene technique (Lorelle, 2007);

• Edmond Beauchamp and Alain Cuny, with interpretation (Lorelle, 2007);

• Yves Brainville and René Lafforgue⁴⁷, with singing (Lorelle, 2007);

• André Bazin, with cinema (Lorelle, 2007);

• Disciples of the Martenot Method working relaxation (Lorelle, 2007);

• Paoli (or Pauli), yoga master⁴⁸ (Lorelle, 2007);

• Thérése Palau, with folk dance (Lorelle, 2007);

• Mytho Bourgoin, with improvisation (Lorelle, 2007) - theme also directed by other people;

• Jacques Lecoq, with a course of gymnastics and acrobatics (Flach, 2010) / body expression (Lecoq, 1987).

Among these, a few can be appointed with former passages at, at least, the TEC: Blin, Clavé, Barrault, Martin (founding members of the EPJD), Schild, Serry, Cuny, Marceau, as professors at the TEC and the EPJD.

Marise Flach, teacher at the Piccolo Theater School in Milan for over 50 years, talking about EPJD, helps to visualize the context:

I attended the EPJD theater school in Paris, where Jacques Lecoq taught Movement. More precisely, he taught gymnastics and acrobatics. Marcel Marceau taught mime. There were also dance classes. It was really a good school, which left a lot of openness to the students. That was around 1948. The main reference of the school was the teaching of Jacques Copeau. We did a lot of improvisation-based exercises. And, at one point, Marie-Hélène Dasté came to teach some classes at the school (Flach, 2010, p. 294).

The Brazilian Maria Clara Machado, when reporting her experience as an EPJD student in 1949, also listed as disciplines she studied: relax, improvisation, text, voice projection, dance, physical education, singing, theater history and theater psychology (Machado, 1991).

In the program of the show La nuit du volador, presented at the Old Dovecote Theater, in 1951, one can identify, at least at that moment, the weekly program that was announced for the training of professional actors (lasting two years):

• - Dramatic play (6h);

• - Studies of scenes, poems (4h to 8h);

• - Voice placement (1h30);

• - Body education and mime (2h30);

• - Relaxation (1h);

• - Expression dance (2h);

• - Theater decoration (1h30);

• - History of the theater and texts (3h).

The program also informs that the classes took place in the mornings, from 9 AM to half past noon and Mondays in the afternoon, from 2:30to 5:00 PM, and that the afternoons occasionally were devoted to rehearsals of the three shows assembled each year with the students of the school (20-30 representations). It also informs about the evening classes, from Monday to Friday, from * to 10 PM, from October to the end of June, and that the educator courses took place from the 1^st to the 30^th of September.

According to researcher Yves Lorelle (2007), in 1946 the EPJD had about 100 students and, in the following years, around 60 to 70. He also stated that the training of educators started to happen in different ways, through intensive courses in September or evening courses, among other ways. For him, these changes were due to financial problems and lack of official interest.

The researcher also believes that it is impossible to find nowadays complete documentation about the EPJD activities that were developed in the almost six years of its existence.

The Night of the Flying - the theater of movement

In the archives of the National Library of France, in the Performing Arts department, there are some texts from newspapers published in Paris, in November 1951, regarding the presentation of the play La nuit du volador [The Night of the Flying], at the Old Dovecote Theater⁴⁹. One of the texts (from November 19^th) announced the premiere of the show, which took place on November 21^st; the other eleven are theatrical criticisms of this show of the Les vivants [The living] company.

The story of the play La nuit du volador, written by Jean-Maria Conty, takes place in Mexico, involving an aviator in contact with an indigenous culture. At first glance, this may draw us back to his aviation experience - and even to Saint-Exupéry, often referred as his aviation friend, who became a renowned novelist and poet involving the aviation theme in his work, as in Night Flight (1931) and The Little Prince (1943).

In the program of La nuit du volador there is a presentation text written by Jean-Louis Barrault. In it, he recalled the play Os Cenci, whose first reading of this important text by Antonin Artaud was held, in 1935, at Conty’s house, where, among other people, the three were present. Barrault mentioned but did not explicitly state a relationship between the texts.

Artaud, who visited Mexico and had experiences with the Tarahumaras Indians, in 1936 (publishing about it in 1945), stayed at Conty’s house upon his return from this trip. Conty stowed for several years a suitcase filled with around 70 manuscripts written by Artaud when he was admitted to the Rodez sanatorium. Later, this material was published by the Gallimard Publishing House in Artaud’s Complete Works (Lorelle, 2007). Lorelle pointed out some more information that demonstrates a close relationship between Conty and Artaud. A further study could help to understand to what extent Conty’s thinking may have been influenced by Artaudian proposals.

Criticism to the show La nuit du volador was harsh against Conty’s theatrical text, claiming to be confusing, with scattered themes, having bad dialogues, among many other very negative qualifications. The direction of Edmond Beauchamp (a former student of Dullin and professor at the EPJD), the costumes, set design and make-up got some positive recognition, but always in quick mention, because the criticism was concentrated and developed on the unanimously criticized dramaturgy, as well as the interpretation of the amateur actors.

Several of these journalistic stories, when presenting Conty, related him to aviation and the world of sport, and as a friend of Barrault and Artaud (identical to the way Lecoq (2010) and Gabriel Cousin (2000) referred to him). Only one of the twelve texts referred to the fact that amateur actors belonged to a theater school, but even so the name of the EPJD never appeared. This fact is curious, since several criticisms allude to the program of the play and, in the program, according to the reproduction published by Lorelle (2007), there is information about the EPJD⁵⁰.

Some lack of knowledge seems widespread: “Jean-Marie Conky [sic], creator of this ‘Company of the Living’, in a staging by Beauchamp and set design by José Charlet, is also the sympathetic animator of a youth school and the theorist of a ‘Theater of movement’”(Gandrey-Rety, 1951). The criticisms have not shown knowledge of Conty (in the latter even the name is spelled wrong more than once) nor his involvement with the theater - perhaps because his actual actions had been more related to a socio-educational context of young people. The critics do not seem to know the work of the EPJD either, even after five years of its existence, and involvement of prominent personalities from the theater scene of the time.

Critic Gandrey-Rety referred to Conty as the theorist of a "Theater of Motion." Probably, the term was taken from the show’s program, which also contained a justification for the group’s name:

If the Company ‘THE LIVING’ [Les vivants] chose The night of the flying show, it’s because its animators love this theater of movement in which today’s man struggles, body and soul, to live in a Society that surrounds him completely. The living, we believe in the expression of the whole man. And not bent over his despair, from which he rips off well-finished sentences with great skill, but, standing upright, by this same despair or some beautiful ingenuity.

For, The living, we are a little naive, passionate about images, with a quick hammering or the air of our screams in order to hunt down death, that is, the enemy. [...]

The man disguises himself, but we well know how to recognize under the Indian, the worker or the legendary prince, which makes the man alive.

And the love of life does not exclude purity (apud Lorelle, 2007, p. XV).

What could this theater of motion have consisted of? Criticisms talked about the lack of rhythm of the scenes, the lack of expressiveness of the students, a lack of movement and long boring dialogues. But between the theater of movement and the theater of gesture (a term that Lecoq used for the book published in 1987), is a lineage that sought other theatrical models, starting with the conquest of spontaneity and body expressiveness.

Barrault, in the program of the play La nuit..., presented the show referring to it as a théâtre d’essai (“theater of rehearsal” or “theater of test”), alluding to the “test pilot” [pilote d ‘essai] and Conty’s relationship to aviation and the risks it means to run. Barrault announced the “testing of a new model” of theater.

La nuit du volador can also be pointed as a theatrical experiment that sought in the primitive man a reference. The presentation text of the program refers to these clashes, of civilized and primitive man, perpetuating the search for lost human elements that need to be found - so that the “Indian or the worker” can recognize what makes them alive (as expressed in the program text). And this easily remits us to Artaud (1993).

The Closing of the School

Did these pitiless criticisms of La Nuit du Volador influence the closing of the EPJD less than a year later, and cause Jean-Marie Conty’s removal from the theater? I found no other reference to Conty’s involvement in some form of theater training or an artistic practice after 1952, after the closing of the EPJD. Later, he worked in the field of business management training and in publishing books for this audience.

For researchers Yves Lorelle (2007) and Christiane Page (2010), the closing of the EPJD was due to financial issues. Page states that the EPJD’s low prices did not allow teachers to be paid solely for this purpose, which required them to have other occupations. However, analyzing the information obtained, it does not appear that the EPJD had a real demand to keep so many teachers exclusively for themselves. Many teachers were also artists. These courses in the EPJD are more likely to be a parallel simultaneous activity rather than the main occupation for most teachers. However, according to Page, the low prices practiced by social and educational convictions did not supply the EPJD expenses and, added to this, the absence of public subsidy eventually led to the EPJD closing in 1952.

An International School and Influences

The EPJD was also an international school. Among its former students were, coming from Italy, Gianfranco De Bosio and Lieta Papafava, who attended the EPJD between 1947 and 1948 (Freixe, 2010). Upon returning from the EPJD to Padua, Italy, they worked on founding a school, in 1948: the Padua University Theater. It was there that Jacques Lecoq also directed and collaborated.

According to researcher Claudio Meldolesi (1984), in the Fondamenti del teatro italiano: la generazione dei registi [Foundations of the Italian theater: the generation of directors], this school presented itself as “the only representative in Italy of the Éducation par le Jeu Dramatique”.

The EPJD also had some influence at the Piccolo Teatro Milan School (founded in 1951), in Italy, through Lecoq’s participation in its founding. Giorgio Strehler and Paolo Grassi founded the Piccolo Theater in Milan, in 1947, shortly after the war.

In 1951, Strehler decided to attach a school to the Piccolo Theater, and invites Lecoq, about whom he had heard good references, and who represents a bond of affiliation with the one he already considers as his master, Jacques Copeau. He makes him come to Milan, associates him with the conception of the school [...]. Strehler knows that the new theater he wants to emerge involves styling the scene’s language and the actor’s body precision (Freixe, 2010, p. 166).

After two years at the Piccolo, Lecoq left the school and was succeeded by Marise Flach, a former EPJD student⁵¹.

From Brazil, it is essential to remember Maria Clara Machado, founder of the Theater and of the school O Tablado in Rio de Janeiro, in 1951. In her book Maria Clara Machado: eu e o teatro [Maria Clara Machado: me and the theater] (1991), several letters exchanged between her and her family are gathered. Part of this correspondence concerns the one-year period she lived in Paris and studied at the EPJD, in the year of 1949. She defined the EPJD as a course founded by Barrault, stating that he no longer taught there, only his actors, and added: “They say it is the most serious and best theater school in Paris” (Machado, 1991, p. 133). The influences of Copeau’s and Dullin’s thoughts and pedagogies can also be recognized in Maria Clara Machado from the texts published in the Cadernos de Teatro [Theater Notebooks] from 1956, edited by O Tablado. Not only these two, but several of their disciples had texts translated from French to Portuguese and published in the magazine⁵².

There is also a reference that states that the Brazilian actress Nathália Timberg, at the beginning of her career, before joining the Brazilian Theater of Comedy (TBC) in São Paulo, studied at the EPJD during her time in Paris, between 1951 and 1954. Timberg arrived at the EPJD on Barrault’s nomination, in December 1951 (Hygino, 2015) - that is, shortly after La nuit du volador - thus participating in the last months of the school’s existence. Both Timberg and Machado would have received grants from the French government.

Final Remarks

This article aimed to know and comprehend the EPJD - Education for the Dramatic Play. Several bibliographic and documentary sources were used, aspects present in Robinson (1990), Lorelle (2007) and Page (2010) were reviewed and deepened, and the themes were also expanded, offering, in this sense, new contributions on the EPJD and related subjects.

In this article, we sought to identify and observe different people and institutions in France that connected in a flow of theatrical and pedagogical renewal. A better understanding of the EPJD is gained through an analysis of the contexts preceding its creation, taking proposals of the Jeune France, the profile of the founder Jean-Marie Conty in his training activities for physical education instructors at the Bagatelle Polo School and the project of the TEC - EPJD’s immediate predecessor.

Considering the sources and researches presented, it is possible to identify four main bases of the EPJD: Copeau (renewal of the actor and his ethics, focus on youth, decentralization of Paris, inclination to the popular, improvisation); Dullin (improvisation and play, development of the senses, learning process through practice and relationship with the world); TEC (socioeconomic and geographic decentralization, youth focus); and New School (global education, learning by reality, spirit of exploration, active methods and games, favoring personal experience) - the latter, in fact, also present in the previous three.

By considering some biographies, it is possible to recognize the close bonds between these contexts, as in the case of Jacques Lecoq and Jacqueline Levant, who had a similar initial background: graduates in Physical Education who were advised by Conty to join the TEC, having then participated in The Companions of St. John, in 1945. As well as in the case of Lafforgue, who also participated in the group The Companions of St. John (probably also at the TEC) and joined, with Lecoq, the company The Actors of Grenoble (Scheffler, 2013).

The initial motivation for this investigation on the EPJD was to understand Lecoq’s trajectory and to verify correspondences between him and the contexts he went through. As seen in this study, its course did not occur in watertight opportunities, but in an intertwined flow, fueled by pedagogical and artistic ideals of democratization and human and creative development.

Although Lecoq may have spent a few months as a teacher at the EPJD, these values overcame this school and involved other environments through which he traveled in his formative years and professional beginnings. Also, in Lecoquian pedagogy it is possible to recognize this aspiration for human development and the incentive for new artistic expressions.

The pedagogical similarities of teaching programs aimed at a theater of movement and the creative freedom of the actor marked all the contexts in which Lecoq was involved in his teaching career. From the EPJD, Lecoq continued to collaborate in the creation of two Italian schools: the Padua University Theater course (from 1948), then at the Piccolo Teatro Milan (from 1951). Finally, he founded his own school in Paris in 1956.

It is possible to recognize that the EPJD is part of a lineage of schools such as Copeau’s Old Dovecote Theater (even shorter in life: from 1920 to 1924 - but of immense repercussions) and Dullin’s Atelier (created in 1921).

Nevertheless, it is possible to establish EPJD connections with other schools currently in operation, such as those pedagogically linked to Lecoq’s: Berty Tovías International Theater School (Spain), Lassaad Saïdi International Theater School (Belgium), Philippe Gaulier School (England and currently France), Arsenale Theater School (Italy), among others.

It is also important to highlight the direct connection of the EPJD with Brazil, especially by Maria Clara Machado in her pedagogical and editorial contribution, by bringing assumptions for the formation and theatrical thinking based on the principles of the renovation of the French theater of the first half of the twentieth century.

The interest of the EPJD in teacher training is also highlighted. This aspect resonates with Lecoq’s proposals, being one of the trainings of his school, although, at first, focused on theater formation.

With regard to Lecoq, finally, although Copeau’s influence seems to be more directly recognized, the present study highlights the importance and influence of Dullin’s pedagogy and the foundations of the New School in his formation and teaching, being Conty an essential mediator in this process.

It is still worth mentioning in this research the use of the term theater of movement, when the documents about the show La nuit du volador, of 1952, were analyzed. The interest for a theater based on body expressiveness that did not intend to abdicate the spoken text was evidenced, glimpsing that Conty had influences from Artaud as well as Barrault. If the test-show of Conty and Beaucousin has failed or been successful, it is more important to recognize it as a predecessor of what many have, nowadays, widely called as physical theater.

Perhaps because he did not come from the theatrical milieu and did not end his days there, Conty was not given significant credit among theater researchers in France. Conty’s other later references are the books published by Édition d’Organisation, which was devoted to the literature dedicated to business administration. Between 1959 and 1975, Conty published: Manuel pour les cadres d’entreprises. Psychologie de la décision [Manual for the business executives. Psychology of the decision.] (1959); Sport and formation de l’esprit, modèles de décisions pour les cadres [Sport and the formation of the spirit, decision models for executive boards] (1968); Dynamique de la décision [Dynamics of decision] (1973); Améliorer votre forme physique et intellectuelle [Improve your physical and intellectual form] (1975).

In Manuel pour les cadres d’entreprises. Psychologie de la décision (1959), published about seven years after the end of the EPJD, Conty was introduced as a member of the Council on Industrial Psychology and a former student of the Polytechnic School. The book focuses on the management of people in companies and discusses the problem of administrative decision making, exposing a method, reporting on the author’s experiences and reflections.

In Sport and formation de l’esprit, decisions pour les cadres (1968), Conty was introduced as a former international basketball player and a pioneer at the Aeropostale before specializing in training issues, working in professional boards of the industry. His experience as an athlete has been used to demonstrate that the sporting universe can help to propel a large number of fundamental relationships, that can be transferred to other instances, such as business. In none of these books, however, Conty’s experience with theater was mentioned as a significant part of his career.

A research with such a focus has yet to be done, to understand why the EPJD and Conty have been on the sidelines of French theatrical studies for so many decades. Lorrelle has already tried to understand this issue, but it is something that is not yet fully enlightened.

Referências

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• 1
  Scheffler (2013). Advisor: Prof. PhD. José Ronaldo Faleiro. Support: PSDE/CAPES sandwich grant.
• 2
  In 1924, Copeau retreated with a group of 35 people, including actors and students from the Old Dovecote Theater [Vieux-Colombier] and their families to a property in the Burgundy region. The project lasted only a few months, but a group remained working in the region until 1929. Among them was Jean Dasté. The term Copiaus is the result of a wordplay: it reveals the affiliation to Copeau and is also a reference to a grape grown in the region.
• 3
  The Cartel corresponded to an artistic association of four directors: Louis Jouvet, Charles Dullin, Gaston Baty and Georges Pitoëff, from 1927 to 1939. Based on professional esteem and mutual respect, they shared a desire to promote a renovation of the theater inspired by the experiences of the Old Dovecote Theater, in a critical position to the commercial theater.
• 4
  For a more detailed look at Jeune France, see Véronique Chabrol’s extensive study (1974); see also Added (1992, p. 203-225); and Gontard (1973, p. 120-127).
• 5
  T. N.: All quotes from French language were translated from the Portuguese translations by the article’s author.
• 6
  Yves Lorelle devotes some attention to this issue, seeking to understand the situation and advocating for Conty. Addressing the controversy, Lorelle even mentioned some aspects recalled by Conty at the end of his life to highlight the impact such a situation had on Conty himself. See Lorelle (2007), pages 141-146 and 174-177.
• 7
  For a deeper look at the TEC, see Scheffler (2013).
• 8
  Due to the war, accelerated training was needed to meet the demands. Thousands of young people were unemployed because of the war and urban and rural youth centers were created. Physical education gained much importance in occupied France. According to Patrick Lecoq (2016), Jacques Lecoq held a training course as a physical education instructor by the Natural Method of Georges Hébert in Bagatelle, in January 1941, and was sent to work in a rural center in March. In February 1942, there was another three-week course at Bagatelle. According to Marco De Marinis (1993), it was in this year that Lecoq met Conty. In October of the same year, there was a training at the Swimming Federation. In July 1943, a mountaineering course by the Bagatelle School (held in Praz-de-Chamonix). In early 1944, there was training in Hygienic and Sports Massage by the French School of Orthopedics and Massage.
• 9
  The book referred to is, actually, the 3^rd volume of the journal Chroniques intempestives, published by Les Éditions de la Nouvelle France. This 1947 volume features on the cover the following titles: Éducation par le jeu dramatique / Faire des vivants / Chroniques. Inside, the summary and the book were organized in two parts: Faire de Vivants and Chroniques. Lorelle (2007), Robinson (1990) and Page (2010) also refer to the publication as if it were a book.
• 10
  Lorelle (2007) used as sources: the publication Faire des vivants and articles from the magazine La Maison des Jeunes, both from 1947; some documents from the personal archive of Conty’s granddaughter, Valérie Bourgoin-Conty; documents from the archives of the National Library of France and of the Maison Jean Villar in Avignon; EPJD former students’ interviews. For his study on Conty, he also used research on other theater personalities, such as André Clavé (Galliard-Risler, 1998), Roger Blin (Aslan, 1998), Artaud, Barrault, Lecoq and Robinson’s dance dictionary (1990). Another record that seems to be important is the 1995 documentary Carnet de vol, carnet de vie [Logbook, life diary], written by Jean-Pierre Chrétien-Goni (a former student of Conty). The documentary is composed by three parts of interviews with Conty: it discusses work at the Aeropostale; his political relations and his relationship with war; and the discovery of the postwar theater community. Unfortunately, I could not access the documentary.
• 11
  Jacqueline Robinson, a former student and former EPJD teacher, had in her personal files a typed copy of this document. Robinson gave it to Christiane Page, who believes that a copy of this document is not available in other files. Page reproduced it fully in the annexes of his book (pages 267-276), source to which I gained access. When quoting the texts of this document, I will follow the author-date system as if they were chapters of the book of Page, respecting the pagination (from 267 to 276) and not the document pagination (1 to 10).
• 12
  In the National Library of France, in the Arts du Spectacle department, I found another version of the text with the same title (code: 8-RT-3975). It is attached to a letter of invitation signed by Pauly, as Director of the School, to a private section in which the objectives, general training methods and techniques illustrated by presentations by EPJD teachers with their students would be presented. The letter, dated January 30, 1947, is attached to the conference to be given on February 12. Comparing the two versions, we realize that the one from January 30^th includes some paragraphs that were deleted in Robinson’s version, but those do not significantly alter the overall content.
• 13
  There are two texts by Conty: Éducation Par le Jeu Dramatique [Education for the dramatic play] (p. 75-111); Éducation Par les Arts Plastique - Notes recueilles par Éducation par le Jeu Dramatique [Education for the Fine Arts - Notes gathered by Education for the Dramatic Play] (p. 113-147). The other four texts of Faire des Vivants are: Michel Garnier: Dans le sens de la vie [In the sense of life] (p. 9-21); Maurice Martenot: Lumière et décontration [Light and relaxation] (p. 23-37); Maurice Martenot: Exposé de quelques principes d’éducation musicale (Exposition of some principles of music education) (p. 39-72); J.-W. Bas: Éducation et Biologie [Education and biology] (p. 149-201); M.-C. Gélinier: The Mises in the New Age Methods of Education at the Point of Economic and Administrative Action (Putting new economic and administrative methods of education into action) (p. 203-216). In this article, Gélinier discusses issues about popular education and the State, with no mention of the EPJD or specifically about theater teacher education, unlike the text La section ‘Educateurs’ dans l’EPJD, from the document Aperçus... For more information on Gélinier, see Ortigues-Marty (2009).
• 14
  A series of five articles by Conty have been published. Significant part of the first three correspond to Conty’s text published in Chroniques intempestives. The last two texts are exercise suggestions: 1) Sincérité et simulation [Sincerity and simulation]; 2) Entraînement de l'acteur athléte effectif [Training of the Effective Actor Athlete]; 3) Improvisation et psychologie applique [Improvisation and applied psychology]; 4) Création d’un jeu dramatique: ‘La tempête’ [Creating a dramatic play: ‘The storm’]. 5) The fifth publication provides examples of creating improvisations and dramatic plays with indications of themes, texts and movies that could be used. CONTY, Jean-Marie. Le jeu dramatique. La Maison des Jeunes. Cahiers de documentation édités par la Fédération des Maisons des Jeunes: n. 18-19 (February-March 1947); n. 20 (April-May 1947); n. 21-22 (June-July 1947); n. 23-24 (August-September 1947) and n. 25 (October 1947).
• 15
  According to Lorelle (2007, p. 169), she was Conty’s companion. About her, Galliard-Risler (1998, p. 161) stated: "Mitho Bourgoin, who came from the cinema, embodies the spirit of the school devoting herself entirely to improvisation."
• 16
  Lecoq mentioned Alain Cuny as one of the founders. Although Cuny was a professor at EPJD, Lorelle (2007) and Page (2010) present documentation that shows that he was not one of the founding directors.
• 17
  Lorelle published a copy of the program in the annexes of his book (2007), p. XIV and XV.
• 18
  Lorelle relied on the statements made in the books: Sport et formation de l’esprit (Conty, 1968, p. 169) and Souvernirs pour demain (Barrault, 1972, p. 155)
• 19
  The author uses the expression “solidité do goût et du besoin” - “solidity of taste and need”.
• 20
  Jacqueline Levant had an initial training quite similar to that of Lecoq: graduated in Physical Education and advised by Conty to join the TEC, having subsequently participated in the group The Companions of St. John (1945) (Robinson, 1990).
• 21
  Lafforgue also participated with Lecoq in the group The Companions of St. John and in the company The Actors of Grenoble, in the preceding years, from 1945 to 1947.
• 22
  Was it the same person, Pauly, author of the February 12, 1947 conference, and director of the EPJD at the time? I came across three distinct spellings without first names that may correspond to the same person: Paoli, Pauli and Pauly.
• 23
  Rapin (1951); Kemp (1951); Gautier (1951); Gandrey-Rety (1951); Beigbeder (1951); Maulnier (1951); Carlier (1951); D. ,G. (1951); Lebesque (1951); Bergson (1951); La nuit (1951); Estang (1951). BnF: code: 8-SW-2362.
• 24
  I did not get access to the original document. The reproduction available in the attachments of Lorelle (2007) makes it unclear whether the page containing the school information is really part of the program or another pamphlet, but in footnote 22, on page 180, he states that such information is contained in the program.
• 25
  Lecoq remained in school for two years, until 1953. Paolo Grassi then went to Paris to invite Étienne Decroux. For Marise Flach, “[...] they wanted to continue the work on mime. Lecoq had said he would leave; they went to find the most important person as a mime teacher. And after Strehler found in Decroux a direct affiliation with Copeau. Strehler attached much importance to this” (Flach, 2010, p. 295). When Decroux left for Milan, he took with him Marise Flach, the company’s oldest actress at the time (his student since 1949), as an assistant. Decroux worked at the school between 1953 and 1954. When he left Milan, Flach took over as a teacher, continuing Decroux’s work, also using some of Lecoq’s exercises (Flach, 2010, p. 295).
• 26
  The set of magazines can be accessed at: <http://otablado.com.br/cadernos-de-teatro/>. We can identify in the issues 08, 09, 11 and 12 the description of body exercises credited to Jacques Lecoq.
• This original paper, translated by Cia das Traduções and proofread by Ananyr Porto Fajardo, is also published in Portuguese in this issue of the journal.
• Editor-in-charge: Gilberto Icle

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  09 Mar 2020
• Date of issue
  2020

History

• Received
  15 Mar 2019
• Accepted
  29 July 2019