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The Vieux Colombier
The Vieux Colombier | The Vieux Colombier 1920-1924 |
 jacques copeau He began his apprenticeship as the theatre’s general secretary, but his duties expanded to include assisting Louis Jouvet in the Production Department. During this period, he was also cast for several walk-on parts and sometimes worked as Copeau’s assistant director. MSD was intrigued by every aspect of the theatre. Light and sound were as important to him as architecture and scenography or acting techniques. Little by little, he became Copeau’s closest associate while at the same time following the evolution of a new generation of actors studying at the Vieux Colombier School (created in 1921). Copeau’s School provided a broad range of courses such as gymnastics, athletics, fencing, theatre games, dance, singing and music, public readings, poetry recitations, general knowledge, study of classical plays and improvisation. The same courses were to be found later in MSD’s own drama schools.  MSD did not study at Copeau’s school, since he was very busy fulfilling his growing responsibilities at the theatre. He did however take part in the productions of the “apprenticeship group” and, among other plays, directed André Gide’s Amahl ou la Lettre du Roi in 1924.Copeau closed the Vieux Colombier and to dismissed the company on May 15, 1924. The theatre was debt-ridden and Copeau felt defeated. Not only had ceaseless work exhausted him, but three of his major collaborators had defected: Jouvet left in 1922 as did Roger Martin du Gard. Charles Dullin had left two years earlier. MSD also claimed that he needed more time off to write and to devote himself to the training of young students in the quiet of Burgundy. |