Alain-René Lesage
(1668–1747)French playwright and novelist. Lesage went to Paris about 1690, writing comedies adapted from Spanish plays by Rojas and Lope de Vega. His first real successes came in 1707 ...
Alfred Jarry
(1873–1907),French poet and dramatist, whose Ubu-roi is now considered the founder-play of the modern avant-garde theatre. Written when Jarry was 15 years old and first performed in 1888 as ...
Ali Ben Ayed
(1930–72)Tunisian actor, director, and manager who was central to the establishment of modern theatre in the country. In 1962 he was named manager of the Tunisian National Theatre, the ...
André Acquart
(b. Vincennes, Paris, 12 Nov. 1922)Designer. He began designing in Algiers, where he was educated, and in 1951 moved back to Paris, where he became a key figure in ...
Antoine Vitez
(b. Paris, 20 Dec. 1930; d. Paris, 30 April 1990)Actor, director and teacher. A student of Russian and Greek, he became a communist, wrote for Bref, the journal of ...
Antonin Artaud
(1896–1948)French actor, director, and drama theoretician, who originated the theory of the Theatre of Cruelty.Artaud was born in Marseilles and began his career as an actor. He became interested in ...
Armand Gatti
(1924– )French writer and director. Gatti at 17 was deported to a labour camp in Germany; the image of the concentration camp appears in several of his works. An ebullient ...
Arthur Adamov
(1908–1970)Russian-born French dramatist, one of the most prominent exponents of the Theatre of the Absurd.Adamov was born into a wealthy Armenian family in Kislovodsk; at the age of four he moved ...
Avignon Festival
Founded by Jean Vilar in 1947, as part of the decentralizing of French theatre. Vilar, director of the Théâtre National Populaire (1951–63), continued to develop the Festival until his death ...
Bernard Sobel
(1936– )French director. Strongly influenced by the Berliner Ensemble, Sobel's early work included assisting both Benno Besson and Jean Vilar. With Jacques Roussillon, he founded and co-directed the ...
Charles Dullin
(b. Yonne, France, 12 May 1885; d. Paris, 11 Dec. 1949)Actor and director. With Louis Jouvet, Dullin was the most important disciple of Copeau. He appeared at Antoine's theatre ...
Dublin Theatre Festival
Created in 1957, this annual Irish event was fraught with controversy in its early years. Protests and arrests surrounded Alan Simpson's production of Tennessee Williams's The Rose Tattoo at the ...
Gémier Firmin
(b. Aubervilliers, France, 21 Feb. 1869; d. Paris, 26 Nov. 1933)Actor, director and teacher who made his début with Antoine (Théâtre Libre, then Théâtre de l'œuvre, where he played ...
Gérard Philipe
(1922–59)French actor. Often considered one of the finest of his generation, and elevated to cult status after his untimely death from cancer, Philipe starred in many acclaimed films after ...
Heinar Kipphardt
(b. Heidersdorf, Upper Silesia, 8 March 1922; d. Munich, 18 Nov. 1982)Playwright whose first plays were performed in the German Democratic Republic. The comedy Shakespeare dringend gesucht ...
Heinrich von Kleist
(1777–1811)German poet, dramatist, essayist, and writer of novellas. Born into a military family, he served in the Revolutionary Wars. He resigned his commission in 1799 and studied science, ...
Jacques Copeau
(1879–1949),French actor and director, whose work had an immense influence on the theatre in Europe and America. Although interested in the innovations of Antoine, he disliked the over-realistic ...
Jacques Lecoq
(1921–99)French teacher and theorist. Beginning as a teacher of physical education, Lecoq became one of the world's most influential theatre teachers in the second half of the twentieth century. ...
Jean Vauthier
(b. Grace-Berleur, nr Liège, Belgium, 20 Sept. 1910) Playwright. His plays, written in French, with two or three characters, e.g. Capitaine Bada (‘Captain Bada’, 1952) and Les Prodiges (‘The ...
Jérôme Savary
(b. Buenos Aires, 27 June 1942)Actor, director and playwright. Famous as the leader of the Grand Magic Circus, much of Savary's work derives from the Living Theater, Jean Vilar ...
