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    Andre Antoine Fourthwall PDF

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    tib

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    BK Genge ET. Duke of SaseMemingen charm of groups is in the line of the heads, Just as a similarity of postune is to be avoided, so a regularity of height in actors standing. nnear each other is, wherever possible, to be shunned. When it can be done, individuals should stand on different levels, Some can kneel, some stand near by, some bending, some upright. It is effective to hhave those looking at one person oF situation form an uneven semi- circle whenever it can be done, Gare must be taken that the actors nearest to the public and seen most by the spectators stand so thac their shoulders are in various relations to the footlights. One should remind a walk-on to change his position as soon as he novices himself standing like his neighbor. In a good picture, one finds few figures in the same position or facing the same way. One has to repeat this order to the actors and supers at nearly every rehearsal, as itis continuously forgotten. Special reminders must be given the supers not to stare at the audience. They do this naturally, nce For ma of them acting is a new and unusual experience, and their aroused curiosity makes them, look around the dark auditorium, Disturbing events like the removal of dead or wounded peaple should be “covered,” meaning kept as much as possible from the audience's sight. This must not be done by means of a thick impene able wall of people, which looks self-conscious and ridiculous. ‘The “cover” must be rather flexible so that one sees enough and not too much of what is taking place and can understand what it is all about. When the impression of a great crowd is desired, one should place the groups so that the people on the sides are lost in the shadows of the wings. No one in the audience can be permitted to see where the grouping stops. The grouping must give the illusion that other crows are also forming behind the scene. Translated by Helen Burlin ANDRE ANTOINE (1858-1949) Behind the Fourth Wall First of all, what is directing? One of the most authoritative men of our time, Monsieur Porel, speaking at the International Theater Congress of 1goo, has defined our art in terms that are so precise and well chosen that I feel it s duty and a pleasure to quote his comments: ‘Without directing, without this respectful and precise science, this pov erful and subste art, many plays would not have come down 19 us; many comedies would not be understood; many plays would not enjoy success ‘To grosp clearly the authors idea in a manuscript, to explain i patiently and accurately to the hesitant actors, to see the play develop anid take shape {rom minute to minute. To watch over the production down to is slightest deta, its stage business, even its silences, which are sometimes as eloquent 4s the written script, To place the bewildered or awkward supernumeraties where they Delong and to train them, to bring cogether in one cast obscure actors and stars, To harmonie all these voices, all these gestures, all these various movements, all these disimilar things—in order ca achieve te right incerpretation of the work entrusted to you. Then, having accomplished this and having methodically done all your preliminary stedying in the calm of your library, to take charge of the ‘material side of production. To supervise patiently and accurately the car enters. scene painters, costumers, ipholsterers, and electricians ‘Ther. when this second part of the job is finished, o Suse st with the fst bby making the cast perform with real furniture and props. Finally, o view the finished production ac arm’s length, as a whale. To take into account Ars Antoine: "Causerie sur la mise en eelng,” La Revue de Paris, Vol. , April 1.1905, sf-b, 8g yo Andre Antoine the tastes and habjes of the audience in just the sight proportions, to omit anything that may be needlessly dangerous, to cut anything that is 100 long. 10 eliminate errors of details that are inevitable in any work that is done quickly ‘To listen to advice from interested parcies, © weigh st in the mind. to decide when to follow and when to reject their advice, Finally, with a quickening of the heart, to open one's hand, give the signal, let the work Appear before so many assembled people! I is an admirable profession, isi not? One of the miost curious, one of the mast fascinating, one of the most subtle in the world! I shall certainly not make any effort to find a clearer or more artistic formula. In my opinion, modern directing must perform the same lunction in the theater as descriptions in a novel. Directing should— as, in fact, is generally the case today—not only fit the action in its proper framework but also determine its true character and create its atmosphere, This is an important task—and one that is completely new—for which our classical French theater has done litle to prepare us. The result is that, despite the wealth of effort expended these past twenty years, we have not yet formulated any principles, laid down any foun Cations, established any teaching methods, trained any personnel. A few independent-minded innovators in the theater—Montigny, Perrin, and Porel—have shown initiative, under the stress of the growing needs of contemporary stage production, They have begun to break the old molds; but the results have been slow to appear. ‘These results have been paralyzed by throwbacks to classicism in the individuals themselves as well as in the people under them. ‘Taught by them and under their direct influence, we have been able, lor other reasons, to continue the work that was initiated, In my own case, I was influenced by the new needs and new conditions in the freer and more living works submitted to me by my associates in the Thédtre Libre fen red the theater quite ate—when T was close to thirty. Twas rejected by the Conservatoire to which I had instinctively applied in order to diaw inspiration from such masters as Got and Coquelin, Behind the Fourth Wall 94 whose genius dazzled me, To compensate for my lack of experience, 1 was fortunate enough not 10 be weighed down by old traditions ot hampered by routine methods. Tlearned about the theater by follow. ing log:c and common sense—as must have been the case in bygone days, when the theater first developed. For a Jong time-some fifteen years—during my spare time as a white-collar employee with a passionate curiosity aboue things of the theater. I realized that the actor's “profession” and the complacency ‘of audiences had stifled all simplicity, life, and naturalness—in the tnatter of directing as well as acting, Experience is the best teacher. Since everyone around me—play- wrights and actors—was new, without preconceived notions or fas fied (raditions, we did our best in what we felt was the truest, clearest manner, Thus experience and practice preceded theory, Here I must reiterate: directing is an art that has just been born. Nothing—absolutely nothing~prior to the past century with its the- ater of intrigue and situation, led (o its Howering. Without going back to the earliest exainples of our dramatic litera- ture—ceremonies that arose from the church and yemained solemn events held in the open aix—we may say that the classical French theater did not, for several centuries, need "staging," in the sense in which we use the corm, A simple backdrop was enough to denote & palace, a public square, or a drawing room, As far as the actor was concerned, often he received a court costume from the king or one of the high nobility (thus, Richelieu gave Belle- coeur a knight's costume in which to create the role of the Cid); and the actor's sole ambition was to appear in a splendid costume before a chosen audience and to recite his part rather than to play it or live Nevertheless, drama continued to evolve. A theater of intrigue and materiel situations appeared, a theater which took into account the social status and daily life of its characters. Unity of place was vio- lated. Figaro leaped through windows and Gount Almaviva broke down doors, Hugo published his preface to Cromwell and the great Alexander Dumas joined with him. The Middle Ages replaced an. Liquity, Tragic episodes and heroic combats were no longer the themes of the stage: Hernani fenced, Saint Mégrin looked up at the stars belore going to see the Duchesse de Guise, and Ruy Blas pushed pieces of furniture in front of the doors of his low-ceilinged room before dying i peace. Géronte, Geliméne, and Sganarelle gave way to Marguerite Gautier, Giboyer, and Poirier. Actors ate on the stage, slept there, sat down on their bed to drearn—as did Chatterton, Di Fecting was born and thenceforth became a faithful servant of dra- ‘matic production, Acting itself, always lagging, began to change, Frédéric no longer acted! in the style of Talma, although he was just as great: and the romantic “white plume"—in reality, a striving for truth, for lile— ‘made audlicnces forget rhetorical declamation of tragedy But if you bear in mind Porel’s outtine of the work that is necessary n producing a play, you can just imagine what ceaseless efforts and ‘shat tireless patience are needed in order to achieve truth and lile! Apparently, the audience has no idea of the labor that goes into a play it has just applauded, In the theacer, after the fifth or sixth per formance, many petsons imagine that the physieal arrangement of the scenes and the movements of the characters are left to chance or to the initiative of the actors. ‘The better the play is acted and the more lifelike it seems, the more convinced is the naive spectator of this supposition, He has no idea ‘of the slow and complicated work of rehearsals, Loc us begin now at the beginning. The producer, after assigning the actors their parts, gives the script (o the director. From that point the latter isin charge Thave purposely made a sharp distinction between these two: the producer and the director. Generally speaking, our producers assume hese two functions, But they are quite distinct and require talents ‘hat are almost always incompatible, To be a producer, frst of all, isa profession. To be a director—or setter en scéne-is an art Bichind the Fourth Wall 93 In our time, the protession of producer demands above all the qualities of 2 manager, a businessman; if, in addition, our producer hhas a litle boldness and, by chance, the desire to hunt for interesting works, if shrough experience he acquires that special fair for then he will not ind the day long enough for his many tasks. On the other hand, the director or metteur en scéne must remain free of any financial worries or calculations. Many producers, taken up with the problems I have just mentioned, have a director on their ay roll—almost always a veteran actor or one who has not had much success. They use him to sketch out the staging, to do the preliminary work which they probably consider of lieele interest, They ate wrong. ‘They fail to realize that these first hours are crucial: later, when they slep into the picture, it is too late. The play has already taken shape and is ina definite mold. Would a painter give someone else of drawing the sketch for a picture he wanted to paint? In other theaters~at the Gomédie Francaise, for example—one of the actors in the cast, the most “talented!” or the most famous, is given the task of conducting reheatsals. This is likewise a bad method: a talented actor is not necessarily endowed with the qualities that make hhim a good director. Many great artists are often unfit for that job: their personal temperament and the creative instinct which is their forte deprive them of one of the essential faculties af a true director: a view of the whole. No matter how hard he tries, an actor sees only his own part; and if he is the director, unconsciously but nonetheless surely he will increase the scope and importance of that part—to the detriment of all the others, A mediocre actor who is not in the cast is always superior, om the other side of the footlights, to the noted artist playing on the stage, The difficulty lies in finding artistic men of the theater who are willing tc confine themselves to this exciting but obscure work. In some countries, where the value of this teamwork has been more quickly recognized than here in France, the director's name appears on the playbill. Remember that such a man must ha job fe the actors in dhe palm of his hand and that actors, in Moligre's words, are “strange animals to DE Andi ctntaine drive." To obtain the maximum from them—not only in effort but also in results~one must know them and live with them. Methods of work and ways of acting difler with each artist, according to his tem- perament or character. It is a little world all its own, a nervous and impression: Many acto e world, which hs to be now coaxed andl now scolded. through negligence or especially because of shyness, use every possible excuse to try to get out of working, as a thorough bred sometimes reluses to jump over a hurdle, 1t is quite an art and also a pleasure to persuade them—for they are alimost always the most silted and the most interesting actors Others, touchy and vain, must be guided, advised, and com without their being avrare of it In short, directing is a career by itsell—an amusing but subtle kind ol diplomacy. Then too, when you realize that the director must also understand the author, feel his work, wanseribe it, transpose it, and interpret to every one of the actors the part assigned to him, you will understand why I am so keen to see this special kind of career develop in our country, why I am so desirous of developing this personnel which we do not now have. Great producers are nat those who have made millions but those 1 have mentioned above. I prefer to call them grea di need ctors, for they have molded artists, developed talents, and created new modes of expression, ‘The first time I had to divect a play, I saw clearly thae the work was Mlivided into two distinct parts: one was quite tangible, that is, nd: ing the right déror for the action and the proper way of grouping the

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