From Stanislavsky to Barrault: Representative Directors of the European Stage

The careers, directing accomplishments, ideas and techniques of six directors of the European stage are surveyed in this study: Konstantin Stanislavsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Max Reinhardt, Jacques Copeau, Bertolt Brecht and Jean-Louis Barrault - representative of the spectrum of directorial art as it has developed in this century. In the introduction, aspects of the director’s art exemplified by these innovators are identified and examined: their choice of repertory, from the intellectually provocative to the escapist; stylistic attitudes toward production, from Stanislavsky’s spiritual naturalism to Meyerhold’s biomechanics and constructivism; rehearsal methods from the dictatorials to the openly collaborative; and a continuing fascination with the shape and function of the performance space. Many of the directors emerge a multifaceted hommes de theatre writing, directing, acting, designing sets and lighting and producing.