Peter Brook

Jason d’Argent PAM 2103 Directors Presentation

Background

• Born - London 21 March 1925, son of Russian scientists

• Educated at Oxford, directorial debut in 1945 at Birmingham Rep

• 1962 Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company

• 1970 France Paris International Centre of Theatre Research

• inspired by theories of experimental theatre and metaphysics

• Commander of the British Empire in 1965, Companion of Honour in 1998.

Theatre

“In everyday life, ‘if’ is a fiction, in the theatre ‘if is an experiment.

In everyday life, ‘if’ is an evasion, in the theatre ‘if’ is the truth.

When we are persuaded to believe in this truth, then the theatre and life are one.

This is a high aim.

It sounds like hard work.

To play needs much work.

But when we experience the work as play, then it is not work any more.

A play is play.”

Brook,1968, p.157

• The Deadly Theatre can at first be taken for granted, because it means bad theatre.” Brook, 1968, P.11

• “In living theatre, we would each day approach the rehearsal putting yesterdays discoveries to the test, ready to believe that the true play has once again escaped us” Brook, 1968,p. 17

• Universal theatre

• Natural audience

• “Very simply, the theatre must awaken some. thing that is asleep” Sucher, 1995

• “The theatre is not an orchestra. Lights and dresses, all of technology, can never equal the strength of the individual.” Sucher, 1995

Theatre

Bottom and friends; Oberon puts Titania to sleep with a wand while Puck watches Resource: Kennedy, Dennis. Looking at Shakespeare : a visual history of twentieth-century Performance. Cambridge University Press, 1993. illus. 9, 10

Directing

• Collaborative investigation and experimentation

• In a sense the director is always an impostor, a guide at night who does not know the territory, and yet has no choice – he must guide, learning the route as he goes Brook, 1968, p. 4

• if you just let a play speak, it may not make a sound. If what you want is for the play to be heard, then you must conjure its sound from it.” Brook, 1968,p.43

• If you take absolutely nothing for granted, no precedent, no rule, no convention, no dogma – you might discover something new. Hellbern, 1977, p. 98

• Eclectic

• “We must liberate ourselves from quick conclusions and explanations. In order to free yourself, you must empty yourself. You have to free yourself from everything you carry around; you have to empty yourself as you would unpack a suitcase” Sucher, 1995

• Relationships

• Animating

• It's not worth doing if it isn't fun Croyden, 2005

Directing

Acting

• “Brook doesn’t believe in any system or school. He wants to liberate the actor from methods.” (Brook, 1968,p.101)

• “the art of acting is in some ways the most exacting one of all and without constant schooling, the actor will stop half-way.” (Brook,1968,p.34)

• “an actor, like any artist, is like a garden and it is no help to pull out the weeds just once, for all time. The weeds always grow, this is quite natural, and they must be cleaned away, which is natural and necessary too.” (Brook,1968,p.128)

• “The first morning in Mirrah we rose at dawn when the bird symphonies were at their height and deafening. ‘Learn from them’ said Brook. A Romeo & Juliet show was invented, taking plot from Shakespeare and improvising the characters in bird sounds.” (Hellpern 1977,p.156)

• “the actors work is never for an audience, yet always is for one. The onlooker is a partner who must be forgotten and still constantly kept in mind : a gesture is statement, expression, communication & private manifestation of loneliness – always what Artaud calls a signal through the flames” (Brook, 1968,p.57)

Acting

Text

• “a word does not start as a word – it is an end product which begins as an impulse, stimulated by attitude and behaviour which dictates the need for expression.” (Brook, 1968,p.15)

• “For instance, it is accepted that scenery, costumes, music are fair game for directors and designers, and must in fact be renewed. When it comes to attitudes and behaviours we are much more confused, and tend to believe that these elements if true in the writing can continue to express themselves in similar ways.” (Brook,1968,p.19)

References• Brockett, O,G. (1979) The theatre : an introduction. Florida : Holt, Rinehart & Winston Inc.

• Brook, P. (1968) The Empty Space. Victoria : Penguin Books Australia Ltd

• Croyden, M. (2005, April). the African Connection. American Theatre, 22(4), 30-32,73. Retrieved , from Academic Research Library database. (Document ID: 820681331).

• Hellpern, J. (1977). Conference of birds : The story of Peter Brook in Africa. Great Britain : Faber & Faber Ltd

• http://www.dggb.co.uk/publications/article9_86.html

• Myles Weber (2006). Reflections of Peter Brook. New England Review, 27(1), 149-152,213. Retrieved , from Academic Research Library database. (Document ID: 1003140741)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Brook

• Sucher, C Bernd (1995, April). All the rest is chatter. American Theatre, 12(4), 18. Retrieved , from Academic Research Library database. (Document ID: 4492111