Jacques Copeau was a French theatre director, producer, actor, and dramatist. Before he founded the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in Paris, he wrote theatre reviews for several Parisian journals, worked
Jacques Copeau, 1936
Set design by Louis Jouvet for Copeau's production of The Brothers Karamazov
Copeau's advertising poster for the opening of the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier was a veritable manifesto; a call against the overladen productions of the established theatres in Paris.
Set design by Louis Jouvet for Copeau's production of Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement [fr]
Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski was a seminal Russian and Soviet theatre practitioner. He was widely recognized as an outstanding character actor, and the many productions that he directed garnere
Jacques Copeau
…to any of its offerings. Copeau organized a touring company to the provinces. Invitations to play in other countries in the off-season abounded. When Konstantin Stanislavski, the director of the Moscow Art Theatre, came to Paris in December 1922, he and his troupe were warmly received on the stage of the Vieux-Colombier…
Glikeriya Fedotova, a student of Shchepkin, encouraged Stanislavski to reject inspiration, embrace training and observation, and to "look your partner straight in the eyes, read his thoughts in his eyes, and reply to him in accordance with the expression of his eyes and face."
Stanislavski with his soon-to-be wife Maria Lilina in 1889 in Schiller's Intrigue and Love.
Stanislavski as Othello in 1896.