Jacques Copeau (; 4 February 1879 – 20 October 1949) 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 at the Georges Petit Gallery where he organized exhibits of artists' works and helped found the Nouvelle Revue Française in 1909, along with writer friends, such as André Gide and Jean Schlumberger.

Twentieth century French theatre is marked by Copeau's outlook. According to Albert Camus, "in the history of the French theatre, there are two periods: before Copeau and after Copeau."<sup>:61</sup> a publication that was to become one of the leading arbiters of literary taste in France.

Copeau and his young family visited the island of Jersey on two occasions. In 1907, he stayed at Prospect Lodge, then in 1909 at Madeira Villa, both in St Brelade, where he pursued his work on theatrical adaptations, the most well-known being that of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, a project co-written with schoolfriend Jean Croué. André Gide, a visitor to Jersey in 1907, played a pivotal role in Copeau's career at this stage.

He finished work on The Brothers Karamazov by the end of 1910. He was now ready to work in the theatre as a practitioner not only as critic.

The play was staged in April 1911 under the direction of Jacques Rouché at the Théâtre des Arts, receiving favorable reviews. Charles Dullin, who played the role of Smerdiakov, was particularly singled out for a fine performance. A second staging of the adaptation the following October, with Louis Jouvet in the role of Father Zossima, confirmed the earlier critical claim.

In 1910, he bought Le Limon, a piece of property in the Seine-et-Marne département, away from the distractions of Paris.

The Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier

Copeau wanted to rid the Paris stage of the rank commercialism and tawdriness represented by the boulevard theatre. He wanted to move the theatre to a simpler style, freed from the ornamentation that obscured even the finest texts.thumb|Set design by [[Louis Jouvet for Copeau's production of The Brothers Karamazov]]

On the Left Bank, on the rue du Vieux-Colombier, he rented the old and dilapidated Athénée-Saint-Germain, an unlikely venue for the utopian ideals of Copeau, but its location at distance from the commercial theatre district gave a signal that he intended to pursue a new path. He named the theatre after the street so that it could be found more easily. In the spring of 1913, with the help of Charles Dullin in whose Montmartre apartment the auditions took place, Copeau started to assemble a company. Besides Dullin and Louis Jouvet, whom he took on principally as stage manager, he hired, among others, Roger Karl and Suzanne Bing.

During the summer of 1913, Copeau took his troupe to Le Limon, his country house in the Marne valley. The return of the troupe to Paris at the beginning of September, coincided with the publication in the NRF of Copeau's Un essai de rénovation Dramatique: le théâtre du Vieux-Colombier ("Essay on Dramatic Renewal: The Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier"),

Both in its preparation and mise-en-scène, Nuit des rois has entered into legend. Stories abound of Copeau and Jouvet working forty-eight hours non-stop to set the lighting and of Duncan Grant, the English artist who created the costumes, chasing after actors to apply one last dab of color just before the curtain was to come up. The play garnered both critical and public acclaim. With Jouvet as Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Suzanne Bing as Viola, Blanche Albane as Olivia, and Romain Bouquet as Sir Toby Belch, in a startlingly simple stage setting, the play called upon the audience's imagination in a way that had not been seen on a Paris stage since Paul Fort, an earlier reformer who had worked in the theatre in the 1890s. Enthusiastic crowds finally queued up to see this rendition of "real Shakespeare" (Kurtz, pg. 31),

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Other references used:

  • Copeau, Jacques: Registres II, Molière; Ed. Marie-Hélène Dasté and Suzanne Maistre; St-Denis, Paris: Gallimard, 1976.
  • Copeau, Jacques: Registres III, Les Registres du Vieux-Colombier I; Ed. Marie-Hélène Dasté and Suzanne Maistre; St-Denis, Paris: Gallimard, 1979.
  • Copeau, Jacques: Registres IV, Les Registres du Vieux-Colombier II; Amérique, Ed. Marie-Hélène Dasté and Suzanne Maistre St-Denis, Paris: Gallimard, 1984.
  • Copeau, Jacques: Registres V, Le Vieux-Colombier (1919–1924); Ed. Marie-Hélène Dasté and Suzanne Maistre; St-Denis, Paris: Gallimard, 1993.
  • Copeau, Jacques: Registres VI, L’École du Vieux-Colombier; Ed. Claude Sicard, Paris: Gallimard, 2000.
  • Donahue, T. J.: Improvisation and the Mask at the Ecole du Vieux-Colombier: The Case of Suzanne Bing, in Maske und Kothurn 44(1–2), pp.&nbsp;61–72.

Further reading

  • Bradby, David: Modern French Drama, 1940–1990, 2nd. ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. .
  • Rudlin, John: Jacques Copeau, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. .

;Italian bibliography

  • Marco Miglionico, Il progetto educativo del teatro di Jacques Copeau e l'Educazione alla Teatralità, Arona, XY.IT Editore, 2009.
  • Gaetano Oliva, Le origini del giovo drammatico: Jacques Copeau e Lèon Chancerel in Gaetano Oliva, L’Educazione alla Teatralità e il gioco drammatico, Arona, XY.IT Editore, 2010, pp.&nbsp;13–142.
  • Laudatio on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death. (In French.)
  • Entre deux jardins – Le Vieux Colombier, documentary of France 3, 2004/05. In French. URL last accessed July 18, 2006.
  • La compagnie des Quinze; in French. URL last accessed July 18, 2006.
  • An image of Copeau's troupe at Le Limon in 1913; and a similar photo taken an instant earlier or later.