The London Theatre Studio was a drama and design school in Upper Street, Islington, London, from 1936 to 1939. It was directed by the French actor and director Michel Saint-Denis.
The school was the first in England to teach theatrical design as well as drama. It was closed at the beginning of the Second World War, and after the war its director and other instructors returned to teaching drama and design in other places.
In 1929, with the support of Jacques Copeau, his uncle, Michel Saint-Denis and other members of Copeau's company moved to Paris and established the Compagnie des Quinze, a company of actors, in which Saint-Denis put into effect the innovative teaching methods of Copeau. This folded in 1934, and in 1935 Saint-Denis moved to London, where the next year he founded the London Theatre Studio with George Devine, Marius Goring, and Glen Byam Shaw. [1] [2] Margaret Harris later did not know how the money for setting up the school was raised, but speculated that it was with the help of Tyrone Guthrie. [3]
The first classes of the new school were in rooms in Beak Street which had once been used as practice rooms by Serge Diaghilev. As they were small, the students were not all on site at the same time. Then, with financial help from a student named Laura Dyas, a purpose-designed school was created [4] in Providence Hall, a former Strict Baptist chapel in Providence Place, Upper Street, Islington, [5] [3] with a conversion of the building designed by Marcel Breuer and F. R. S. Yorke. [6] Breuer designed the stage and auditorium, and also all the furniture, much of which was in moulded plywood. [3] The contract for the building works was dated July 1936, and for the furniture September 1936. [7] An Oxford friend of Devine, Peter Bayne, was brought in as business manager, [3] and a limited liability company, London Theatre Studio Ltd, was incorporated. [7]
The new school followed the methods of Copeau, as developed further by Saint-Denis, [1] and in its first term had twenty-four students. [8]
The school's design course was taught by Sophie Harris, Margaret Harris, and Elizabeth Montgomery, who were collectively a unit known as Motley, and Richard Southern taught stage scenery design and its history. This was the first theatrical design course at an English drama school. [9] George Devine was assistant director of the school and taught lighting. [10] Saint-Denis taught directing, and Huang Zuolin was among his students. [11]
While he was in England, Saint-Denis also worked in theatre, including directing productions by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Alec Guinness, Michael Redgrave, John Gielgud, and Laurence Olivier were among those he directed, [1] and Guinness, who was already working as an actor, took classes at the Studio. [4] At this time, there were some sixteen professional actors enrolled as students. [12]
The London Theatre Studio was closed in 1939, as a result of the outbreak of the Second World War. [2] In July 1941, an extraordinary general meeting of London Theatre Studio Ltd decided to wind up the company voluntarily, as it "cannot by reason of its liabilities continue its business". [13]
Saint-Denis stayed in England, and from 1940 to 1944 was the director of Radio Londres , a BBC station broadcasting in French. After the war, he established the Old Vic Theatre School (1947–1952) with George Devine and Glen Byam Shaw. He went on to found a new drama school in Strasbourg in 1954, and in 1960 was an advisor for the creation of the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal. [2]
Margaret Harris was later a director of the Motley Theatre Design Course, a historian of which has observed that her aims "...hearkened back to the London Theatre Studio ideal of a ‘company’ who work in happy collaboration, rather than a group of individuals in creative competition with each other". [14]
A drama instructor at the school, Oliver Reynolds (1908–1998) was rejected for military service when the London Theatre Studio closed and spent the war years transcribing books into Braille. After the war, he launched his own drama school, before in 1951 joining the staff of the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art. [15]
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 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.
The Almeida Theatre, opened in 1980, is a 325-seat producing house with an international reputation, which takes its name from the street on which it is located, off Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre produces a diverse range of drama. Successful plays are often transferred to West End theatres.
Upper Street is the main street of the Islington district of inner north London, and carries the A1 road. It begins at the junction of the A1 and Liverpool Road, continuing on from Islington High Street which runs from the crossroads at Pentonville Road/City Road and runs roughly northwards from outside the main entrance to Angel Underground station, then past the Business Design Centre, then splits at Islington Green, then past The Screen On The Green cinema, past Islington Town Hall, ending at Highbury & Islington tube station on Highbury corner, where the A1 carries on as Holloway Road.
A mime artist, or simply mime, is a person who uses mime as a theatrical medium or as a performance art. Miming involves acting out a story through body motions, without the use of speech. In earlier times, in English, such a performer would typically be referred to as a mummer. Miming is distinguished from silent comedy, in which the artist is a character in a film or skit without sound.
The National Theatre School of Canada is a private institution of professional theatre studies in Montreal, Quebec. Established in 1960, the NTS receives its principal funding from grants awarded by the Government of Canada and from cultural ministries in each of the provinces, with added financial support from private and corporate donors.
Adolphe Appia, son of Red Cross co-founder Louis Appia, was a Swiss architect and theorist of stage lighting and décor.
Suzanne Bing was a French actress. She was a founding member of Jacques Copeau's Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in Paris during the first season 1913-14. Later she worked with the troupe in New York from 1917-19 and again in Paris, 1920-24.
Noel Willman was an Irish actor and theatre director. Born in Derry, Ireland, Willman died aged 70 in New York City, United States.
George Alexander Cassady Devine was an English theatrical manager, director, teacher, and actor based in London from the early 1930s until his death. He also worked in TV and film.
Michel Jacques Saint-Denis, ditJacques Duchesne, was a French actor, theatre director, and drama theorist whose ideas on actor training have had a profound influence on the development of European theatre from the 1930s on.
Motley was the name of the theatre design firm made up of three English designers: sisters Margaret and Sophie Harris (1900–1966) and Elizabeth Montgomery (1902–1993).
Audrey Sophia "Sophie" Harris was an English award winning theatre and opera costume and scenic designer.
Margaret Frances Harris was an English theatre and opera costume and scenic designer.
Elizabeth Alice Marjorie Montgomery, married name Elizabeth Wilmot, was an English artist who earned fame as a theatre and opera costume and scenic designer. She was a two-time Tony Award winner for Best Costume Design.
Jocelyn Herbert RDI was a British stage designer.
A movement director arranges actors' movements in a variety of production settings that include theatre, television, film, opera, fashion and animation.
Richard Negri was a British theatre director and designer.
Motley Theatre Design Course is a one-year independent theatre design course in London. It was founded at Sadler's Wells Opera in 1966.
Stephen Arlen was an English theatre manager and operatic administrator. Originally an actor, he took up backstage work as a stage manager, and in the years after the Second World War was in charge of stage management at the Old Vic.
Classical acting is a type of acting that is based on the theories and systems of select classical actors including Konstantin Stanislavski and Michel Saint-Denis, including the expression of the body, voice, imagination, personalizing, improvisation, external stimuli, and script analysis.
