Gaston Baty

Gaston Baty , of his complete name Jean-Baptist-Marie-Gaston Baty , is a man of Théâtre born with Pélussin the May 26th 1885 and deceased in the same commune the October 13rd 1952.

Biography

Born from a commercial wood father (with whom it worked from 23 to 29 years), it followed its studies to the college of Dominican of Oullins. With some comrades, it created the Académie of the Athenaeum , where it was tested with the setting in scene and the writing. In 1906, it obtained its arts degree with the faculty of Lyon then travelled to Germany (to Munich, 1907-1908) and in Russia, taken interest by the work of max Reinhardt and Constantin Stanislavski for a reform of the contemporary theater.

It was mobilized as interprets in 1914 with Bron. In 1919, it attended the Cirque of winter of Paris Firmin Gémier, and started to assemble plays (decoration and setting in scene) in 1921, with the made Advertisement with Marie of Paul Claudel and the pacifist part Great Butchery of Rene Iché. It created then the troop of the Compagnons of the dream (1921), which settles in a hut out of wooden of Saint-Germain-in-Bush hammer, the “Hut of the Dream”.

Finding a Gémier time with the Odéon, it directed at the request of Jacques Hébertot the Studio of the Fields-Élysées of 1924 to 1928, then the theater of the Avenue the following season. In 1930, it took the head of the Théâtre Montparnasse, resulting from the free Theater of André Antoine, and left some in 1942 the direction with Marguerite Jamois, while working there until 1947. In 1936, it took part in the modernization of the Comédie-Française.

To Aix-en-Provence, it launched a project of House of the puppet, and created in 1950, the Comedy of Provence, labellized national dramatic Center in 1952, year of its death. Its passion for the Puppet S, which it used for “rethéâtraliser the theater, to purify it realism”, led it to write many scenarios, in particular for Guignol.

Influenced by the German theater discovered in its youth and the movement expressionnist, he was also a theorist of the theater. In 1920, he wrote Vérités first and paradoxical on the art of the theater and founded in 1927 the Trust with Louis Jouvet, Georges Pitoëff and Charles Dullin. This association without practical consequence, because the strong differences of the four personalities, made it possible the theater of before guard of the time to have a label, vis-a-vis the commercial Light comedies. It published Vie of the theatrical art of the origins at our days (1932) and the Director (1944), where it defended a modern meaning of the director, equal creator of the author, and the importance of the decoration and visual aspect of the parts.

During its career, it assembled in particular the Opera of quat' under (1930), As you want me , Crime and Châtiment (1933), the whims of Marianne (1935), Mrs Bovary (1936), Faust (1937), Manon Lescaut , Phèdre (1940), the tamed shrew , Macbeth , Célestine , Becket or the honor of God …

The Montparnasse Theater which bears from now on its name.

Quotations

“One will see the work of art at his place which it animated, (...) Gaston Baty, as of his beginnings, had protested against the hegemony of the literature, and had affirmed that a spectacle was composed of different good thing that a text, but also of the talent of the actors, that of the director, and above all of this power of illusion which assembles plate, of this communion which is established between the public, the actors and the author. ” (in Organizers of Theaters of Robert Brasillach)

“G.Baty wanted to incorporate the text and the interpreters in the vast whole of forces, lines, sounds, colors which constitute in its eyes the integral theater. For him the main character of the Cyclone, it is the sea and his phantasms; that of Simoun, it is the sand wind. It is not the me of such or such character, according to the usual data of the scenic life, which he seeks to exteriorize. (...) It put its genius of organizer at the service of parts which it knew imperfect but of which it also knew that they comprised rich person visual amplifications. ” (Testimony of Henri-Rene Lenormand)

Documentation

Funds Gaston Baty, Institute of theatrical studies - University Paris III (compound in particular by the library of Baty)
Gaston Baty and renewal of the Contemporary theater , Books Gaston Baty IV - Association of the friends of Gaston Baty, 1966
Gaston Baty: That what the setting in scene Éditions southern Acts is
Gaston Baty: Three p' tis turns and then from go away in the open theater of their repertory and marionettes 1800-1890 , Odette Lieutier, 1942
G. Baty and R. Chavance: Life of the theatrical art of the origins at our days, Plon, 1932

Sources

Gaston Baty, visionary of the French theater , the Loire magazine, April 2003 Available in ligne
Gaston Baty , National celebrations 2002 - Other announced birthdays, Ministry for the culture and the communication

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