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Théâtre Du Gymnase Marie Bell
The Théâtre du Gymnase or Théâtre du Gymnase Marie Bell, is a theatre in Paris, at 38 Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle in the 10th arrondissement (métro : Bonne Nouvelle). History Inaugurated on December 23, 1820 by Delestre-Poirson, the théâtre du Gymnase came to serve as a training-theatre for students of the conservatoire, where they could appear solely in one-act plays or adaptations of longer plays into one-act plays. Poirson quickly added two-act plays to the theatre's repertoire, then 3-act plays, and drew up an exclusive contract with Eugène Scribe to supply them. He installed gas lighting in 1823 and in the following year, with the permission of the duchesse de Berry, the theatre was granted the title of ''théâtre de Madame''. Closed for renovation in 1830, the theatre reopened after the July Revolution under the name ''Gymnase Dramatique''. In 1844, Montigny took over as director of the theatre, and to attract a wider audience abandoned somewhat the moral and ...
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Henri Meilhac
Henri Meilhac (23 February 1830 – 6 July 1897) was a French dramatist and opera librettist, best known for his collaborations with Ludovic Halévy on Georges Bizet's ''Carmen'' and on the works of Jacques Offenbach, as well as Jules Massenet's ''Manon''. Biography Meilhac was born in the 1st arrondissement of Paris in 1830. As a young man, he began writing fanciful articles for Parisian newspapers and comédies en vaudevilles, in a vivacious boulevardier spirit which brought him to the forefront. About 1860, Meilhac met Ludovic Halévy, and their collaboration for the stage lasted twenty years. Their most famous collaboration is the libretto for Georges Bizet's ''Carmen''. However, Meilhac's work is most closely tied to the music of Jacques Offenbach, for whom he wrote over a dozen librettos, most of them together with Halévy. The most successful collaborations with Offenbach are ''La belle Hélène'' (1864), '' Barbe-bleue'' (1866), '' La Vie parisienne'' (1866), ''La Gra ...
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Phèdre
''Phèdre'' (; originally ''Phèdre et Hippolyte'') is a French dramatic tragedy in five acts written in alexandrine verse by Jean Racine, first performed in 1677 at the theatre of the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris. Composition and premiere With ''Phèdre'', Racine chose once more a subject from Greek mythology, already treated by Greek and Roman tragic poets, notably by Euripides in '' Hippolytus'' and Seneca in ''Phaedra''. As a result of an intrigue by the Duchess of Bouillon and other friends of the aging Pierre Corneille, the play was not a success at its première on 1 January 1677 at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, home of the royal troupe of actors in Paris. Indeed, a rival group staged a play by the now forgotten playwright Nicolas Pradon on an almost identical theme. After ''Phèdre'', Racine ceased writing plays on secular themes and devoted himself to the service of religion and the king until 1689, when he was commissioned to write '' Esther'' by Madame de Maintenon, ...
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Marie Bell
Marie Bell (23 December 1900 – 14 August 1985), born Marie-Jeanne Bellon-Downey, was a French tragedian, comic actor and stage director. She was the director of the Théâtre du Gymnase in Paris from 1962 onwards, and this theatre now bears her name. Early life Marie Bell was born on 23 December 1900 in Bègles near Bordeaux (France). With her Irish father, she spent her childhood between Bordeaux and England. Career Bell was a classical actress. She also appeared in avant-garde theatre, Jean Genet in particular. Her interpretation of the role of Phèdre is highly noted : "Voir Marie Bell dans Phèdre est une chance unique pour quiconque veut savoir ce qu'est le génie français." André Malraux During the German Occupation of France (1940–1944), she participated in the French resistance as one of nine directors of the Front national du théâtre. She was awarded the decoration of the Légion d'honneur by President Charles de Gaulle. Personal life Bell married Jean ...
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Jean Genet
Jean Genet (; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels '' The Thief's Journal'' and '' Our Lady of the Flowers'' and the plays '' The Balcony'', '' The Maids'' and '' The Screens''. Biography Early life Genet's mother was a prostitute who raised him for the first seven months of his life before placing him for adoption. Thereafter Genet was raised in the provincial town of Alligny-en-Morvan, in the Nièvre department of central France. His foster family was headed by a carpenter and, according to Edmund White's biography, was loving and attentive. While he received excellent grades in school, his childhood involved a series of attempts at running away and incidents of petty theft. After the death of his foster mother, Genet was placed with an elderly couple but remained with them less than two years. ...
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Félicien Marceau
Félicien Marceau (16 September 1913 – 7 March 2012) was a French novelist, playwright and essayist originally from Belgium. His real name was Louis Carette. He was close to the Hussards right-wing literary movement, which in turn was close to the monarchist movement . He was born in Kortenberg, Flemish Brabant. Marceau received the Prix Goncourt for his book '' Creezy'' () in 1969. On 27 November 1975 he was elected to the Académie française, succeeding Marcel Achard. In 1974, Goudji created the academician's sword for Félicien Marceau. Bibliography *1948 ', novel () *1949 ', essay () *1951 ', novel () *1951 ', novel (Gallimard ) *1952 ', novel () *1953 ', stories (Calmann-Lévy) *1953 ', one-act play (Fayard) *1953 ', novel () *1954 ', three-act play () () *1955 ', essay () *1955 ', novel () *1957 ', stories () *1957 ', two part play () () *1959 ', two-act play () () *1960 ', one-act play () *1960 ', two-act play () *1962 ', two-act play () *1964 ', two-act play () ...
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Sacha Guitry
Alexandre-Pierre Georges "Sacha" Guitry (; 21 February 188524 July 1957) was a French stage actor, film actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright of the boulevard theatre. He was the son of a leading French actor, Lucien Guitry, and followed his father into the theatrical profession. He became known for his stage performances, particularly in boulevardier roles. He was also a prolific playwright, writing 115 plays throughout his career. He was married five times, always to rising actresses whose careers he furthered. Probably his best-known wife was Yvonne Printemps to whom he was married between 1919 and 1932. Guitry's plays range from historical dramas to contemporary light comedies. Some have musical scores, by composers including André Messager and Reynaldo Hahn. When silent films became popular Guitry avoided them, finding the lack of spoken dialogue fatal to dramatic impact. From the 1930s to the end of his life he enthusiastically embraced the cinema, making as man ...
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Marc-Gilbert Sauvajon
Marc-Gilbert Sauvajon (25 September 1909, Valence, Drôme – 15 April 1985, Montpellier) was a French film director, script-writer, playwright and author. After studying law, he was made chief editor of the daily newspaper ''Sud-Est''. He founded the journal '' Valence-Républicain''. His play "All in the Family", adapted by Victor Wolfson, was given its first performance at the Strand Theatre, London on 17 June 1959. It was directed by Norman Marshall and designed by Paul Mayo. The cast consisted of Maxine Audley, Donald Sinden, Andre Morell, Brian Oulton, Peggy Thorpe-Bates, Michael Logan, Vanda Godsell, Pauline Knight, Virginia Maskell, Mary Powell, Douglas Malcom and Philip Ashley. Plays * 1939 : ''L'Amant de paille'' * 1945 : ''Au petit bonheur'' * 1951 : ''Tapage nocturne'' (''All in the Family'') * 1953 : ''Treize à table'' * 1953 : ''Adorable Julia'', based on Guy Bolton's play ''Theatre'' (1941), based on the novel ''Theatre'' (1937) by W. Somerset Maugham * 19 ...
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Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the surrealist, avant-garde, and Dadaist movements; and one of the most influential figures in early 20th-century art as a whole. The ''National Observer'' suggested that, “of the artistic generation whose daring gave birth to Twentieth Century Art, Cocteau came closest to being a Renaissance man.” He is best known for his novels ''Le Grand Écart'' (1923), ''Le Livre blanc'' (1928), and '' Les Enfants Terribles'' (1929); the stage plays '' La Voix Humaine'' (1930), '' La Machine Infernale'' (1934), '' Les Parents terribles'' (1938), '' La Machine à écrire'' (1941), and ''L'Aigle à deux têtes'' (1946); and the films '' The Blood of a Poet'' (1930), '' Les Parents Terribles'' (1948), '' Beauty and the Beast'' (1946), ''Orpheus'' (1950) ...
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Marcel Pagnol
Marcel Paul Pagnol (; 28 February 1895 – 18 April 1974) was a French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. Regarded as an auteur, in 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the Académie française. Although his work is less fashionable than it once was, Pagnol is still generally regarded as one of France's greatest 20th-century writers and is notable for the fact that he excelled in almost every medium—memoir, novel, drama and film. Early life Pagnol was born on 28 February 1895 in Aubagne, Bouches-du-Rhône department, in southern France near Marseille, the eldest son of schoolteacher Joseph Pagnol and seamstress Augustine Lansot.Castans (1987), pp. 363–368 Marcel Pagnol grew up in Marseille with his younger brothers Paul and René, and younger sister Germaine. School years In July 1904, the family rented the ''Bastide Neuve'', – a house in the sleepy Provençal village of La Treille – for the summer holidays, the first of many spent in the hilly countrysi ...
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Mélo (play)
''Mélo'' is a 1929 play by Henri Bernstein which premiered in the US in 1931 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. Plot Pierre Belcroix and Marcel Blanc are violinists and lifelong friends living in Paris in the 1920s. While Marcel has become famous and Pierre has not, both are happy with their lives. Pierre is happily married to Romaine, a stylish young flapper. However, Marcel meets and falls in love with her, which Pierre little suspects. Romaine carries on her affair with Marcel, even as Pierre falls ill, which she may have deliberately exacerbated with her treatment in order to murder him. Soon Marcel goes on a concert tour, and Romaine abandons Pierre for a romantic tryst. When Marcel returns, Romaine reconsiders the affair, and realizes that she loves both Pierre and Marcel. She decides that she does not want to hurt either her husband or her lover, and as no other solution seems possible, she commits suicide. Three years later, Pierre visits Marcel to seek the truth, and Marc ...
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Henri Bernstein
Henri-Léon-Gustave-Charles Bernstein (20 June 1876 – 27 November 1953) was a French playwright associated with Boulevard theatre. Biography Bernstein was born in Paris. His earliest plays, including ''La Rafale'' (1905), ''Le Voleur'' (1907), ''Samson'' (1908), ''Israël'' (1908), and ''Le Secret'' (1913), are written in a realistic style and powerfully depict harsh realities of modern life and society. The far-right royalist ''Camelots du Roi'' youth organization of the ''Action française'' organized an anti-Semitic riot against a production of one of his plays in 1911. During the Second World War, he fled to the United States and lived in New York City at the Waldorf Astoria. Jean-Pierre Aumont relates in his work ''Le Soleil et les Ombres'' (Robert Laffont, 1976) the luxury in which he lived, as well as his general lack of interest in the war. He is buried in the Cimetière de Passy in Paris. Works *''Le Marché'' (The Market), 1900 *''Le Détour'', 1902 *''Joujou'', 1 ...
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