Antoine Vitez (; 20 December 1930 – 30 April 1990) was a French actor, director, and poet. He became a central character and influence on the French theater in the post-war period, especially in the technique of teaching drama. He was also translator of

Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

Vladimir Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (, ; rus, Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский, , vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ məjɪˈkofskʲɪj, Ru-Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.ogg, links=y; – 14 Apr ...

and

Mikhail Sholokhov Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov ( rus, Михаил Александрович Шолохов, p=ˈʂoləxəf; – 21 February 1984) was a Russian novelist and winner of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is known for writing about life ...

Early life

Antoine Vitez was born in Paris and trained to be an actor, finding his first acting job at the age of 19 in ''Ils attendent Lefty'' at the Théâtre Maubel. He failed to enter the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art in Paris and became a Communist activist, which he continued until 1979, when he left the Communist Party following the invasion of

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

by the USSR. He met

Louis Aragon Louis Aragon (, , 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review ''Littérature''. He wa ...

in 1958 and became his private secretary from 1960 to 1962. He worked in the theater Balachova Tania, and wrote reviews published by

Jean Vilar Jean Vilar (25 March 1912– 28 May 1971) was a French actor and theatre director. Vilar trained under actor and theatre director Charles Dullin, then toured with an acting company throughout France. His directorial career began in 1943 in a sma ...

in the magazine ''Théâtre populaire''. Vitez also found work reading on the radio and voice-dubbing in films. He had his first opportunity as director with Sophocles' ''Electra'' at the Maison de la Culture de Caen in 1966.

Career

Vitez' production of ''Electra'' was successful and he continued directing with

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n and Greek repertoire, directing

Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (, ; rus, Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский, , vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ məjɪˈkofskʲɪj, Ru-Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.ogg, links=y; – 14 Apr ...

's ''Les Bains'' in 1967, Eugene Schwartz's ''Le Dragon'' in 1968, and

's ''La Mouette'' in 1970. After this initial period, he began working more with French and German repertoire, directing works by

Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditio ...

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Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...

Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

and

René Kalisky René Kalisky (; born Kaliski, ; 20 July 1936 – 6 May 1981) was a Belgian writer of Polish-Jewish descent who is best known for the plays he wrote in the last 12 years of his life. Kalisky, whose father, Abraham Kaliski was killed at Auschwitz, ...

. He later expanded his work to both traditional and classical theatrical repertoire, including

Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or co ...

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Jean Metellus Jean Metellus (30 April 1937 - 4 January 2014) was a Haitian neurologist, poet, novelist and playwright. Life and career Jean Metellus was born in Jacmel, Haiti. After completing his education in Haiti, he worked as a teacher. In 1959 he moved ...

and Jean Audureau. Vitez became a professor at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in 1968, and in 1972 he founded the Théâtre des Quartiers d'Ivry. In the same year, he founded the Ateliers d'Ivry workshop, where amateurs and professionals could share a common theatrical practice. He became director at the Chaillot National Theatre in 1981, and was appointed deputy head of the Comédie-French in June 1988, a post he held until his sudden death in Paris in 1990. In 1978, Vitez' workshop sessions were recorded by film-maker

Maria Koleva Maria Koleva ( Bulgarian: ''Мария Колева'', born 2 October 1940) is a Bulgarian writer and independent film-maker who lives and works in France. Koleva is also credited as a producer, film-editor and cinematographer. Life and career ...

, who made five films on different workshop sessions.

Aesthetic

Vitez often presented his plays in locations with non-theatrical elements and without any descriptive function, employing an aesthetic of "free play" and "association of ideas," according to Georges Banu. Vitez' work required thought on the part of the audience, more than the reality of a set. He saw the theater as a "force field" and demanded an "elitist theater for all." He defended the great classical texts as "sunken galleons," works that were remote, archaic and mythological.

Legacy

*Théâtre Antoine Vitez on the campus of the

University of Provence The University of Provence Aix-Marseille I (french: Université de Provence) was a public research university mostly located in Aix-en-Provence and Marseille. It was one of the three Universities of Aix-Marseille and was part of the Academy of ...

, now

Aix-Marseille University Aix-Marseille University (AMU; french: Aix-Marseille Université; formally incorporated as ''Université d'Aix-Marseille'') is a public research university located in the Provence region of southern France. It was founded in 1409 when Louis II o ...

is named for him.
*Théâtre d'Ivry Antoine Vitez in

Ivry-sur-Seine Ivry-sur-Seine () is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Paris's main Asian district, the Quartier Asiatique in the 13th arrondissement, borders the ...

, is also named for him.

Filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vitez, Antoine 1930 births 1990 deaths French theatre directors Male actors from Paris Administrators of the Comédie-Française French male film actors French male television actors French male stage actors 20th-century French male actors 20th-century French translators 20th-century French poets French male poets 20th-century French male writers French male non-fiction writers