Suzanne Bing (10 March 1885 – 22 November 1967) was a French actress. She was a founding member of
Jacques Copeau
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, work ...
's
Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier
The Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier is a theatre located at 21, rue du Vieux-Colombier, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was founded in 1913 by the theatre producer and playwright Jacques Copeau. Today it is one of the three theatres in Paris u ...
in Paris during the first season 1913-14. Later she worked with the troupe in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
from 1917–19 and again in Paris, 1920-24.
Early life and formative years
Suzanne Bing was born in Paris in the
2nd arrondissement. When Bing joined the Vieux-Colombier in 1913, she came to the company with some experience in the artistic circles of Paris.
She married the composer
Edgard Varèse
Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse (; also spelled Edgar; December 22, 1883 – November 6, 1965) was a French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States. Varèse's music emphasizes timbre and rhythm; he coined ...
on 5 November 1907 after spending two years at the Paris
Conservatoire de Musique et de Déclamation where vocal training was more important than acting. She spent several years in Berlin where Varèse tried to make a living. After their daughter, Claude, was born in October 1910, she continued to act in various venues in Paris. But by 1913 Varèse and Bing decided they should pursue their respective careers, and they separated.
[N.N.: ]
Chronologie de Edgard Varèse
''; in French. URL last accessed July 18, 2006. The marriage was not annulled until 1965.
At the Vieux-Colombier
During the first season of the Vieux-Colombier in Paris, Bing played several important roles, the most critically acclaimed of which was her Viola in an adaptation of
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's ''
Twelfth Night
''Twelfth Night'', or ''What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Vio ...
'', ''(Nuit des rois)''. When
war
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
broke out in August 1914, the second season was cancelled as most of the men either volunteered or were called up for service.
Bing continued her collaboration with Copeau as he pursued his concept for a school for actors where his ideals of respect for the text and an acting style freed of rhetorical flourishes common during the era would be taught to young people drawn to a vocation in the theater. Bing, with her own acting experience and training, was an invaluable source of knowledge and support for Copeau. Their first efforts took place in November 1915 with a group of children ranging in age from six to fourteen years.
Bing worked as an assistant to Copeau during these sessions, sometimes replacing him in his absence. Her ability to work with the youngsters in a relaxed and playful atmosphere contributed to the success of this undertaking and helped Copeau in his understanding of various techniques, such as improvisation and music-based movement, that he would incorporate later into a more elaborate curriculum.
After Copeau was excused from military service because of illness, the professional and intimate lives of Bing and Copeau became increasingly intertwined, as she worked with him to establish some basic guidelines for a school. They collaborated on a translation of Shakespeare's ''
The Winter's Tale
''The Winter's Tale'' is a play by William Shakespeare originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, many modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some criti ...
'', finished in 1916. In March 1917, while Copeau was in New York City for a series of lectures, Bing gave birth to their son, Bernard.
To New York and back
During the two-year stint of the Vieux-Colombier at the
Garrick Theatre
The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, named after the stage actor David Garrick. It opened in 1889 with ''The Profligate'', a play by Arthur Wing Pinero, and another Pinero play ...
on 35th Street in New York City, Bing reprised the role of Viola in ''Nuit des rois'', and seven other roles ranging from Elise in
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...
's ''
L’Avare'' to Astolphe in
Alfred de Musset
Alfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay (; 11 December 1810 – 2 May 1857) was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist.His names are often reversed "Louis Charles Alfred de Musset": see "(Louis Charles) Alfred de Musset" (bio), Biography.com, 2007 ...
's ''Barberine'' during the first season and some thirteen roles in the second season, including Cherubin in ''
Le Mariage de Figaro
''The Marriage of Figaro'' (french: link=no, La Folle Journée, ou Le Mariage de Figaro ("The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro")) is a comedy in five acts, written in 1778 by Pierre Beaumarchais. This play is the second in the Figaro trilogy, ...
'' of
Beaumarchais
Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (; 24 January 1732 – 18 May 1799) was a French polymath. At various times in his life, he was a watchmaker, inventor, playwright, musician, diplomat, spy, publisher, horticulturist, arms dealer, satirist, ...
, Mélisande in
Maurice Maeterlinck
Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (29 August 1862 – 6 May 1949), also known as Count (or Comte) Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in ...
's ''
Pelléas et Mélisande'', and Mrs. Helseth in
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playw ...
's ''
Rosmersholm
''Rosmersholm'' () is a play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen in Danish—the common written language of Denmark and Norway at the time—and originally published in 1886 in Copenhagen by the Danish publisher Gyldendal. ''Rosmersholm'' ...
''.
In a review, the magazine ''
The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...
'' wrote on 29 March 1919: "Suzanne Bing seems to be a flame of inspiration to the group, and one comes to look for her, in however humble a capacity, in almost every performance, ..."
['']The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...
'', issue of March 19, 1919. See th
searchable archives
(pay-per-view), or th
URLs last accessed July 18, 2006.
More importantly she continued to collaborate with Copeau on his idea of a school for young actors. She participated in activities at the Children's School founded by Margaret Naumberg,
Waldo Frank
Waldo David Frank (August 25, 1889 – January 9, 1967) was an American novelist, historian, political activist, and literary critic, who wrote extensively for ''The New Yorker'' and ''The New Republic'' during the 1920s and 1930s. Frank is best ...
's wife, who put into practice many of the concepts of
Maria Montessori
Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori ( , ; August 31, 1870 – May 6, 1952) was an Italian physician and educator best known for the philosophy of education that bears her name, and her writing on scientific pedagogy. At an early age, Montessori e ...
. During the summer of 1918, while the troupe of the Vieux-Colombier was lodged at the New Jersey estate of
Otto H. Kahn, she and Marie-Hélène (later Mme Dasté), known as "Maiène", Copeau's oldest child, began to construct
mask
A mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance, or entertainment and often they have been employed for rituals and rights. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practic ...
s and work on activities that included movement and masks.
Upon their return to Paris in 1919, Copeau did not immediately re-open the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier, but the desire to open a school for actors remained ever-present. Again Suzanne Bing played an important role in both areas. The theater began its season with Shakespeare's ''Winter's Tale'' on 9 February 1920 in the Copeau/Bing adaptation and acting classes for a group of adults began on 1 March under the direction of Copeau and Bing. When it became obvious that a suitable locale for a theater school was not available, Bing started lessons with youngsters between the ages of fourteen and eighteen the following December in space above the theater. For the next four years, she shared her talents between the theater and her young charges at the École du Vieux-Colombier, which now had its own space several blocks from the theater and a full-blown program of studies.
Although Copeau thought it best to protect his students from the influence of the professional theater, he did allow them to participate to critical acclaim in a production of
André Gide
André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1947). Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the Symbolism (arts), symbolist movement, to the advent o ...
's ''Saul'' in which they played masked demons. Bing's work with her students was put on display in an adaptation of a
Noh play
is a major form of classical Japanese dance-drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Developed by Kan'ami and his son Zeami, it is the oldest major theatre art that is still regularly performed today. Although the terms Noh and ' ...
, ''Katan'', which they presented in 1924 before an astonished Copeau and
Harley Granville-Barker
Harley Granville-Barker (25 November 1877 – 31 August 1946) was an English actor, director, playwright, manager, critic, and theorist. After early success as an actor in the plays of George Bernard Shaw, he increasingly turned to directi ...
.
The "Copiaus" and the ''Compagnie des Quinze''
Abruptly at the end of the 1924 season, Copeau disbanded his theater company and, with those actors who were willing and some of the students from the school, moved to
Burgundy
Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...
. Thus began a fascinating saga in the countryside that was to last some five years. The motley group of some thirty-five students and actors first settled in
Morteuil and then finally in
Pernand-Vergelesse
Pernand-Vergelesses () is a commune in the Côte-d'Or department in eastern France.
Population
Wine
Pernand-Vergelesses is one of the wine communes of the Côte de Beaune. The western side of the Corton hill is in the commune, including vin ...
, a village not far from
Beaune
Beaune () is the wine capital of Burgundy in the Côte d'Or department in eastern France. It is located between Lyon and Dijon. Beaune is one of the key wine centers in France, and the center of Burgundy wine production and business. The annua ...
, deep in the wine-producing area of Burgundy. With the school abandoned because of a lack of funds in 1925, this odd mixture of actors and students, along with Copeau's nephew,
Michel Saint-Denis
Michel Jacques Saint-Denis (13 September 1897 – 31 July 1971), ''dit'' Jacques 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 the ...
, slowly formed themselves into a troupe that relied on the development of characters of their creation they developed through improvisation and mask work. The concept of a New Comedy that Copeau had developed much earlier during the war years came to fruition here with Bing, Maiène, St-Denis and
Jean Dasté
Jean Dasté, born Jean Georges Gustave Dasté, (18 September 1904 in Paris, France – 15 October 1994 in Saint-Priest-en-Jarez, Loire, France)commedia dell'arte
(; ; ) was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is also known as , , and . Charact ...
, became part of their repertoire as they played in pieces written expressly for them by Copeau or that resulted from their improvisations. As they traveled from village to village putting on their plays in town squares, led by actors in costume and carrying banners, accompanied by drums and music, Burgundians began calling them the "Copiaus". The name soon marked them as progeny of Copeau's concept of the theater—a theater reduced to its essence.
Bing's influence here is not difficult to discern. Her interest in improvisation and masks grew into a devotion both to the development of her former students, Maiène, Jean Dasté,
Etienne Decroux,
Jean Dorcy, and to the continuation of the concepts of Copeau, the man they all called "patron." As the transition from student actor to professional took place under Bing's aegis, they developed new techniques based on their improvisations and mask work. The result was that the students of the École du Vieux-Colombier became themselves teachers and professional actors devoted to a well-honed craft.
In 1929 this small group left Burgundy for Paris to establish the ''Compagnie des Quinze'', under the direction of Michel Saint-Denis. Their first production, ''Noé'', written for the company by
André Obey, was produced on the stage of the Vieux-Colombier in 1931. All the training of the actor's instruments—body and voice—along with the highly developed use of the mask were put on display in this work in which most of the actors played masked animal characters.
Later life and legacy
Although not working directly in the theater under Copeau, Bing continued her collaboration with him on a translation of the tragedies of Shakespeare published in 1939. She, like many theater actors of her generation, tried her hand at the art of the film in ''Le Calvaire de Cimiez'' (1934).
IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
:
Le calvaire de Cimiez
'. URL last accessed July 18, 2006.[Constantin, J.-P.: ]
'. URL last accessed July 18, 2006 Illness drained her energies, but not her spirit. Even during World War II, when she was forced to wear the hated
star
A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...
despite her conversion to
Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, she maintained her dignity. Although set up in a retirement home, by Copeau in 1947, she continued to work, giving elocution lessons and readings to foreign students at the
Sorbonne
Sorbonne may refer to:
* Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities.
*the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970)
*one of its components or linked institution, ...
. The French translations of the comedies of Shakespeare, her last collaboration with Copeau, were published in 1952.
University of Basel
The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universit ...
:
Shakespeare translations
''. URL last accessed July 18, 2006.
She remained throughout her life the most ardent believer in Copeau's concepts of the theater. Without her it is unlikely that the École du Vieux-Colombier would have achieved its many successes, as can be seen in the influence her students exercised in the world of the theater between the two wars and after. She helped transform the formation of the actor in France—a tradition carried on subsequently by
Jacques Lecoq
Jacques Lecoq (15 December 1921 – 19 January 1999) was a French stage actor and acting movement coach. He was best known for his teaching methods in physical theatre, movement, and mime which he taught at the school he founded in Paris known as ...
and
Ariane Mnouchkine
Ariane Mnouchkine (; born 3 March 1939) is a French stage director. She founded the Parisian avant-garde stage ensemble ''Théâtre du Soleil'' in 1964. She wrote and directed ''1789'' (1974) and ''Molière'' (1978), and directed ''La Nuit Mirac ...
.
Suzanne Bing died 1967 in
Neuilly-sur-Seine
Neuilly-sur-Seine (; literally 'Neuilly on Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is a commune in the department of Hauts-de-Seine in France, just west of Paris. Immediately adjacent to the city, the area is composed of mostly select residentia ...
.
Further reading
*Bing, Bernard: ''Le Souvenir de Suzanne Bing'', in ''Revue d'histoire du théâtre'', 1983(1); Paris: Société d'Histoire du Théâtre, 1983. ISSN 0035-2373.
References
Main references:
*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. 61 – 72.
*Gontard, D. (ed.): ''Le Journal de bord des Copiaus.'' Paris: Éditions Seghers, 1974.
*Sicard, C. (ed.): ''Registres VI: L’École du Vieux-Colombier.'' Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 2000. .
Online references:
External links
*
Entre deux jardins - Le Vieux Colombier', documentary of
France 3
France 3 () is a French free-to-air public television channel and part of the France Télévisions group, which also includes France 2, France 4, France 5 and France Info.
It is made up of a network of regional television services providing ...
, 2004/05. In French. URL last accessed July 18, 2006.
*
La compagnie des Quinze'; in French. URL last accessed July 18, 2006.
*Picon-Vallin, B.:
Le théâtre japonais sous le regard de l’Occident'; in French. URL last accessed July 18, 2006.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bing, Suzanne
1885 births
1967 deaths
French stage actresses
20th-century French actresses
French film actresses
Actresses from Paris