Bussang Theatre du Peuple 20070704 France Vosges Misson Didier

The Théâtre du peuple is a theater located in

Bussang Bussang (; or ''Büssing'') is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in Northeastern France. Known as the source of the Moselle River. See also *Communes of the Vosges department The following is a list of the 507 communes of the ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, built in 1895 by

Maurice Pottecher Maurice Pottecher (19 October 1867 – 16 April 1960) was a French writer, and the creator and for many years the director of the ''Théâtre du Peuple'' in Bussang Bussang (; or ''Büssing'') is a commune in the Vosges department in G ...

. The theatre was added to the list of historical monuments in 1975 and is always in activity, putting on a new performance each year. Performances take place on every Sunday of July and August. The Théâtre du peuple is constructed entirely of

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...

and can seat up to 1,200 people. The Théâtre du peuple was the first people's theatre to be established in France after the

Revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

. Originally it was an open-air theatre, in which Pottecher staged

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

and morality plays, often performed by locals in dialect. Its low costs, low ticket prices and the offer of a free performance per season proved a successful formula for Sunday-afternoon theatre. Pottecher used his success as a platform to launch a people's theatre campaign (soon taken up by Nobel-prize winner Romain Rolland). The

proscenium arch A proscenium ( grc-gre, προσκήνιον, ) is the metaphorical vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch (whether or not truly "arched") and on the bottom by the stage floor ...

of the theatre bore the motto "Through Art for Humanity". Pottecher worked at the Théâtre du Peuple until his death in 1960, after which members of his family continued the tradition.Bradby and McCormick (1978, 31-32). Its current director is Pierre Guillois.

Notes

Works cited

* Bradby, David, and John McCormick. 1978. ''People's Theatre''. London: Croom Helm and Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield. .

External links

Official website
(in French) Theatres in France 1895 establishments in France {{france-struct-stub