ECOLE DES MAITRES: LEARNING FROM THE DIRECTOR

From July 31st to September 28th, 2000, the great Lithuanian director Eimuntas Nekroæius directed the two-month long single master class during the ninth edition of the Ecole des Maîtres, which is the international course of theatre specialization directed by Franco Quadri and promoted in Italy by the Center of Services and Stage Productions of Udine and by the Italian Theatre Institution. Numerous European partners also collaborated: the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, Fonds d’Assurance Formation des Activités du Spectacle, and the Académie Théatrale de l’Union for France, the Centre de Récherche et d’Expérimentation en Pédagogie Artistique for Belgium, the Ministério da Cultura Instituto Portgu™s das Artes do Espectáculo for Portugal. For the Lithuanian director, the Ecole des Maîtres represents the first important experience as a theatre pedagogist; a new path which flanks his intense directing activity which has an immense following in Italy, where every one of his new productions has the resonance of a great event. As was the case recently for his Othello (which was seen in a non-definitive form at the Biennial Theatre of Venice) - the last chapter of an extraordinary Shakespearean trilogy which had already explored Hamlet and Macbeth.
A year ago, it was mainly out of curiosity that he accepted the invitation from the director of the Ecole des Maîtres, Franco Quadri, who had asked him to conduct one of the three sections of the 8th edition. For Nekroæius, who directs the Theatre workshop “Meno Fortas”, the opportunity to work for the first time as a teacher of theater was materializing, with developing actors which were not part of his company and coming from three countries different from another in language and culture - Italy, France and Belgium.
Twenty-two student actors were selected this year from the best academies and theatre schools of Europe: in all 22 actors - 6 Italians, 6 French, 6 Belgians and 4 Portuguese. At the basis of the specialization course was the formalization for the stage of one of the great classics of Åechov, who along with Shakespeare is one of the authors most loved by the Lithuanian director. We’re speaking of The Seagull and it’s the first time that Nekroæius has approached this masterpiece, after having directed three other Åechovian masterpieces in the past: Ivanov (1978), Uncle Vanja (1981) and Three Sisters (1996.)
For the student actors Nekroæius foresaw to a detailed psychological exploration of Åechov’s characters, their motivations, their relationships, their background and their history - to rediscover human truth behind the words written by the playwright beyond a modern theatrical expression, taking as a basis the ideas of the students themselves and the images and inventions which would emerge from the numerous improvisations developed and formalized during the class.
The first session, which was the Italian one, took place until the 28th of August in Fagagna (Udine), the town on the hills of Friuli which has regularly hosted international courses the past eight years. For the second session, the students were transferred together with Nekroæius to Saint Priest-Taurion (Limoges), in France, where they continued to work until the 24th of September. The final demonstration of the work was presented the 24th of September at Ville le Mazeau in Limoges, for the International Festival of French speaking Theatres, the 26th of September at the Theatre de la Cité of Liege and the 28th of September at the Teatro Quirino of Rome, for the Autumn Festival - International Routes.