| Jacques Lecoq (1921-1999) founded a school in Paris for actor training in 1956. For over forty years, he taught thousands of students from all over the world. L'Ecole International de Theatre Jacques Lecoq continues to perpetuate his teachings in a two-year program that focuses on the actor/creator. Lecoq is most often cited for his contributions to theater movement pedagogy through his neutral mask training, and styles work such as commedia dell'arte, tragedy, clown and buffoon. Although unabashedly a pedagogue, Lecoq was more than a stylist or a movement teacher, he sought to awaken the creative capacity of his students. In this, his eye was towards the future and the work that his students would create.; Some of the most exciting and provocative theater work of the later half of the twentieth century has come out of The Lecoq School. While there have been recent studies focusing on Jacques Lecoq's influence on theater practice in Europe, little has been written to assess the impact of his work in the United States. This dissertation will study the creative pedagogy of Jacques Lecoq by looking at how it functions in three American companies that have been influenced by his teaching: Theatre de la Jeune Lune of Minneapolis, Touchstone Theatre of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and UMO Ensemble of Vashon Island, Washington. The hope is that in a convergence of Lecoq-trained artists distilled into an ensemble, there may be an amplification of the training they received at Lecoq's school and a discussion of its influence is possible. What are Lecoq's contributions to a pedagogy of creation, and to the body of work created and developed by his students? This study seeks to uncover and assess three of the Lecoq-trained ensemble companies creating original work in the United States today. |
