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For making time to speak with me about their work, I express warm gratitude to Jean-Marie Besset, Anne Delbée, Koffi Kwahulé, Arthur Nauzyciel,Valère Novarina, José Pliya, Philippe Quesne, Pascal Rambert, Fabrice Rozié, Marion Schoevaert, members of Superamas, IvanTalijancic,GisèleVienne, and Michel Vinaver. I also profited from conversations with stage professionals on both sides of the Atlantic and heartily thank Faye Allen, Lucien and Micheline Attoun, Astrid Bas, Jonathan Cristaldi, Antonio Díaz-Florián, Kevin Doyle, PaulEmile Fourny, Del Hamilton, Darina al-Joundi, Guila-Clara Kessous, Mirabelle Ordinaire, Henry Pillsbury, Travis Preston, Mark Russell, Hilario Saavedra, Bastien Thelliez, Paul Verdier, Eric Vigner, Guy Walter , and Barbara Watson. I received both moral and practical support for this project from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York, and I especially wish to thank Nicole Birmann-Bloom and Emmanuelle de Montgazon for their sustained interest. In Boston, the advice and assistance I obtained from Brigitte Bouvier, Eric Jausseran, Frédéric Martel, and Anne Miller of the French Cultural Services were precious . I also salute, for their encouragement, Elisabeth Hayes, executive director of the French American Cultural Exchange (FACE), based in New York, and Jean-Marc Granet Bouffartigue and Marie Raymond of the performing arts department of the Association française d’action artistique (now Institut français), based in Paris. Denise Luccioni , who served as artistic liaison for New York’s ACT FRENCH, proved also to be a remarkable facilitator for much of my work in Paris and Avignon: her generosity of spirit is awesome. I am grateful , too, to the administration of the Avignon Festival, especially its codirectors Hortense Archambault and Vincent Baudriller, for their interest and assistance. Several specialists in theatre and/or French and Francophone culture kindly read early drafts of selected chapters, and in some . . . .. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . .. Introduction . . . . . . . . .. Notes . . . . . . . . .. For Further Reading . . . . . . . . .. Index . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. Acknowledgments xvi cases the entire manuscript. For their insights and suggestions I thank Brigitte Bouvier, Odile Cazenave, Roger Célestin, Jean Decock , Gideon Lester, Judith G. Miller, Tom Sellar, Emmanuel Wallon, Philippa Wehle, and Liesl Yamaguchi. I am also beholden, for conversations and exchanges, to Sylviane Bernard-Gresh, Chantal Boiron, Sabine Bossan, Caroline Eades, Joëlle Gayot, Emilie Lacombe, Joyce Maio, Cécile Peyronnet, Jonathan Rabinowitz, Brigitte Salino, Genevi ève Sellier, and Jerry Weinstein. AmongmycolleaguesattheMassachusettsInstituteofTechnology, I tip my hat to those who helped me sustain the ardor, energy, and time required to bring this volume to fruition: Patsy Baudoin, Alan Brody, Cathy Culot, Gilberte Furstenberg, Elizabeth Garrels, Sabine Levet, Shigeru Miyagawa, Johann Sadock, Irving Singer,William Uricchio , and Jing Wang. Particular thanks go to Jeffrey Pearlin for technical assistance regarding the book’s illustrations. I also appreciate the generous financial support granted to me by the Dean’s Office of the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences and by MIT’s French Initiatives Endowment Fund. I dedicate this book to my longtime friend and MIT colleague Isabelle de Courtivron. Isabelle awakened me to the joys of Avignon at festival time and to the pressing need for a book such as this one; over the years, she has been an able advocate of all my book projects, and I am deeply grateful. Part of the pleasure of pursuing primary research in three separate cities came from those whose friendship and hospitality are unflagging : in New York, Karen and Greg Dimit; in Paris, Alain Hardel; in Avignon, Francine and Christian Ménard. At home in Boston, Philip Cobb and David Lapin are, as always, never-failing allies. Finally, I wish to thank Tom Postlewait, editor of the Studies in Theatre History and Culture series, in which this book appears, and Holly Carver, who has just stepped down from the directorship of the University of Iowa Press. Working with the two of them has been a delight. ...

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