Peter Brook

As our style of the show is inspired by Peter Brook I thought it would be helpful to do some research on him. 

Peter Brook was born 21 March 1925 and is an director in film and theatre. He has won many Awards such as Tony and Emmy Awards.  Majority of Brooks shows are amazing such as the production Marat/Sade in 1964 which was the first English production. This got transferred to Broadway and won the Tony Award for Best Play.   Don't get me wrong Peter Brook is an amazing director however recently he directed a show at the Young Vic called Battlefield and my friend told me that it was bad he didn't want to put his name on the programmes. I think this is really interesting as Peter has been called 'our greatest living theatre director ' who all actors want to work with. I do feel sorry for him as he properly does have a lot pressure to create amazing theatre all the time and all artist will make mistakes at some point in there career.

Brook was influenced by Antonin Artaud and his idea of Theatre of Cruelty. I studied Artuad last term and I found it really interesting as I have never studied experimental theatre before. To sum up theatre of cruelty its a form of theatre where Artaud wanted to unleash unconscious in audiences and performers that weren't normally accessible. He wanted theatre to show the audience society nightmares and deepest fears. I can see why Peter Brook is inspired by Artuad as I think not many theatre directors do this now a days which what makes Peter Brook so special.  In 1964 Peter Brook and Charles Marowitz did a The Theatre of Cruelty Season at the royal Shakespeare Company. The season was very popular and properly started Peters career. Peter was also inspired by Joan Littlewood. Brook really looked to Joan because at one point he called her 'the most galvanising director in mid -20th century Britain ' . He was also inspired by Jerzy Grotowski , Bertolt Brecht , Chris Covics and Vsevolod Meyerhold. I think by Peter Brook being inspired by so many people  gave him the opportunity to keep on creating original theatre and making his mind on what he wants to use and not want to use from there techniques.

Brook's first production was Dr Faustus in 1943 which was performed at the Torch Theatre in London . In 1947 assistant directed Romeo and Juliet and Love's Labour Lost. His career then took a massive peak in 1947- 1950 where he was Director of Productions at the Royal Opera House and Covent Garden.  Skipping a couple of years in 1970 Brook was the founder of The International Centre for Theatre Research. This was a company made up of actors, dancers and musicians that travelled around the middle east in the early 70's.  The company was based at the Bouffes du Nord Theatre in Paris since 1974. The company still exists however in 2008 Peter resigned as artistic director and Olivier Mantei and Olivier Poubelle took over.

^{Learning about Peter Brook has been really interesting and is someone who I should be seeing his work as he is such a good director. Finally, it is helpful for me to learn about other theatre directors as I want to be one myself.}