Training ecologies for the actor-creator and Gordon Craig’s School for the Art of the Theatre

Abstract

This article addresses the collaborative nature of twentieth-century European actor training in two ways: first, by using the framework of cognitive ecologies to see actor training as a vast and dynamic network of practices beyond single lineages, and second by using a short-lived theatre school as a case study to unearth forgotten transmissions and contributions. The framework of cognitive ecologies was first advanced by Edwin Hutchins in the cognitive sciences and later extended into theatre studies, most notably, by Evelyn B. Tribble in her analyses of the dynamic distribution of efforts in early modern English theatre. This article considers the notion of the actor-creator as a western twentieth-century vision forged by a variety of hands between international flows of contact among theatrical artists, thinkers, administrators, sponsors and craftspeople. To highlight how this approach can reveal the enduring presence of lesser-known experiments and contributions of unrecognised people, the main case study is The School for the Art of the Theatre (SAT) at the Arena Goldoni in Florence (1913–1914). Usually attributed to Edward Gordon Craig as his brainchild and considered a failed experiment, this school was made possible through a host of people, factors and forces, principally unsung women in Craig’s life – Elena Meo and Dorothy Nevile Lees. By tracing the dynamic ecology of efforts and contacts, SAT can be seen as an important flashpoint for the actor-creator, connecting canonical figures and underrecognised contributors alike as they jointly crafted visions and practices for the theatrical agents of the future.