Editing Paul Fort (section)

==Theater experience==

At 17, Fort frequented the Left Bank hangout of the [[Symbolism (movement)|Symbolist poets]], the [[Café Voltaire]] (1, Place de l'Odéon), where the discussion included contemporary theatre. His activity there would soon cause his expulsion from high school. The group aimed to break with the reigning Naturalistic scene, including the [[Théâtre Libre]] created in 1887 by [[André Antoine]], even though Fort admired Antoine and hoped to create a new theatre that would bring together the best of all theater forms, including naturalistic drama.<ref>Robichez, Jacques. ''Le Symbolisme au théâtre: Lugné-Poe et les débuts de l'Oeuvre.'' L'Arche, 1957, p. 87</ref> Indeed, the theater Fort founded, The Mixed Theater (''Le Théâtre Mixte''), which debuted on 23 June 1890, announced an eclectic program of varying styles in both new works and long forgotten plays. Combining forces with [[Louis Germain]]'s Idealist Theatre (Le Théâtre Idéaliste), they presented four more plays on 5 and 12 October. These inaugural works included not only efforts by Fort and Germain but also [[Marc Legrand]], le Sr de [[Chanmêlé]], [[Charles Grandmougin]], and [[Joseph Gayda]].<ref>Robichez 486-88.</ref> The critics, however, failed to find the plays in either program artistically revolutionary. Fort and Germain parted ways, leaving Fort to rename his company The Art Theatre (''Le Théâtre d'Art'') and to set up an office at 155, rue Montmartre.<ref>Deak, Frantisek. ''Symbolist Theater: The Formation of an Avant-Garde.'' Johns Hopkins UP, 1993, p. 138-39.</ref> 

Fort's two theatre ventures never had a single theatre home; instead, their programs circulated among eight rental performance spaces, mostly on the Right Bank. He engaged the leading Symbolist painters of the era to design and paint the sets and backdrops, particularly the "Prophets" of the [[Les Nabis|Nabis]] group (Paul Sérusier, Emile Bernard, Maurice Denis, Paul Bonnard, Paul Ranson, Eduard Vuillard, and Henry Gabriel Ibels).<ref>Deak 142, 278.</ref> Fort had appeared as an actor in the June program; Germain, the October. But an important discovery also debuted in the second program: [[Georgette Camée]] (d. 1957), a Paris Conservatory student, who became a seminal actor in the nascent avant-garde theatre movement, and would appear in 22 plays with the Théâtre d'Art. Among her rôles was Mephistopheles—a dandy with a monocle and in a smoking jacket—in their 1892 French adaptation of [[Christopher Marlowe]]'s ''[[Doctor Faustus (play)|Doctor Faustus]]''.<ref>Robichez 500.</ref> Although she won admiration as Geneviève in ''[[Pelléas and Mélisande|Pelléas et Mélisande]]'', the 1893 opening event of the new [[Théâtre de l'Œuvre]], it would be her only performance for the venture. She earned further acclaim in 1894 as Sara in the long-awaited stage presentation of [[Auguste de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam]]'s 1890 Symbolist drama ''[[Axël]]''.  She eventually married writer Maurice Pottecher and joined him in his own regional theatre endeavor, the Théâtre du Peuple, in Bussang, France.<ref>Deak 278.</ref>

A former actor for Antoine's Théâtre Libre, [[Lugné-Poe|Aurélien Lugné-Poe]], who had returned from an abbreviated military service, joined the Théâtre d'Art in spring 1891, first appearing in [[Maurice Maeterlinck]]'s ''[[L'Intruse]]''. For the next two years, he moved regularly between acting for the Théâtre d'Art and directing for the amateur company Le Cercle des Escholiers.<ref>Robichez 142-44.</ref> Lugné-Poe performed in ten plays altogether for Fort, interpreting, most notably, the Maeterlinck rôles of the Old Man in ''L'Intruse'' (1891) and the First Blind Man in ''[[Les Aveugles]]'' (1891), as well as Satan in Jules Bois' ''Les Noces de Sathan'' (1892). He, along with Georgette Camée, forged the signature Symbolist acting style that conveys a religious reverie, with its hieratic poses and gestures, matched with solemn, psalmodized line readings. 

Under the two and a half years of Fort's leadership, the Théâtre d'Art presented poetry recitations, older, little-seen dramatic work by Marlowe, Shelley, and Hugo, as well as new plays by [[Rachilde]] (''La Voix du Sang'', 1890; ''Madame la Mort'', 1891), [[Théodore de Banville]] (''Phyllis'', 1891), [[Catulle Mendès]] (''Le Soleil de Minuit'', 1891), [[Paul Verlaine]] (''Les Uns et les Autres'', 1891), [[Remy de Gourmont]] (''Théodat'', 1891), and especially [[Maurice Maeterlinck]] (''L'Intruse'' and [[Les Aveugles]], both 1891) and [[Charles van Lerberghe]]'s ''Les Flaireurs'' (1892).<ref>Robichez 486-505.</ref> As an artistic director, however, he proved himself ambitious but in over his head; he was often over budget, unable to deal with his creditors, and straining technically to produce difficult, opaque dramatic material.<ref>Robichez 136-41.</ref> By 1892, with the Parisian critics begging him to make better choices, Fort sought in vain to produce Villiers de L'Isle-Adam's ''[[Axël]]'' as the way to reinstate the company's reputation. When it fell through,<ref>Deak 52.</ref> he tried to shepherd the Paris premiere of Maeterlinck's ''[[Pelléas and Mélisande|Pelléas et Mélisande]]'' for March 1893, but Maeterlinck and co-producer Tola Dorian appear to have lost faith in him and the production was abruptly cancelled.  This defeat prompted Fort to give up control of the enterprise altogether and turn his focus to poetry.<ref>Robichez 158-65.</ref> Lugné-Poe took over the ''Pelléas and Mélisande'' project for its premiere in May 1893, which became the first step in launching his own Théâtre de l'Œuvre. In a relatively short time, the Théâtre d'Art had made its mark in the burgeoning avant-garde European theatre. As theatre historian Jacques Robichez has concluded, "In brief, the history of the Théâtre d'Art is that of a failed but fertile experiment, and its principal—and perhaps only—merit is having engendered the Théâtre de l'Œuvre."<ref>"Bref, l'histoire du Théâtre d'Art est celle d'une expérience manquée mais féconde, et son principal, peut-être son seul mérite, est d'avoir engendré le Théâtre de l'Œuvre." Robichez 141.</ref>