{fly-y, . MASKS: THEIR USE AND EFFECTIVENESS IN ACTOR TRAINING PROGRAMS . f Dissertation for the Degree of Phi D. MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY SEARS ATWOOD ELDREDGE ' 1975 I NNANNNNNNAN t Michigan State University “3%.? MASKS: THEIR USE AND EFFECTIVENESS IN ACTOR TRAINING PROGRAMS ,.’ presented by Sears Atwood Eldredge has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for Ph.D. degeehl Theatre Majorpm'éis‘dN fl ‘5 .w Date Oct'o 1: 17, 1975 ".5: .W-i r . 0-7639 RETURNING MATERIALS: Place in book drop to remove this checkout from your record. FINES will be charged if book is returned after the date stamped below. MSU LIBRARIES \' f'AII’BB 8 “VA « x A Ana.“ Wittese Hm ., 5 mm ABSTRACT MASKS: THEIR USE AND EFFECTIVENESS IN ACTOR TRAINING PROGRAMS By Sears Atwood Eldredge The use of masks in actor training programs is not a new idea, but it is not widely known or practiced. It originated in the early part of this century as an actor training method developed by Jacques Copeau at his Ecole du Vieux-Colombier in Paris. Copeau discovered that masks could be used as training devices to release his apprentice actors psychophysically as well as teach them in a concrete fashion to transform themselves physically and vocally into the being that the masks represented. Copeau continued to explore the uses of the masks in actor training with his students, and since then others, primarily his students or students of his students, have elaborated on the core of teaching that Copeau established. It should be understood at the outset that this use of the mask in actor training is not as a preparation for masked theatre forms, although the implications are certainly there for that sort of application of the techniques. Rather, this was a method de— veloped to train apprentice actors for non-masked theatre. Sears Atwood Eldredge There has never been a systematic investigation of this unique teaching procedure in print, as the training method was handed down by oral transmission and classroom experience from teacher to student. This study will attempt to provide that thorough investigatiOn by examining the philosophical theory on which the training is based, by describing in detail how the mask is used in the actor training programs, and then by evaluating what the beneficial effects of this training are for the actor's future development as a performing artist. The research methods necessary to complete this study have involved extensive interviews with many of the faculty who teach actor training with masks as well as observation of classes in which the techniques of this method were employed. The transcrip- tions of the interviews appear in the Appendices. Library research into primary and secondary source materials was conducted as well. Thirty-five photographs of masks and their use in the training procedure accompany the text. The study is divided into ten chapters. Chapter I is con- cerned with the statement of the focus of the study, the research methodologies involved, definitions, and what non-theatrical sources indicate is the nature of the effect of the mask on the wearer and viewer. Then in Chapter II there is a look at the historical milieu in which the rebirth of the mask in the modern world oc- curred, with particular attention to the responses of those that were affected by their experiences of the mask. This is followed (Chapter III) by an examination of the life and thought of Jacques Sears Atwood Eldredge Copeau; his discovery of the mask as a training device, and the application of this discovery in his theatre schools. Chapter IV surveys the current actor training programs that presently employ this method, and is followed by a brief description of the different types, construction materials, and design principles involved with these training masks (Chapter V). The next four chapters are a detailed examination of the theories and techniques employed with the various kinds of training masks: the Universal Masks (Chapter VI), the Character Masks (Chapter VII), the Miscellaneous Training Masks (Chapter VIII), and the Commedia dell'arte Masks (Chapter IX). In Chapter X the implications and conclusions concerning the value and effectiveness of this training method for the student actor are presented. MASKS: THEIR USE AND EFFECTIVENESS IN ACTOR TRAINING PROGRAMS By Sears Atwood Eldredge A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Theatre 1975 © Copyright by SEARS ATNOOD ELDREDGE I975 DEDICATED TO Patricia Reid Eldredge--without whose encouragement, patience, and sacrifice, this work would never have been completed. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the chairman of my committee, Professor Frank C. Rutledge, Chairman of the Department of Theatre, for his patience, guidance, and encourage- ment in the preparation of this study, and to Dr. John Baldwin, Dr. Donald Treat, and Professor Dixie Durr for their interest and editorial assistance. My deepest appreciation must go to Professor Bari Rolfe of the University of Washington, Professional Actor Training Program, who has been enthusiastic about this project from the start and has shared freely with me her insights and experiences as well as her collection of unpublished and rare materials. She has been a continual source of encouragement and inspiration. Mrs. Glena Benda Shimler and Mme. Marie-Helene Dasté were also extremely generous in answering questions and granting me permission to examine masks and documents, or to publish photographs in their possession. My sincere thanks extends also to those teachers of this method of training actors with masks who were so generous in giving of their time and information without which this study would not have succeeded: M. Jacques Lecoq, Mr. Jeremy Geidt, Mr. Pierre Lefevre, Mr. Carlo Mazzone-Clementi, Mr. Peter Schumann, Mr. Peter Frisch, Ms. Libby Appel, Ms. Estelle Spector, Mr. Rolland Meinholt, and Ms. Joy Spanabel. I am grateful to Ms. Peggy Buchko for providing me with a student's point of view on the mask training, and to Mr. Chris Thor and Ms. Patricia Eldredge for their assistance with the translations. Thanks also are due to Dr. Clarence w. Bahs and Dr. Farley Richmond for their interest and encouragement. LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF FIGURES . LIST OF APPENDICES . Chapter I. INTRODUCTION II. III. IV. V. THE MASK: VI. THE METHOD: VII. THE METHOD: VIII. THE METHOD: IX. THE METHOD: X. BIBLIOGRAPHY . TABLE OF CONTENTS THE REBIRTH OF THE MASK IN THE MODERN WORLD JACQUES COPEAU AND THE MASK IN ACTOR TRAINING MASKS IN CURRENT ACTOR TRAINING COURSES TYPES, CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS, AND DESIGN PRINCIPLES . . . . . THE UNIVERSAL MASKS . CHARACTER MASKS THE MISCELLANEOUS TRAINING MASKS THE COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE MASKS . MASKS AND FACES: THE VALUE OF THE MASK TRAINING FOR THE ACTOR, EVALUATIONS, CONCLUSIONS . . . APPENDICES Page vi ix 24 70 128 I44 l63 20l 254 274 294 3l4 336 Figure 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. LIST OF FIGURES Fashion models wearing masks by N. T. Benda N. T. Benda and "friends" in his Greenwich Village studio . Mrs. Benda in one of w. T. Benda's female masks under Benda's huge Uber-marionette N. T. Benda wearing his favorite mask with his daughter, Glena . . Examples of Copeau's neutral training masks and demons with raffia hair Masks drying at Pernand in 1929 Jean Daste making masks in Burgundy . Suzanne Bing under the mask of Célestine in the play L'Illusion . . . . . Michel Saint—Denis under the mask of the character Knie in L'Illusion Michel Saint-Denis, Suzanne Bing, and Jean Dasté under the masks of the character Knie, Celestine, and Mr. Cesar from the play L'Illusion An actor in one of Jeremy Geidt's Comic Character Masks at Yale University School of Drama Leather masks by Amleto Sartori for a production of Aeschylus' The Oresteia A model in N. T. Benda's mask of "The Golden Beauty“ N. T. Benda posing in one of his favorite masks . The Neutral Mask of Jacques Lecoq Carlo Mazzone-Clementi's Metaphysical Mask vi Page 58 59 6O 61 102 114 115 116 117 119 148 152 159 160 166 170 Figure 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. Bari Rolfe with a Universal Mask (right) and a Character Mask (left) . . . . . . Bari Rolfe's Character Masks made of papier-mfiché Libby Appel and Estelle Spector' s Character Masks at the Goodman School of Drama . . . Jeremy Geidt's Comic Character Masks on the shelf at Yale University School of Drama A student trying out a gesture to see if it is appropriate for the Character Mask in one of Bari Rolfe's classes w. T. Benda's mask, "The Miser," used by Miss Seven in The Greenwich Village Follies of l920 M. T. Benda's “Silly Doll" mask in a double-exposure photograph showing both the surface and the inside of the mask . . . . . . . . . . . Three students in Bari Rolfe's Character Masks improvising a scene A student physicalizing in one of Jacques Lecoq's Larval Masks . . . . . . . . . Two students improvising in the Larval Masks of Jacques Lecoq N. T. Benda's Grotesque Mask combining human and bird characteristics w. T. Benda's Grotesque Mask combining human and fish characteristics . . . . . . Two of Jacques Lecoq's students wearing the clown nose--the minimal mask Commedia dell'arte mask of the character Pantalone . Commedia dell'arte mask of the character Dottore Commedia dell'arte mask of the character Pulcinella Commedia dell'arte mask of the character Brighella . Page 203 214 216 218 223 227 228 233 259 261 263 264 269 282 283 285 286 Figure Page 34. Commedia dell'arte mask of the character Harlequin . . 288 35. Commedia dell'arte mask for the character of the Captain worn by Carlo Mazzone-Clementi . . . . . 292 viii Appendix A. Interview with Peter Frisch B. Interview with Peter Schumann . C. Interview with Bari Rolfe D. Interviews with Jacques Lecoq . E. Interviews with Carlo Mazzone-Clementi . F. Interview with Jeremy Geidt G. Interview with Libby Appel . H. Interview with Rolland Meinholt I. Interview with Joy Spanabel LIST OF APPENDICES ix Rage 337 356 372 389 393 407 426 445 460 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION r§m§1fl§23n_integnfll.QQ£E_Q¥_gyman culture. . . . The residue remains in a state of avai a ility in the subterranean reserves of the imagination and the passions. They serve their purpose in ways that bear the marks of the old nocturnal state, defying our logical analysis to a great extent. Now, they serve as background for discovery, for invention, and what concerns us here,‘ thgflghi+.the action of placing_on one s face‘tfiETmEsk of ano_tber face is someth1ng far more striking Wand stimulatin than the _ #_,,,__,c ng##_*___, act of making up to pla ay a g1ven part. A mask confers upon a giVEfi‘EXEF6§§16fi“tfia maximum of intensity together with an impression of absence. A mask expresses at the same time the g maximumdgfallfietfind the max1mum of death; it artakes of mthg7 of ZiEinEeEHW---- e 1nv1sTBTe1fof‘the ap arent and_absolute 351bid., p. l65. 36 trans. Joseph Chiari (New York: Hill & Wang, Inc., 1961). 37Ibid., p. 77. .\_~ T \ \4 that contains a duality of expression, The mask does also; Both /,/I“/ The mask is a concrete object designed to cover the face 13 We can see from this, that it is not only the human faces the human face and the mask hold within themselves twgfigpposing ’forces in tensiofl: the dynamic and the static; life and death. “mm What happens to those opposing forces when the human face assumes the substitute face of the mask? The wearer of the mask is seized by the sublimity and dignity Of those—Who are nngore. He is himSelf and yet someone else. Madness has toUChed h1m--someth1ngfipf the_ mystery of the mad , ‘ fififi; sométhing of the sp1r1t Wof the dual being[italics added] who l1V‘EHiHTTHETmask“afid”whose most.recent_descendant is the act \ \s ‘x’ I l in order to disguise it. From whom do we disguise ourselves? The obvious answer is, of course, from others _f[om thewex xem_n nal world.,n \\\__,_,______*k But is there any sense in which we _also are disguisi_ng_ ou_rsel_ves F___,_____*m f£99s92r§elve5? The first thing that happens when one puts on a mask is that one conceals the human features. Pizzorno writes concerning this act of concealment. There exists a notion purely psychological and negative, of the mask, behind which the face of a man hides itself: the mask is that which appears to others. Behind, concealed and scr.efied, the authentic bei_ng remains conscious of its d1vers1ty W<$§:§u2\onfa_ to a ear d1fferent _fLom what_we _are. 5'- he mask 15 the appearance; the face, conscious of the inner J2 life, is the reality. 39 (A. T. ) One reason for this need to appear other than what we are is fog self;protection. One has only to think of gas masks, operating 38Walter F. Otto, Dionysus: Myth and Cult, trans. Robert B. Palmer (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, l965), p. 2lO. 39p. l43. 14 room masks, and welders‘ head shields to recognize this fact. But this sense of protection from the external world that the mask provides can also be used conversely to facilitate an inner con- 40 centration, as is realized by shammans in Siberia. In Masks: Their Meaning and Function, Andreas Lommel4] concludes that the ,Efgtgctive ”595 0f the mask are OplxaitSmsenondarwaunetions:Ag" Ihe_:ealfifunction of_tne maskflis not to conceal butmto.:€§% PIEX§§14,mln fact, one act is inherent in the act of the other. mwfiof .221 wwzhwwfimgm .91 Piling. _reyelatibn.943 (A T.) seen--and the act of being concealed: thatflpf, _-;..... -._.x.np—--——-a-———-,_... ,‘._7 .- u.“- W Walter Sorell in his book, The Other Face: The Mask in the Arts,44 expresses this same paradoxical idea in a less cryptic fashion. ' Early man's desire for transformation, for losing the / identity of face and shape, emerged from his seemingly contra- { dictory need for self-repulsion as well as for total possession \ of his self.45 The act of concealing one's face by a mask accomplishes a ML 19§§,9i\igfifliilx;.a depefsonalizgtjgn, 0f the wearer. Baradoxically, . “Aw—.5 .777 . only if the deper§onalization occurs_can the mask QQme,§]j¥B;,.The VN- — -w—d 4OIbid., p. 155. 4ltrans. Nadia Fowler (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., l972). 421bid., p. 213. 43 Pizzorno, p. l58. 44(Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., 1973). 451bid., p. 7. 15 mask wearer is disguising himself from himself. Pizzorno claims, M , w "the mask begins where the person is abolished."46 (A.T.) Bgtfljf__a _he k abolish it alsgflre-identifies.:.As Pizzorno has also stated, the mask "restores on an abolished face the identity of a "47 ( being. A.T.) Therefore, the mask, at the_sametimewitmdepersonalizes theWL wearer, creates a new identity for him also. And what is the nature ‘WWhLerw‘mL-I" .- __,_.__ _-_-~ -—- —- —...-——..——-——_- . . of this new identity? Nhen wearing a mask, the person disguised is impelled to move as he feels the mask-spirit must move. If he wears an animal head, he must imitate the characteristic movements of the animal. More often than not_these movements fall intosamstylizedfpattenn, For instance, the goat wags its head and leaps, the bull menaces with its horns and charges. These movements, repeated over and over to be perfectly clear, become rhythmic. They are, indeed, dances. If the masker wears a demon face, he must invent bodily movements to suit it. These too may be repetitive and rhythmic and become a dance. The action prompted by the mask is so often patterned, whether mimic or not, that dancing and masking are concomitant. We have already noted how an object creates a sense of move- ment in the observer. Now that idea has been reinforced by the additional insight expressed here that there is a definite relation- ship between the type of sculptured subject matter of the object— mask and the type of movement required by the wearer to complete it. 49 with a mgskrwas "to get out of oneselfLV For the anthropologist, 46Pizzorno, p. l49. 471b1d., p. 153. 48Paul McPharlin, Masks: Occult and Utilitarian (Detroit: Cranbrook Institute of Science, 1940), p. 7. 49Barrault, The Theatre of Jean-Louis Barrault, p. 77. 16 Claude Levi-Strauss, there are other reasons. (tevi=Strauss finds Picard's realization of a dynamic discord within the human face itself to be operating also between the face and the rest of the body. . . man's face is at varience with man's body; in the same way that the state of society is at varience with the state of Nature. The natural functions belong to the body: breathing, circulation, assimilation, generation, and over these we have little control. The face on the other hand, is the seat of the 'socialised' functions, or should I put it 'socialising': First language, articulated by the mouth; then that other system of signs which constitutes the expression of feelings, of natural origin, no doubt, but which each culture has remodelled in a special range and style. It is by reason of the face and by the face that man communicates with man. It is by disguising or transforming his face that he interrupts that communication, or diverts it to other ends. Levi-Strauss goes on to observe that when a mask is worn, . the individual identifiable as a person becomes an anonymous being; he escapes from classification in the group, he is no longer a parent, a master or a servant; he is set free to make contact with other powers, other worlds, those 0f,19!§- and death.51 (W Or, in the more succinct words of Everett Lesley, Jr., fiChangethew -face and the 9.9”i5.9h§fl99d3 alter E E €90, afldztbe human-become§m-\:el 52 In 1954, a controlled experiment was carried out by a clini- cal psychologist and a speech pathologist in a Mount Vernon, New York, public school special education class of stuttering children. Masks were used as an adjunct to role-playing to see if they 50"The Many Faces of Man,“ World Theatre, X, Number 1 (Spring, 1961), pp- 11-12. 511b1d., p. 12. 52Alter Ego. Masks: Their Art and Use (New York: The Cooper Union Museum For The Arts of Decoration, 195l), p. 4. 17 would have any beneficial effects on the children's stuttering problems. The rationale given for their use was as follows: While puppets, projective playing with dolls, socio-drama, and so on give valuable information as to personality structure and provide therapeutic opportunities for projecting and 'acting- out' personality problems, it seems to us that the,use_oi;masks—~ Q» adds an nggitjonal dimension. Through their_use the childzcan more clearly idEntifyhfiithmthe role he wishes to play, and he “cant—througHTTdEhtificat1on, more clearly establish the fact that it is possible to change roles. For the child who has a negative self-image, the opportunity to test out different roles offers tempting possibilities. Hidden behind a false face somehow gives the wearer an illusion that he himself is covered and, therefore, that his ego is not responsible for the antics of the new character.53 The results of this experiment were remarkable. “Even a child with an extraordinarily severe stuttering handicap assumed the role with complete freedom from blockage.”54 Also noted was the fact that the children expressed themselves through more effective bodily movements than had hitherto been the case.55 In summarizing their conclusions, these two researchers claimed, ”We feel that the use of masks as an adjunct to role-playing is invalu- able and that its significance jnflthejgevelgpmgfl:_gf\ngxéglfixh images may be considerable.“56 w /\ \,-’ ‘ Man's need to change is linked with theweffegt thatfthat._- change willfihgve on himseTf and on others. One ofuthosezeffegtsmiszs m./ a strong sense of\releasec M,/ \v ~-~" "" 53Penelope Pearl Pollaczek and Harold D. Homefield, I'Use of masks as an adjunct to role-playing,” Mental Hygiene, XXXVIII (April, 1954), p. 299. 54Ibid., p. 301. 551bid., p. 302. 56Ibid., p. 304. --\ x 18 When a man puts on a mask he experiences a kind of release from his inhibited and bashful and circumscribed soul. He can say and do strange and terrible things, and he likes it.57 Roger Caillois, the French philosopher, also expounds on this concept of the mask as an agent of release for the wearer. One keeps returning to the general problem posed by the wearing of masks. lt,i§_gl§9c§§§ociated with the experience of possession and of communion with ancestg:§,_§pinits,.and gods. The wearer is temporarily exalted and made to believe ’tfiaf””fifiis under ing some decisive tran_£9£métion. In any case, the unleashing of 1nstinct andfiof overwhelmingly fearful and invincible forces is encouraged. No doubt.thewwearercof~. theTgaskris not deceived by the beginning,.but_he_rapidlyc 1e 5 o Toxi cation that seizes him. His mind enthralled, he ecomes completelg abandoned to the disorder excited in him by his own m1m1cry. Caillois is also implying that while the mask acts*a§~afl_agenifiof re ase for the wearer, it simultaneously acts asganflagent_o£wcontrol. . F_ _,/\'/\,/'l _.-. "Vi The wearer is released into the behavior patterns dictated by his subjective response to the significance of the mask. If the mask produces this sense of release and control in the wearer, so that as he acts as the mask dictates he thereby becomes even more inspired by the mask, what reactions does the observer of a masked performer have? _ _ “x\ K With the publication of his Psychology of the Unconscious in l9l2, Jung began to revise Freud's concept of the unconscious. For Jung, there was Qthhfiwaart of map;§_psyche__ which Freud had failed to recognize This was th§.EQllEEEiXE.Efl:" ' V M“- «w— -.-..—--' consciousewhich_ Jung cla1med readil_y responded to arc_hetypal 1mages _ _fl—‘fiN—a—M apdppatterps_pf experience 5 While in the process of defining what __.__...-————-__._o- he meant by the collective gaggnécmiogsa Jungegg]oxeg__tb.e_im_a_g_e__-gf.____ 3‘ _~.‘ e... . _the_m3sk, or as he called it, the persona. This arbitrary segment of collective psyche--often fashioned with considerable pains—-I have called the persona. The term persona is really a very appropriate expression for this, for originally it meant the mask once worn by actors to indicate the role they played. . . . It is, as its name implies, only a mask of the collective psyche, a mask that feigns individu- ality, making others and oneself believe that one is individual, whereas one is simply acting a role through which the collective psyche speaks. When we analyze the persona we strip off the mask, and discover that what seemed to be individual is at bottom col- lective; in other words, that the persona was only a mask of the collective psyche. Fundamentally £h§.9§£sona.is_nothing .neal: Lit ismamcompromisewbetwgenethe individual and.society asfltp/what a man should appear to be. 41bid., p. 144. 51bid. . p.265. 6"The Persona As a Segment of the Collective Psyche,” Two Essays 0n Analytical Psychology, in The Portable Jung, ed. Joseph Campbell (New York. The Viking Press, l972), pp. lDS- lO6. 27 Both Freud and Jung emphasized the superficial nature of the _ ” Fl: mask behind whi the more authentic 1nd1v1dual was concealed As Sorell explains Jung' 5 concept, /A The formation and wearing of our mask is a general experi- ence and a seeming necessity for life in our society. The persona is the mask which protects us not only against the other7people behind their masks, but also against our own real self. \‘. These philosophical and psychological concepts gave encourage- / / ment to the already active antirealistic movement in the arts that was trying to express a deeper reality, not through the accumulation of surface details as the realists, but by a direct presentation of man's inner life. /. Yet, in contrast to thIe way the image of the mask was IbeingI/I (“LA\ _._..___.. employed by ertefS SUEhflEé“192.532he.a.,,_F£§ud-,...-an_d__J_ung.. these _._...”- antirealists had themselves revived Iand adopted theImaIsk for _._. .a—u "W“ fl- -——-._. _._-fl." _._- H__ _. _._...— precisely the oppos1te reasons For thesefiartists, th_eI _mas_k _“._ -._. _._—..- _._(.I _...-.,.———~- — ,....._. ,\l “{represented noItI man Is outer cond1t1on but hIis inner Istate of mIind. /1 _ __.....- —__.__ __—_ ——-— 1 The mask was not to be considered aIfalse_fa§e; 1t was the true \..___.....~ --- M- - |-—- "' 1 face- It was Eh?_ancientotheatricel devic.e,-9i_the _ma_sk thatellowed ‘, them to abstract and externalize in concrete fashion this very inner I —_'—%-—--~_..—;-- fi_._. subconscious world. .L_ And it is this perception of the mask with M‘ " ""' ‘ which we shall be primarily concerned. For it was these artists who rediscovered the old powers of the mask living still "in the blood and in the bones"8 only waiting to be revived. 7Sorell, p. 13. 8Edward Sullivan, C.S.B., "There will be time, there will be time to prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet," Persona Grata (Houston: University of St. Thomas, l960), n.p. 28 James Ensor, the Flemish painter, was one of those artists who rediscovered in the mask a paradoxical and complex symbol for his psychological insights. His "Man Gazing at a Negro Mountebank” (circa l879) was only the first of a series of disturbing paintings depicting man's face as a mask.9 Walter Sorell writes that Ensor's constant fascination with the mask was due to the fact that Ensor considered the mask “as the live realization of the real man in man, as the face with which to unmask the hidden hypocrisy, all camoflaged meanness."1O Ensor's own statement about the latent powers inherent in masks is significant because of his perception of their essentially dramatic nature. And the mask cried out to me: Freshness of tone, sharp expression, sumptuous décor, great unexpected gestures, unplanned movements, exquisite turbulence.ll _._—th _.—-—* ' “M It was the French poet-playwright Alfred Jarry/who, in a -.....—-—- _.-—.—-‘ September l896 article, "Of The Futility of the 'Theatrical' In "12 The Theatre, first proposed that the mask be re-introduced into theytheatre for the actor. The actor will have to replace his face by the effigy of the / character, by means of enclosing it within a mask, which will v// I not, as in Ancient Greece, have the quality of laughter or l tears (which do not constitute character at all), but the 1 _‘L__ \ 9$orell, p. l63. IOIbid. 111bid., quoting Ensor, p. l65. 12trans. Barbara Wright, as found ln.QEE.EQia trans. Barbara Wright (New York: New Directions, l96l). 29 ualities of character: the Miser, the Hesitator, the Greedy Nan who commits cr1me upon crime. And if the eternal qualities of the character are incorporated in the mask, there is a simple means . . . of bringingito light . . . those qualities dominant at any given momentfl3’ Jarry had been greatly influenced by the marionette theater and knew that the various positions of the marionette's head could, by the play of light and shadow over its surface, evoke every expression. This he now claimed the masked actor could do also.14 He also acknowledged that the masked actor, like the marionette, had to have an appropriate voice, body, and set of gestures to complete the image the mask suggested.15 In December of the same year, when Jarryjs play, HEB-3912 burst upon the stage of the Theatre de l'Oeuvre, Jarry had asked the director, Lugné—Poe, to put a mask on the face of the lead actor. But this idea was not carried out, although heavy makeup was used‘J6‘ There seem to be two major reasons why Jarry wanted to re-introduce the masked actor into the theater of his day. One was to eliminate the influence of the star—actor personalities that distorted plays into a vehicle for their own aggrandisementrlif The other and more important reason was openly confessed by Jarry himself in the 13Alfred Jarry, "An Approach to Abstract Decor,” trans. Michael Bullock, as found in Art and the Stage in the 20th Century, ed. Henning Rischbieter (Greenwich: New York Graphic Society, l969), p.26. ' 14Jarry, "Of The Futility,‘ pp. l80-l8l. 155113111., p. 181. l6 Brockett and Findlay, p. l38. 17K. S. Beaumont, "The Making of Ubu: Jarry as Producer and Theorist,” Theatre Research, XII, No. 2 (l972), pp. l48-l49. 3O preface to the play that he delivered to the first night audience (even though what he says about the actors' willingness to appear masked was not true and did not occur): Our actors have been willing to depersonalize themselves for two evenings, and to act behind masks,P in o.nderstomexpress ‘av-r‘ pgppets you are about_to_§§g_]8 W9.“ 123' £91192- deflwmw. eithemfisku . on the actor was to become extremely important to those_artistsmwhpm made use of the mask in the modern world, expecially to the thinking V of