The International Centre for Theatre Research, sometimes also known as The International Centre for Theatre Creation, was founded in 1970 by

Peter Brook Peter Stephen Paul Brook (21 March 1925 – 2 July 2022) was an English theatre and film director. He worked first in England, from 1945 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, from 1947 at the Royal Opera House, and from 1962 for the Royal Sha ...

and

Micheline Rozan Micheline Rozan (11 September 1928 – 7 September 2018) was a French stage and film producer who co-founded the International Centre for Theatre Research with British director Peter Brook. Early life Rozan was born into a Jewish family who ...

. It is often abbreviated to the

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

CIRT, as in French the group is called the ''Centre International de Recherche Théâtrale''. The centre is a multicultural theatrical research and production company based out of the Bouffes du Nord theatre in Paris since 1974. The first three years of the company were taken up by exploring a fundamental theatrical question (see below)

Funding

Brook had previously been sponsored for limited periods by

Jean-Louis Barrault Jean-Louis Bernard Barrault (; 8 September 1910 – 22 January 1994) was a French actor, director and mime artist who worked on both screen and stage. Biography Barrault was born in Le Vésinet in France in 1910. His father was 'a Burgundia ...

or the RSC (at the Roundhouse). Brook and Rozan acquired sufficient funding to sustain Brook's work for three years, working with a core company and several visiting collaborators. A budget of $1 million was established: $100,000 to set up the organization, and $300,000 for each year from 1971-1973. Money was raised from the French government and various international foundations (the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

, the

Gulbenkian Foundation The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation ( pt, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian), commonly referred to simply as the Gulbenkian Foundation, is a Portuguese institution dedicated to the promotion of the arts, philanthropy, science, and education. One o ...

and the Anderson Foundation). Money also came from the government of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

in the form of a commission for a work at the

Shiraz Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars () and Persis. As of the 2016 national census, the population of the city was 1,565,572 p ...

Persepolis , native_name_lang = , alternate_name = , image = Gate of All Nations, Persepolis.jpg , image_size = , alt = , caption = Ruins of the Gate of All Nations, Persepolis. , map = , map_type ...

festival in 1971. Work was begun even though the full three-year budget was not secured at the outset.

First three-year journey

This multinational assembly of actors, dancers, musicians and other performers travelled widely in the Middle East and Africa in the early 1970s. This was as a three-year 'pilgrimage' to answer the question "What were the common stories, the recognizable shorthands, the instant abstractions, the shared outlines of story and character with which an international group could work?" On this three-year sojourn, they produced two major works: '' Orghast'' I & II, performed in 1971 at the

Shiraz Arts Festival The Shiraz Festival of Arts ( Persian: جشنواره هنر شیراز) was an annual international summer arts festival, held in Iran bringing about the encounter between the East and the West. It was held from 1967 to 1977 in the city of Shiraz ...

in Iran in the

Achaemenid The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest emp ...

ruins of

and Naqsh-e Rostam, and ''

The Conference of the Birds ''The Conference of the Birds'' or ''Speech of the Birds'' ( fa, منطق الطیر, ''Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayr'', also known as ''Maqāmāt-uṭ-Ṭuyūr''; 1177) is a Persian poem by Sufi poet Farid ud-Din Attar, commonly known as Attar of Ni ...

'', developed in

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...

and completed in 1974 at BAM in Brooklyn, New York.

Similar organisations

*American Educational Theatre Association (1949), publishers of ''Educational Theatre Journal'', edited by Barnard Hewitt *American Society for Theatre Research (1956), publishers of ''Theatre Survey'' 1960The Oxford Companion to American Theatre - Page 27 0195169867 Gerald Bordman, Thomas S. Hischak - 2004 AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THEATRE RESEARCH. Founded in 1956 and incorporated in 1967 as a tax-exempt organization under New Jersey law, its purpose is “to serve the needs of theatre historians in the practice of their profession, and ..."

References

External links

bouffesdunord.com
{{Authority control Drama schools in France Organizations established in 1969 Theatre companies in France

Funding

First three-year journey

Similar organisations

See also

References

External links