Jean Cocteau Repertory (often called "the Cocteau" or "Cocteau Rep") was a nonprofit resident theatre company in the

Bowery The Bowery () is a street and neighbourhood, neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City, New York. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row (Manhattan), Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th ...

area of

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, New York City.

History

Jean Cocteau Repertory was founded in 1971 by Eve Adamson, who named it in honor of French playwright, director and artist

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...

. "The Cocteau" had a reputation for serious and respectful productions of classical plays. Jean Cocteau Repertory's first home was on Bond Street near the Bowery. Adamson envisioned a permanent acting ensemble that would perform classical plays in rotating repertory. Actors in the company were cast in both large and small roles and, in the theatre's early years, they also served alongside the founder as staff members. Adamson, who remained

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogu ...

until 1989, directed more than 100 productions of plays by a wide range of playwrights for the company. The Cocteau's opening season included a play by Cocteau, '' Orphée'', in addition to works by

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

and

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

. In 1973, the company implemented the repertory format it maintained in subsequent decades and received some of its first wide acclaim, for a production of

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

's ''

Waiting for Godot ''Waiting for Godot'' ( or ) is a 1953 play by Irish writer and playwright Samuel Beckett, in which the two main characters, Vladimir (Waiting for Godot), Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), engage in a variety of discussions and encounters w ...

''. In 1974, the company moved into the 140-seat Bouwerie Lane Theater. In 1981,

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three ...

chose the Cocteau to premiere his new play '' Something Cloudy, Something Clear''. In 2006, under new leadership, the company abandoned its name, its longtime location and its established style.

Directors

Robert Hupp replaced Adamson as artistic director in 1989, but she continued to direct plays for the Cocteau. In 1992 Hupp partnered with Scott Shattuck, who was eventually named producing artistic director. When they left in 1999, Shattuck and Hupp were replaced by David Fuller, who had been an actor with the company in the ''Something Cloudy, Something Clear'' era. Fuller began to unionize the acting company, but four of its longtime members (along with some board members) left in 2004 and formed the Phoenix Theater Ensemble. Both Fuller and one of the actors blamed artistic differences for the split. In 2007, in the midst of difficulties with its finances, audience base and artistic reputation, the company was renamed The Exchange and set out to produce new works.

Company members

In addition to its founder, Jean Cocteau Repertory was strongly associated with its longest-tenured acting company members, including Craig Smith (who performed in more than 200 productions for the Cocteau starting in 1973) and Elise Stone (a member of the ensemble from 1985). They were among the artists that left the company in 2004. Besides staging works from the past such as Restoration comedies and plays by historic authors such as

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

, the Cocteau was known for productions of plays by major 20th century European playwrights such as

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...

and

Luigi Pirandello Luigi Pirandello (; ; 28 June 1867 – 10 December 1936) was an Italians, Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his bold and ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Jean Cocteau Repertory Theatre records, 1971-2005
held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, is located at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, in the Lincoln Center complex on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, New York City. Situated between the Metropolitan O ...

The Bouwerie Lane Theatre: Long-time Home of the Iconic Jean Cocteau Repertory
Posted January 11, 2022 By Lannyl Stephens, "Village Preservation" website.
Jean Cocteau Rep Renamed The Exchange, Leaves Home, Schedules Two Plays at Theatre Row
By Zachary Pincus-Roth, March 26, 2007, playbill.com.
NYC's Cocteau Rep Reborn as The Exchange
By Backstage Staff , Last Updated: November 4, 2019. Performing groups established in 1971 Arts organizations disestablished in 2006 1971 establishments in New York City 2006 disestablishments in New York City Defunct theatre companies in New York City