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26-620: The National Theatre School occupies a historic landmark in Montreal, the  Monument-National  on  Saint Lawrence Boulevard , and a building in  The Plateau  district at the corner of  Saint Denis Street  and  Laurier Street . The campus of the National Theatre School stretches all the way to the Monument-National in the core of downtown Montreal. This hundred-year-old theatre, owned and operated by

52-631: A long association with the newly established Stratford Festival in 1956, playing the Constable of France in Henry V and directing three farces by Moliere . He returned to Stratford to direct Le malade imaginaire in 1958 and Othello in 1959. Between 1960 and 1963, he was founding Administrative Director of the National Theatre School of Canada and was awarded the Canadian Drama Award,

78-553: A result of the protest, the school pointedly reversed its neglect of Québécois plays. In 1971, Muller's successor, André Pagé, had the students perform a selection of work from various Québécois writers and began a program of commissioning work for the school from prominent Québécois playwrights. In 1998, the 8 students who had resigned were sent a letter from the school declaring that they had been reinstated as alumni and recognizing that their protest had resulted in progressive change in school policy. It offers professional training in all

104-462: A steel frame—a building technique that was innovative for its time. The first performance of a Yiddish play was held there in what is now the theatre's Ludger-Duvernay room in the winter of 1896. The Monument-National was a key cultural landmark in Montreal's historic Jewish quarter , and it continued to host productions from touring and local Yiddish theatre companies until the 1940s. The theatre

130-706: A year from its combined programs and English and French sections, and its alumni include Canada's prominent theatre artists with an influence that extends deep into the US and European worlds of theatre, television and film. The following is a list of notable students and the year they graduated. Saint-Denis, Michel (1982) Training for the Theatre: Premises & Promises. (Suria Saint-Denis, ed.) New York: Theatre Arts Books. 45°30′33″N 73°33′45″W  /  45.5091°N 73.5625°W  / 45.5091; -73.5625 Monument-National The Monument-National

156-565: Is an historic Canadian theatre located at 1182 Saint Laurent Boulevard in Montreal , Quebec . With a capacity of over 1,600 seats, the venue was erected between 1891 and 1894 (130 years ago)  ( 1894 ) and was originally the cultural centre of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society . The building was designed by Maurice Perrault , Albert Mesnard , and Joseph Venne in the Renaissance Revival style and utilizes

182-617: The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and later co-founded the Juilliard School Drama Division in New York City. In fact, French-born Saint-Denis had what many regarded as an ideal background to offer guidance to Canada's national co-lingual theatre school project (he gives details of his employment as a consultant for this project, and the involvement of his wife Suria, in their co-authored book "Training for

208-684: The André-Pagé Studio (a flexible studio space with a 150-seat capacity), the Pauline McGibbon Studio (80-seat capacity), a small costume shop, a sound studio, a lighting laboratory, a projection room, a computer room, a school supplies store, a cafeteria, and a common space equipped with refrigerators and microwaves for the students. The Pavilion also houses Canada's largest collection of theatre related books and manuscripts, both published and unpublished, and audio visual materials available in both official languages. This outstanding collection

234-506: The British stage as John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier and Alec Guinness. The CTC committee had been formed with a mandate to create a "truly bilingual school, located in Toronto." The committee decided that Montréal, as a more "truly bilingual" city, was a better location and the National Theatre School of Canada / École nationale de théâtre du Canada officially opened on 2 Nov 1960 in premises owned by

260-560: The Canadian Legion at 1191 Mountain Street in Montréal. The school changed locations several times over the next decade until in 1970 it settled at 5030 rue Saint-Denis. Beginning in 1965, it also rented performing space in the Monument-National, which it purchased outright in 1978. This historic theatre (built 1891-94) was then in a dilapidated state; a major renovation in the early 1990s restored

286-784: The Canadian theatre as a bilingual actor and director achieved an impressive reputation. He gained honorary degrees from McGill and Bishop's Universities . He was also awarded the Order of Canada (in 1975), the Prix du Québec and the Royal Bank Award. As an actor in both English and French languages, his credits include such noteworthy portrayals as Richard in Richard II , and the Captain in Dance of Death . He

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312-632: The NTS, has been classified as a heritage building. Recently restored and renovated, the Monument-National is composed of three performance halls. Once a juvenile courthouse, the school’s main home, the Michel and Suria Saint-Denis Pavilion, sits on the border between the Plateau Mont-Royal and Mile End neighbourhoods. The Pavilion houses rehearsal halls, classrooms (including specially converted spaces for voice, dance, movement, set and costume design and writing),

338-636: The Prix Victor Dore. In 1963 he returned to Stratford to direct The Comedy of Errors , and then Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and The Marriage of Figaro the following season. He was awarded the Molson Prize in 1967. Then between 1968 and 1974, he was artistic director of Stratford Festival of Canada . In 1977 he became theatre director of the National Arts Centre in Ottawa . Gascon's career in

364-553: The Theatre: Premises and Promises"). In the 1920s, he worked closely with his uncle, the remarkable French theatre director Jacques Copeau, to revolutionize theatrical practice and training in France through the Vieux-Colombier troupe. In the 1930s, Saint-Denis moved to London, England, where he became one of the most highly regarded stage directors of the decade, being responsible for a series of landmark productions featuring such stars of

390-628: The arts of the theatre are non-existent in Canada," and that, consequently, "young actors, producers and technicians [...] must leave the country for advanced training, and only rarely return." Notwithstanding widespread acknowledgement of the validity of Davies' complaint, not until 1958-59 was a committee of 16 of the leading members of the Canadian theatrical community formed through the Canadian Theatre Centre / Centre du théâtre Canadien (CTC). Actor and CBC television producer, David Gardner chaired

416-454: The barricades" because of the many student protests that swept across Europe and North America, the National Theatre School experienced its own uprising. The 8 graduating acting students in the French section resigned en masse in protest against the school's disregard of Québécois playwrights, particularly as exemplified in statements made by the director of the French acting section, André Muller. As

442-504: The beauty of the old Monument-National and introduced many modernizations, resulting in 2 theatres- the 804-seat Ludger-Duvernay theatre and a smaller flexible Studio theatre, which seats as many as 180 spectators. Founding principals, Jean Gascon was the first Director-General (Principal) at the NTS and head of the school's Francophone programs while Powys Thomas headed up the English programming section. James de Beaujeu Domville took over

468-447: The committee that included Colonel Yves Bourassa, Donald Davis , Jean Gascon , Gratien Gélinas , Michael Langham , Pauline McGibbon , Mavor Moore , David Onley , Tom Patterson , Jean Pelletier , Jean-Louis Roux , Roy Stewart , Powys Thomas , Vincent Tovell and Herbert Whittaker. Director-teacher Michel Saint-Denis was brought in from Britain to act as senior advisor. He was a leading authority on theatre training who had created

494-409: The integration of anglophone and francophone students has been fairly thorough in the production program, in other programs it has been more usual to see the English and French sections of the school operating autonomously. While the history of the National Theatre School has generally been prestigious, the institution has not been without controversy. For example, in 1968, which was dubbed "the year of

520-601: The major theatre arts in both English and French , making it one of the only co-lingual theatre schools in the world. The programs include Acting, Directing, Production, Playwriting and Scenography. Students are auditioned and/or interviewed from all across the country, and NTS accepts international students as well. Placements at the school are highly competitive; for example, the Acting program auditions around six hundred students annually but only twelve are accepted. The National Theatre School typically graduates approx. 60 students

546-407: The most changeable program at the school. Beginning in the early 1980s, various attempts were made to create programs in English and French for the instruction of directing; but for both financial and pedagogical reasons, these programs have not always succeeded, and the English and French sections of the school have apparently abandoned the pursuit of synchronized objectives in this area. Indeed, while

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572-436: The role of Director-General from 1964 until 1968. In 1960, the first year of its operation, the National Theatre School only offered classes in acting for its Francophone and English students. They had been selected from hundreds of auditions conducted in every province and territory across the country to participate in thirty months of rigorous training conducted over three years, with eight months annually spent in Montreal and

598-556: The two summer months in Stratford, Ontario, where students were afforded access to the facilities and professional influences of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. In 1961, a bilingual production program was inaugurated. In 1978, a French program in playwriting was added to the French acting section of the school and in 1980, an equivalent English playwriting program was added to its English acting section. Directing has been

624-587: Was a Canadian opera director, actor, and administrator. Originally bent on a career in medicine, Gascon abandoned it for the stage after considerable work with amateur groups in Montreal. A scholarship in 1946 from the Government of France enabled him to study dramatic art in Paris. He studied with Ludmilla Pitoëff. After returning to Canada in 1951, he co-founded Montreal's Theatre du Nouveau Monde and became its first Artistic Director. During this time, he also started

650-694: Was declared a historic monument by the Ministère des Affaires culturelles du Québec in 1976 and a National Historic Site in 1985. A major restoration project of the theatre was completed in June 1993 in time for the theatre's centennial celebration. The 1,620-seat theatre has been owned by the National Theatre School of Canada since 1971, and it is the venue used for its productions. 45°30′33″N 73°33′45″W  /  45.5091°N 73.5625°W  / 45.5091; -73.5625 Jean Gascon Jean Gascon CC (December 21, 1920 – April 13, 1988)

676-540: Was founded by Alan Bleviss , a graduate of NTS. The notion of a national theatre school first received focused attention as an indirect result of the "Massey Report" (the report of the Massey-Levesque Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences of 1951). Robertson Davies , writing the section of the report devoted to theatre, complained that "facilities for advanced training in

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