Raising the Curtain on Suzanne Bing’s Life in the Theatre

Abstract

From 1913 to 1929, Suzanne Bing’s theatrical career was intertwined with Jacques Copeau’s at the Vieux-Colombier Company and School. From 1930 to 1934, she taught at and acted with the collective Compagnie des Quinze, directed by Copeau disciple Michel Saint-Denis. Although the claim could be made that collective creation grew out of her teaching, she is largely unacknowledged. Copeau, whose active collaborator (and lover) she was, referred to her deprecatingly as “the muse of the Vieux-Colombier.” Bing put aside her acting career to devote herself to developing a new breed of actor for Vieux-Colombier Company. The Vieux-Colombier School’s innovative curriculum owed much to her work with children at a Montessori-based school where she introduced improvisations and theatre games, which she later expanded upon with her acting students.