Theatre Design & Technology - Oct 1969 - 6

Nor were the problems less complex as rehearsals began:
In the agreement with the Porte SI. f\lartin was
the stipulation that vve must use the permanent
company of aCtorS employed by thal theatre.
Then came the question of supers. Geddes at
first inSIsted he could not do with fewer than twO
hundred and fifty. ThiS we finally persuaded him
to reduce to one hundred and fifty. The head of
the supers· unIon insisted we must use all French
people; but Geddes had visions of very tall men
for "Jehanne's" knights and found the French·
men too small; he wanled Russians. A compro·
mise with the union was reached, and \\ e were
allowed to engage fifty Russian exiles as against
one hundred Frenchmen.
These RUSSians were an amazing lot, from all
\;\Ialks of life: princes, soldiers, officers. school
teachers, \foung university men. Most of [hem
spoke German and a fe\\ a little French, but nOI
all of them. and thiS complicated the already ap·
palling language problem, for Geddes couldn't
speak a word of anything but English. or rather
.. American."

Figure 3: Geddes' watercolor sketch of the
coronation scene in JEANNE D'ARC

From the evidence of the prompt script,
Geddes' approach to ensemble acting at
this time appears to be more physical and
choreographic, for there is little in the
script to suggest the need for an emotional
rapport in the actors' playing. Such an approach to visual unity was a feature of many
of Geddes' directorial projects.
During 1934 Eva Le Gall ienne published in
The Pictorial Review a series of articles
which constitute her memoirs up to that
time, including her experiences in Jeanne
d'Arc. Her memories of the rehearsal period for the play, while similar to Geddes'
account, differ significantly in detail.
From the statements in both Geddes' and Le
Gallienne's memoirs. it appears that the
Geddes-Herndon Corporation was not to be
financially responsible for the production of
Jeanne d'Arc in Paris. According to Le
Gall ienne, Firnlin Gemier, the empresario
at the Odeon, was in New York at the time
th e production was being planned, and encouraged the idea. He promised to secure
a theatre in Paris and estimated that the
total cost of the venture would not exceed
$ 7 ,000. Le Gallienne reports that they
raised $12,000 and states that those who
invested capital in the scheme were to be
repaid out of the profits earned by the play
when it was presented in New York after
its Paris "sensation.".s Geddes was surprised by the financial arrangements:
Miss Le Gallienne told me of having talked with
OltO Kahn about the proiect. and he agreed to
advance one quaner of the capital. This came as
a shock. My understanding had been that we
\,overe going as the guests of the French government. and they were attending to the financing.
In the beginning Eva had thought so too, but M.
Gemier was only supplying the theatr8.9

In Paris they found the situation quite different from
hat had been promised. As
Le Gallienne reports:

Figure 4: Geddes' watercolor sketch of the
trial scene li7 JEANNE D'ARC

The first blow came when Gemier informed us
that we had as yet no theatre. .H is only suggestion was Ihat we play at his theatre the Odeon.
After examining the stage, Geddes found that
would be out of the Question; there was not
nearly enough room for Ihe colossal structure of
oarallels and platforms he had devised as
scenery.

Then came our search for a theatre. \Ne found
there were only four stages in Paris that could
accommodate Geddes's selting. They all four
seemed unprocurable. At last through Gabriel
Astruc, to whom we had been referred, we
secured the Porte S1. Martin. The terms seemed
a bit staggering, taking into consideration the
production cost suggested in New York by Gemier,
and I began to feel really worried abollt money.
ror the four
ails of the thearre for thirty days'
use we had to pay in cash $ 7 ,000. 10

He had to have two interpreters, one for French
and one for Russian. He had brought with him
from his New York Office t","·o assistants. One
spoke a little French, Ihe other not a word. Never
shall I forget the chaos of these rehearsals; they
were bedlam. 11

Geddes' recollections of casting and rehearsal problems indicate the differences of
his point of view as a director from his
leading lady's:
Casting proved to be a problem. I discovered
to my astonishment that there are very few tall
Frenchmen. I tried to visualize Jeanne's knights
as short and stocky, but it wouldn't do. So I
hired forty tall, handsome, muscular Russians.
They were magnificent to \'\'ork with. The French
actors \\'e were abl e to get were inferior. But,
for a two-week run, getting the best was nexi to
impossible,

@!!C) THEATER DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

OCTOBER,1969

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