Robert Wilson is a director. Biography, personal life, career

Robert Wilson is a director, an outstanding stage director, a perfectionist who completely changed the notion of modern theater art and the spectator perception of the actions taking place on the stage. He gave incredible vivacity and realism to his fantasies, embodied them in plays, using not language as the main informational urge, but movements that became a beautiful dance, giving choreography what the true meaning and tragedy of the production are hidden.

early years

Robert Wilson is a director whose biography began in the small town of Waco , Texas on October 4, The childhood of this creative person can not be called happy. The violent motor-speech disorder that Robert suffered, made him the subject of peer ridicule.

Wilson's teacher and mentor Bird Hoffman helped him get rid of a speech defect - a stammer, in his honor a grateful student opened a theatrical laboratory in the attic of a house called "The School of Birds".

Education - the beginning of a career path

Robert Wilson is a director whose career may not have been destined to start, because he was educated at the University of Texas, studying administrative matters. So would the great director hold a state post, if he did not realize the creative potential of his personality.

It happened in 1962, when he finally realized that he was not following his path, trying to study an uninteresting and boring science imposed by the desire of parents to make him an educated person. After leaving the university in the last year, Wilson enters the Pratt Institute in New York, where he moves to study architectural design.

In 1966, after graduation, Robert passes an internship with the architect Paolo Soleri. But neither art, nor architecture, nor modern theater impressed him like acquaintance with George Balanchine's abstract ballet and experiments on the choreographic ideas of Mers Cunningham.

Great influence on the further career was rendered by the Japanese theatrical art. This was the first confident step towards Robert's awareness of his destiny, when he introduced his own production to the society.

Steps to recognition

Perhaps because Robert Wilson, the director with a capital letter in the future, felt incomplete as a child, he began his career with autistic and deaf-mute children, discovering new ways to make the theater more expressive.

In 1969, two first noteworthy productions appeared. This is the "King of Spain" and "The Life and Times of Sigmund Freud."

World fame Robert brought the play "The Look of the Deaf", which was released in 1971. It was this seven-hour performance without a single spoken word that was recognized as an outstanding work of modern drama.

No less impressive performance called "Letter to Queen Victoria" in 1974 was created by Robert Wilson - director. Autist Christopher Knows at the age of thirteen became his main character.

The most successful results of directing work

Robert Wilson became the creator of more than 140 theatrical productions, most of which caused a storm of public applause and enthusiastic reviews of critics. In 1972, he realized a large-scale colorful project with the participation of half a thousand actors who danced in the open air. The action lasted seven days and nights on seven hills in Iran and was called "Mount Ka and the Watchtower".

In 1976, he completed work on a musical production with elements of the opera "Einstein on the beach", firmly entrenched himself in the title of a surrealist artist in drama.

Poetic meditation, which earned the recognition of French critics, "Einstein on the Beach" was the first successful experience in the musical art, leaving Robert's love for music and opera forever in his heart. The performance was presented on a world tour, at various festivals and became a recognized masterpiece.

The large-scale interpretation of the great military confrontations of all times, which, according to the director's idea, were to be embodied in a twelve-hour production, was never completed.

Subsequent years, Robert is working on staging plays - masterpieces of world classical music and literature. Among them are the Magic Flute, Madame Butterfly, The Duke of Bluebeard Castle, Orpheus, Aida and many others.

Directed by 15 films in the style of the avant-garde, including "Alcesta" and "Orpheus and Eurydice" in 2000, "Orpheus" in 2010

Robert cooperates with the greatest actors, opera singers, playwrights. He gives a new life, interpreting in his own way the works of AP Chekhov, W. Shakespeare, W. Wolf and other recognized masters of classical literature.

Work in Russia

A complex visualization of the project "Fairy tales of Pushkin" was carried out in Moscow. Robert Wilson - the director, whose photo is presented in the article, involved in the production of 25 Russian actors.

The performances were based not only on the tales of an outstanding writer and poet ("The Tale of Tsar Saltan", "The Tale of a Fisherman and the Fish", "The Tale of a Golden Cockerel", etc.), but author's drawings by A.S. Pushkin. Immersion in Russian folklore deeply impressed the director, and the culture of the Russian people was enthralled.

Personal life

A person is rather hidden from the press and prying eyes, especially if it concerns personal life, Robert Wilson. The director is gay, as the yellow press asserts, or not, you can not say for sure. During the interview, the playwright eagerly talks about her creative, theatrical activity, but when the conversation turns to personal topics, she stubbornly remains silent.

Robert behaves like a true celebrity, who carefully with trepidation protects his peace and home comfort. Even appearing in public, the director plans no less carefully than his performances.

But Wilson has a kind heart from nature. Accidentally met on the street in 1968, a black boy who turned out to be deaf, he took him to the main role in the play "The Look of the deaf." After a seven-hour action, which tells of the fantasies of a deaf-mute boy, the director adopted a teenager.

Honored awards and awards

Robert Wilson is a theater director, recognized by the world of contemporary art as a talent. Over the years, he received more than six dozen awards and awards, among which the most significant:

• Prize of the Guggenheim Foundation (1971 and 1980);
• The Rockefeller Foundation Prize (1975);
• The Golden Lion award at the Biennale in Venice (1993);
• The Prize of Europe (1997).

Wilson is a member of the American Academy of Arts. In 2002, he was awarded the title of Commander of the National Order for Merit in Literature and Art in France.

Important parts of the Wilson method

Robert Wilson is a director whose personal life is not as interesting as his own original method of theatrical productions, because in them the most important role is played by accents on the smallest details, the unification of everything that happens on the stage in a single whole.

The main components of a successful theatrical action by the Robert Wilson method:

• Language and words do not matter. Much more important is the silence, which disturbs the noise, which is replaced by silence again. The play of contrasts in the perception of sounds leaves a truly unforgettable impression of the play.
• Emphasis on the difference in the visual perception of the action on the stage and the sound. What the audience hears should be harmoniously complemented by what he sees, but in no way repeated. Movement is a smooth dance, a choreographic story that fills a play with its own meaning. Movement in a pair with the sound creates a certain rhythm that is inherent only in this performance.
• Playing with light and shadow. Critics who have watched Wilson's productions write that he, like an artist, writes pictures. Canvas replaces the scene, and the colors - light.
• A game with words where the main meaning is not in the replicas spoken by the actors, but a certain subtext hidden between the lines.

Robert Wilson is a director, one of the outstanding representatives of the theatrical avant-garde, a talented sculptor, screenwriter and photo artist. He created furniture, incredible installations, drawings were repeatedly presented in galleries and art museums of London, Tokyo, Rome at 133 exhibitions, causing a stormy ecstasy. In Moscow, was presented an exhibition of photographic works "Living people", which captured celebrities.

One of the greatest creative people of the XX century, whose contribution to the art is a valuable heritage for future generations. And his original approach to drama will be an unbeatable example for novice filmmakers and directors.