The man of the theater died on Saturday, November 14 at the age of 94. He notably founded the Dijon-Bourgogne Theater. The president of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté regional council greets “a discoverer”. Updated with the tribute of TDB which recalls Jacques Fornier’s career.
Press release from the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté regional council of November 17, 2020:
Tribute from the President of the Region, Marie-Guite Dufay, to Jacques Fornier
“Because he was and will remain one of the most eminent figures of theater and culture in our region, I want to express all my sadness at the news of the death of Jacques Fornier, who died on Saturday at the age of 94 years old.
Having arrived at Pernand-Vergelesses in the 1950s, in the footsteps of Jacques Copeau, Jacques Fornier was at the same time actor, director and troupe leader. From Copeau, he had retained the spirit of adventure and the taste for simplicity, the truth of the text and the theatrical gesture. In Beaune, he had founded the Théâtre de Bourgogne, which was to give birth to the dramatic center of Dijon. The Dijon-Bourgogne Theater still plays, moreover, today in a room that bears its name.
After having directed the National Theater of Strasbourg for several years, Jacques Fornier was going to found the meeting center in Besançon. With Jacques Vingler, they animated with passion this precious training place where professionals and amateurs meet, in a fruitful confluence.
Both a theater activist, director of institutions, facilitator and transmitter, Jacques Fornier was also a “discoverer”, always on the lookout for young talents. Curious, attentive, he knew how to accompany them with his critical benevolence, like Jean-Luc Lagarce, whom he had helped to make known.
Open to the world, but also steeped in oriental spiritualities, Jacques Fornier embraced all contemporary theater with a gesture of life.
Today I want to pay tribute to his memory, and to convey my very sincere and deep condolences to his family and loved ones. “
Marie-Guite Dufay
President of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Region
Press release from the Dijon Bourgogne Theater on November 17, 2020:
Homage to Jacques Fornier 1926-2020
Jacques Fornier passed away in Besançon on November 14, 2020. Actor, director and teacher, pioneer of theatrical decentralization, Jacques Fornier played a major role in the development of theater in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. Tireless passer and vigilant witness, he remained a member of the board of directors of the Dijon Bourgogne Theater until his last days. His luminous presence has illuminated the theatrical life of our region for more than sixty years. Since 2002, the second TDB room, rue d’Ahuy, bears his name.
Jacques Fornier’s theatrical adventure began in Pernand-Vergelesses in 1955. Accompanied by two actresses – Claire Ifrane and Juliette Brac – and an actor – François Chaudat, Jacques Fornier was generously welcomed into Jacques Copeau’s house by Catherine Dasté, the granddaughter of the founder of Vieux-Colombier, and by her companion, singer Graeme Allwright. The young company, soon joined by the actor Roland Bertin, was to spend a few weeks there. She will stay there for over a year and a half.
The company’s first show was a “Conférence Molière”, the premiere of which took place in Pernand-Vergelesses on December 3, 1955. This extremely light form (“a black curtain, an armchair, a chair”), inspired by the heritage of Copeau and de Vilar, is essentially designed to be presented in schools in Côte-d’Or. The Théâtre de Bourgogne was born.
In 1957, Jacques Fornier and his team moved to Beaune. In 1959, the Théâtre de Bourgogne obtained the permanent troupe label. Its activity continues to develop: at the beginning of the sixties, the troupe offers more than two hundred performances per year and its notoriety quickly exceeds the borders of the region.
At that time Jacques Fornier carried on his activity as a director (he edited Molière, Marivaux, Beaumarchais, Shakespeare but also Synge and Pinget), actor and trainer, giving numerous internships. He also invites young directors to come and work with the Théâtre de Bourgogne troupe. Jorge Lavelli, in particular, who started in 1965 Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy of Gombrowicz, as well as Jean-Pierre Vincent and Jean Jourdheuil who in 1968 organized the Wedding at the petty bourgeoisie of Brecht. These shows left a lasting mark on the history of theater in France.
In 1971, when the Théâtre de Bourgogne obtained the National Dramatic Center label, Jacques Fornier succeeded Hubert Gignoux at the head of the National Theater of Strasbourg. By his own admission, he is not happy at TNS: the heaviness of the institution, the absence of a permanent troupe are very far from his theatrical ideal. He therefore decides to leave Strasbourg after two years, to take a step back.
In the 1970s, Jacques Fornier traveled a lot, especially in India. There he meets the disciples of the thinker and poet Sri Aurobindo, inventor of a new approach to yoga. Oriental spirituality will now play a central role in the life and artistic practice of Jacques Fornier. From 1977, he was also interested in the work of the physicist and biologist Moshe Feldenkrais and his method of “awareness through movement”.
In 1979, Jacques Fornier moved to Besançon and participated alongside Jacques Vingler in the creation and development of the Meeting Center. Its activity will therefore be oriented mainly towards pedagogy and training. It notably accompanies the first professional steps of Jean-Luc Lagarce and of the Théâtre de la Roulotte in the early 1980s.
Jacques Fornier never left the boards: in the 2000s, he continued to act as an actor with Jacques Nichet, Sylvain Marmorat, Ezéchiel Garcia-Romeu. In 2007, he participated in the Confrérie des Farceurs reunited at the Dijon Bourgogne Theater by François Chattot and Jean-Louis Hourdin.
An indefatigable and perpetually curious spectator, he was often seen at the Parvis Saint-Jean. His glowing gaze of an eternal young man always mingled requirement and generosity.
Benoît Lambert and the TDB team
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