Ion Cojar

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Ion Cojar

Ion Cojar (January 9, 1931 - October 18, 2009) was a Romanian method acting teacher, researcher and theatre director. He is the pioneer of the Romanian method acting school.[1][2]

He changed the old way of understanding acting in Romania, when the actor was taught how to play theatre, to act, to fake, imitate or mimic life, emotions or characters, with a new one that demands actors, directors and teachers to create the circumstances in which the truth of life can occur, and the actor/actress to go onstage or during filming through authentic psychologically-realistic processes at the end of which he/she is actually changed as a person, so that the audiences may be able to follow the lifelike processes, to understand and believe what they see and hear, to empathize with the actors.[3]

As a professor and researcher at The National University of Theatre and Film from Bucharest, guided by the principle "process, not success", Ion Cojar worked with his students in order for them to develop a specific psycho-emotional mechanism that, along with the use of a specific acting method, would allow them to transform conventions in life truth, unlike the old acting school where students were taught how to play theatre.[4] Ion Cojar always said that "the art of the actor has nothing in common with theatre",[5] a statement that became his trademark.

As a theatre director, Ion Cojar also argued that the audiences, in order to empathize in a total way with what they’re seeing and hearing, must not have any clue or the impression that they're witnessing a theatre show, but a genuine life situation/event. He aimed to make theatre shows that paradoxically don’t look like shows at all, where the audiences would find no elements whatsoever to indicate that they are witnessing a theatre show and not an actual life event.[6]

In parallel with the development of his method, Ion Cojar supported an educational system in which the students are not taught or modeled by the teachers, but in which the environment is that of laboratory experimentation and self-knowledge, of despecialization and deliverance from preconceptions acquired in family, school and society, an environment in which the student is able to become aware of and to use his/her full native creative potential that makes him/her unique.[7]

In theory, Ion Cojar gathered all his research and discoveries in his book entitled "O poetică a artei actorului" ("Poetics of the actor's art").

The main successor of his teaching method in the art of the actor is a former student of his, professor Mircea Gheorghiu.

See also

References

  1. ↑ according to Victor Rebengiuc, Mircea Albulescu, Dan Puric, Gelu Colceag, Florin Zamfirescu and Adrian Titieni: http://www.mediafax.ro/cultura-media/doliu-in-lumea-teatrului-5008432/, http://www.mediafax.ro/printare/5008432/, http://m.stirileprotv.ro/index.php?article_id=3207787, http://www.cronicavip.ro/cronicavip/article.php?article_id=63920, http://www.realitatea.net/a-murit-actorul-si-regizorul-ion-cojar_643566.html, http://yorick.ro/adrian-titieni-nu-avem-o-radiografie-a-valorilor-corecta/
  2. ↑ on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1486212/
  3. ↑ http://revistateatrul.cimec.ro/listaAutor.asp?IndexS=C&NumeS=Cojar0Ion
  4. ↑ http://revistateatrul.cimec.ro/listaAutor.asp?IndexS=C&NumeS=Cojar0Ion
  5. ↑ http://www.evenimentul.ro/articol/arta-actorului-daca-nu.html
  6. ↑ http://revistateatrul.cimec.ro/listaAutor.asp?IndexS=C&NumeS=Cojar0Ion
  7. ↑ http://revistateatrul.cimec.ro/listaAutor.asp?IndexS=C&NumeS=Cojar0Ion

Bibliography

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