Jacques Copeau (February 4, 1879 – October 20, 1949) was an influential French theatre director, producer, actor, and dramatist born in Paris. Before he founded his famous Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in Paris, he wrote theatre reviews for several Parisian journals, worked at the Georges Petit Gallery where he organized exhibits of artists' works and helped found the Nouvelle Revue Française in 1909, along with writer friends, such as André Gide and Jean Schlumberger. He eventually organized a theatre school attached to his theatre and thus influenced the development of theatre through the training of the actor. The theatre in France during the twentieth century is marked by Copeau's outlook on the theatre. It is not surprising that Albert Camus, also a man of the theatre, could declare without hyperbole: "in the history of the French theatre, there are two periods: before Copeau and after Copeau."
Read more about Jacques Copeau: Early Life and Formative Years, The Théâtre Du Vieux-Colombier, During World War I, In New York, The Paris Years: 1920–1924, The Burgundy Adventure: The "Copiaus", Later Life