How does one become a vaudevillian?
Comment devient-on vaudevilliste ?
Résumé
The low literary requirements of vaudeville would seem to make it accessible to any dramatist who might turn their hand to it. Only a minimal rhetorical apparatus seems necessary to organize an action, arrange verses, and scatter a work with a few witty remarks. Does vaudeville, then, attract a particular type of artist who could compensate for cultural shortcomings with something else, something that could be learned outside the classroom? Despite the diversity of the numerous vaudevillians in the nineteenth century, it is possible to establish a few model pathways.
Les faibles exigences littéraires du vaudeville le rendraient accessible au premier dramaturge venu. Seul un bagage rhétorique léger serait nécessaire pour combiner une action, disposer des couplets, disperser des bons mots. Le vaudeville attirerait-il un type particulier d’artistes capables de compenser des lacunes culturelles par autre chose, qui s’apprendrait hors des parcours scolaires ? La multitude des divers vaudevillistes au xixe siècle n’empêche pas d’établir quelques parcours-types.