ABSTRACT

The community is now led by Les Régisseurs, a committee of mostly men who had been close to Hart. Pikes reveals her guilty relief at Hart’s absence, while deeply mourning the loss of her friend Vivienne and also of Dorothy Hart. The company is split into those who now begin rehearsals and those obliged to support the group’s financial needs by finding jobs in the area and the community survives on a very small budget. Pikes describes the way Hart’s charismatic leadership was replaced by a more bureaucratic style underpinned by the hierarchical social structure within the community. In 1977 the first workshops were organised in Malérargues and in 1978 the company began to receive valuable subventions from the French government. Pikes recounts her experience of a touring in of South America; founding Roy Hart Theatre Activités Paris with her partner Boris Moore; participating in the creation and performances of Moore’s Music for Marsyas; and singing the female soloist role in Canto General. Pikes describes her growing wish to become a mother, something which Hart had disallowed generally in the group. In 1986 she leaves the community to follow a wider path to personal and professional development.