the group in 1892, and his efforts to produce Maurice Maeterlinck's Pelléas et Mélisande and Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam's Axël fell through, Lugné-Poe stepped in to transform the art-theater endeavor into his own company, the Théâtre de l'Œuvre. Unlike Fort's project, which catered to the intellectual elite, Lugné-Poe sought to create a "theatre for the people," and customarily offered free tickets to most of the public, reserving only 100 seats for his subscription holders. Under his direction, the company first performed Maurice Maeterlinck's Pelléas et Mélisande on May 17, 1893 at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens. According to theatre historian Oscar Brockett: With the help of poet and critic Camille Mauclair and the painter Édouard Vuillard (with whom Lugné-Poe was sharing an apartment), the director dedicated the theatre to presenting the work of the young French Symbolist playwrights in addition to introducing new foreign dramas. The group established themselves that same year, renting a small rehearsal room atop Salle Berlioz and calling themselves Maison de l'Œuvre, or literally, the "House of Works." Lugné-Poe, however, soon established company offices at 23, rue Turgot, eventually moving operations across the street to no. 22. None of the productions in the seminal phase of his art theatre (1893-1899) appeared at the Salle Berlioz. In addition to those of Maeterlinck, the theatre company produced Sanskrit dramas, as well as works by foreign authors such as Oscar Wilde, Gerhart Hauptmann, August Strindberg, and Gabriele D’Annunzio, alongside works by young French dramatists like Henry Bataille, Henri de Régnier et Alfred Jarry. Lugné-Poe was also instrumental in introducing Henrik Ibsen’s plays to French audiences. Just as in the description of the theatre's initial performance, the majority of Lugné-Poe's stage settings were simple, non-realistic representations of line and color on canvas backdrops. He sought to create a theatre of poetry and dreams while staying true to his motto, "The word creates the decor." The staging was atmospheric and the acting stylized; costumes were usually simple and “timeless.” Some of the company's designers included Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Maurice Denis, Odilon Redon, Pierre Bonnard, and Vuillard himself. On December 10, 1896, the Théâtre de l'Œuvre presented Alfred Jarry's soon legendary Ubu Roi, at Nouveau-Théâtre, 15, rue Blanche, with actor Firmin Gémier in the title role. Jarry had finished this epochal play about human greed, cowardice, and stupidity just six months before it would shock the audiences with its unapologetic opening line,