EXERCISES
We started off today doing some warm-ups to awaken our bodies and connect our voice to our physicality. We played the improvisation game 'Park Bench' but with a Brechtian twist. The rules were the same; two people on a park bench having a convocation, but we added Brechtian techniques on top of this. For example, the characters had to be big and solid, rather like block characters. Their physicality needed to be obvious and the convocation could be as bizarre as we desired. An example of one of the characters created was Jackie becoming an old women wanting to feed the pigeons. She applied the typical physical stance for an elderly women (legs out, chin up, bottom in the air) in order to convey to the audience what they were going to see. We did this exercise to warm up our imaginations (which is key when performing a Brechtian styled piece, as often improvisation is a major part of the performance) and to remind us of the Brechtian techniques; acting and reacting.
We then broke off into our individual groups and continued rehearsing for our different scenes. Our group needed to have more Brechtian techniques in it, so we added more songs to our performance and made our ending more impactful as it needed more weight to it. We now come on stage singing the theme tune to Take Me Out, gradually getting louder. We start off being really un-energetic and embarrassed, then gradually increase the volume and energy until it becomes over the top and almost scary. We have included a piece of music for when Danny comes down the 'single man lift' as well, so we are always reminding the audience that this is a performance and that they shouldn't feel like this is realistic. To make our piece less dry, we added on a small action right at the end. Danny used to just turn off my light, but now he shots me instead claiming 'I thought she was a Jew, Paddy.' I think this will shock the audience and alienate them from our piece. Through doing this we have employed more Brechtian techniques in our performance.
We talked about the costumes we would wear and the props we needed. As the objects have to be strange and obscure, we decided to use a banana instead of a gun for when Danny shots me. Brecht always wanted to break the fourth wall and for it to never be re-built, so having over large objects would remind the audience they are watching a play and that this isn't real life. The objects are used to highlight the obscurity of our scene and to employ the Verfrendungseffekt effect. Costume wise we decided to make it obvious and stereotypical. Danny will be in a Hitler costume, Ellesse (who plays Anne Frank) will be in a 1940's dress, Eleanor will be dressed in 'rave' clothes, Maya will be in all black and I will wear normal clothes but put a hat on for when I have to be the sign person. We also adjusted our piece so it would accommodate the In-The-Round setting. During our group rehearsals today, I felt like we lacked focus and energy and that we weren't present in the room. I think this was because we didn't warm up in our group so we lacked commitment. To ensure this doesn't happen again we will do a short physical warm-up before we start to practice our own scene.
Brecht believed that everything should be seen on stage, that the piece should be bare boned and exposed. He did this by using harsh and bright lights so that it illuminated everything on stage. He didn't want a pretty, well perfected, nicely presented performance. He wanted the fourth wall to always be down and to make the audience sustain their disbelief. So for our piece, we are having the house lights on as well as the stage lights, so that every corner of the space is shown.
We started off today doing some warm-ups to awaken our bodies and connect our voice to our physicality. We played the improvisation game 'Park Bench' but with a Brechtian twist. The rules were the same; two people on a park bench having a convocation, but we added Brechtian techniques on top of this. For example, the characters had to be big and solid, rather like block characters. Their physicality needed to be obvious and the convocation could be as bizarre as we desired. An example of one of the characters created was Jackie becoming an old women wanting to feed the pigeons. She applied the typical physical stance for an elderly women (legs out, chin up, bottom in the air) in order to convey to the audience what they were going to see. We did this exercise to warm up our imaginations (which is key when performing a Brechtian styled piece, as often improvisation is a major part of the performance) and to remind us of the Brechtian techniques; acting and reacting.
We then broke off into our individual groups and continued rehearsing for our different scenes. Our group needed to have more Brechtian techniques in it, so we added more songs to our performance and made our ending more impactful as it needed more weight to it. We now come on stage singing the theme tune to Take Me Out, gradually getting louder. We start off being really un-energetic and embarrassed, then gradually increase the volume and energy until it becomes over the top and almost scary. We have included a piece of music for when Danny comes down the 'single man lift' as well, so we are always reminding the audience that this is a performance and that they shouldn't feel like this is realistic. To make our piece less dry, we added on a small action right at the end. Danny used to just turn off my light, but now he shots me instead claiming 'I thought she was a Jew, Paddy.' I think this will shock the audience and alienate them from our piece. Through doing this we have employed more Brechtian techniques in our performance.
We talked about the costumes we would wear and the props we needed. As the objects have to be strange and obscure, we decided to use a banana instead of a gun for when Danny shots me. Brecht always wanted to break the fourth wall and for it to never be re-built, so having over large objects would remind the audience they are watching a play and that this isn't real life. The objects are used to highlight the obscurity of our scene and to employ the Verfrendungseffekt effect. Costume wise we decided to make it obvious and stereotypical. Danny will be in a Hitler costume, Ellesse (who plays Anne Frank) will be in a 1940's dress, Eleanor will be dressed in 'rave' clothes, Maya will be in all black and I will wear normal clothes but put a hat on for when I have to be the sign person. We also adjusted our piece so it would accommodate the In-The-Round setting. During our group rehearsals today, I felt like we lacked focus and energy and that we weren't present in the room. I think this was because we didn't warm up in our group so we lacked commitment. To ensure this doesn't happen again we will do a short physical warm-up before we start to practice our own scene.
Brecht believed that everything should be seen on stage, that the piece should be bare boned and exposed. He did this by using harsh and bright lights so that it illuminated everything on stage. He didn't want a pretty, well perfected, nicely presented performance. He wanted the fourth wall to always be down and to make the audience sustain their disbelief. So for our piece, we are having the house lights on as well as the stage lights, so that every corner of the space is shown.
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