Week Four

As our protests are tomorrow, this week we quickly went over some Brechtian techniques which reminded me of what I need to apply in our performance tomorrow. Here is some of the information:

 

-Brecht was a Marxist/ Communist, he believed in a left wing ideology and challenged Aristotle's ideas about theatre

-He "believed good theatre should have a unity of time and place and have a liner drive. It should be well made (well structured) with a resolution or catharsis at the end. It should be naturalistic so the audience should suspend their disbelief and therefore by into the story or the drama in order to engage fully."

-Brecht challenged these idea's on theatre. He said he "believed theatre should be epic" meaning that the performance should be episodic; each scene should be separate from one and other and have their own story lines (therefore be non-linier). Each scene should be judged on their own efforts and there should be no cause on effect

-He believed in breaking the Fourth Wall and making the audience sustain their disbelief by becoming an engaged audience and not a passive one

-He did this by being harsh. The lighting was hard (naturalistic) and the actor's wore little make-up. He didn't want anything to look pretty/perfect, he liked the piece to look bare boned and realistic. He believed the actors should do the music themselves and demonstrate their characters instead of becoming them.

-The action is without climax and catharsis so that the audience would be distanced from their emotions, thereby having an honest reaction to the piece

-His pieces were over the top and very theatrical, often having the actors in bright, bold colours and changing on stage into their different characters. This was to break the illusion and to remind the audience they are watching actors act out a performance (the v effect)

-Brecht used signs and projections to inform the audience what was happening on stage so that nothing was left to the imagination

-He used songs to divide the action up and to distance the audience from their emotions. he allowed the viewers to see the actors warming up on stage and let them see what the actors do to prepare for a show

-The themes in his plays were often very relatable to the working class

-Brecht believed that the distinction between theatre and real life was blurred and he felt that the audience should be enthused with energy that makes them want to change things in their lives after leaving the theatre

-The ideologies of Communism are ever present in Brecht's theories of acting. The philosophical side "suggests the characteristics of human nature is creativity" which relates back to Brecht's work

-Brecht's way of rehearsing is very much structured around the idea of Communism. When rehearsing a Brechtian piece, everyone is equal and everyone chips in to create the performance. The actors often do their own music and the lighting is basic and even. This way of rehearsals in very different to say Stanislavsky, who was a Right Winger which also reflects in his rehearsal methods; There is one director who directs everybody, much like a Capitalist state

-"The world created by the worker does not belong to them, it belongs to the owner of the production. The rich." Communists describe this as alienation, meaning that you don't own your own creation. This idea is present in Brecht's theories as the actor is separate from their character, much like the worker is separate from what they have created. This obviously links in with Brecht's idea of Strange Making/the V effect/ alienation. Firstly, it shares the same name and secondly, the audience are distant form their emotions and don't share their emotions with the actors; nor should the actors be sharing their emotions with the audience

-Brecht's use of The V effect is political because it links to the Marxist theorem of alienation as people go to the theatre to distant themselves from their lives, so they might leave the theatre and change their lives outside the theatre.

-Brecht wanted there to be no fourth wall so his audience could be allowed to get angry and if they wanted, leave the theatre and go and change something in their lives.

 

Brecht was against:

• the fourth wall
• anything that re-enforces Capitalist thoughts/theorems
• theatre just being there for entertainment/ bourgeois theatre
• plots, he didn't want a realistic life
• the actors sharing their emotions with the audience and vice versa. He didn't want their to be any emotional communication