After School Rehearsal - Monday 21st November 2016

Phoebe, Loyde, Sherene and myself stayed behind after school to show Angelica our routine for the protest. The rehearsal went well and we were able to arrange all of our props for the following day. We even had time to test out the washing line to make sure it was the right length which it was. We rehearsed both in a classroom and in our performance space so that we could make sure we were using up the space to the best of our abilities. The rehearsal went well because all of us apart from Angelica knew what we were doing and so it was easy to get through the staging quickly with everyone remaining focused. The rehearsal would have gone better if we were in costume and used our props however some of the props can only be used once and so this wasn’t able to happen. Overall, we as a group are in a good position for tomorrow. Our only issue would be if Leane came in and we had to teach her the routine because of timing, 

After school rehearsal - Friday 18th November 2016

We put in an extra rehearsal for our protest because as a group we had never rehearsed what Phoebe and I had constructed last week. We still couldn’t go through it as a group because two of our group members were ill however Loyde, Phoebe, Sherene and myself managed to do a few run throughs.

We also went to the area that we’ll be performing in and practiced there. The rehearsal went really well and our group has regained the confidence we need for Tuesday. We made sure that we balance the space well and were able to make what we were doing a short snippet that could be repeated. Obviously we won’t be able to practice with the blood until the actual day but at least we were all confident with what we were doing by the end of the rehearsal.

Lesson 3 - Tuesday 15th November 2016

Today's lesson was based strongly on Brecht influence on theatre. We first explored his methods of acting be focusing on the archetypes he used.

These archetypes included:

The weak female

The damsel in distress.

The Fool/clown/idiot.

The Hero (protagonist)

The villain (antagonist)

The Genius

The Lovers

Etc.

It was interesting looking at different peoples embodiment and perceptions of some of the archetypes. Also the fact that each archetype told the same story and could be identified with was also fascinating. We used Brecht’s method of ‘gestus’ in order to do this. We then went onto using the archetypes of ‘a poor peasant’ and ‘rich royalty’ to do an exercise that involved the poor cleaning while the rich people walked around. Then, the rich people would sit down whenever they felt fit and the poor people would have to make sure they became a seat for the rich person to sit on. More and more rich people were put into the scene and eventually there were too many rich people and not enough poor servants and so society had collapsed because there were not enough people to serve the rich and so the rich had to begin serving themselves once. This was the political side to the exercise, the fact that a social issue was expressed.

We did this exercise to demonstrate the hierarchy of different archetypes and people in society whilst sticking to Brecht’s style of not making theatre realistic and the piece containing a political issue. For example, by using our bodies to form chairs it demonstrated both the social status’ but also wasn’t realistic which stops the audience from getting too emotionally involved. We then looked into the attitudes that both the rich and poor would have. For instance,  the chair could look sad because it’s always being sat on and used, or it could be happy and proud to have royalty put upon it. Giving the chair emotions separated the audience even more because a chair is an inanimate object and doesn’t convey any emotions. Social status could also be revealed through the posture of the rich  person. Having them sit up straight and constantly have their chin turned up-right meant that they were always looking down on the rest of society and came across superior. This meant that the focus point was on the issue at hand –being that collapse of society.

The way in which we did the exercise was almost like a game in which we all enjoyed having to carry out our objectives. Brecht called this ‘spass’ and often got his actors to play games so that they felt like they were playing and not becoming characters later on.

One of Brecht’s famous plays is ‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle’. As a class we took a scene from the play and played it out putting in the Brechtian methods where we thought was necessary. Some of the class such as myself had previously studied and performed the play and so knew a bit more about the play however for others the scene was a bit confusing at first.

Brechtian things we did included:

-          Humor

-          Giving objects emotions

-          Archetypes

-          Any gender could play any part

-          Political issue

-          ‘What If’ moment

By doing this, we were able to show our understanding of the play as well also learn new things such as the ‘But If’ moment. This basically meant that all characters have two choices which have two different outcomes. For instance, in ‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle’, the Governor's Wife can either leave her palace and flee or find her baby and then flee. The ‘But If’ moment is used to show the audience that the character has taken a moment to consider both of the options and then chose one. In the play, the Governors Wife chooses to leave the baby and flee to save herself instead, this makes the audience consider the morality of higher ranked citizens and their consideration for the lower class or less able.

We were able to create a really nice scene by using Brecht’s techniques and it was very entertaining to watch.

Later in the lesson we were all split into groups and given the same scene from ‘Mother Courage and her Children’. The task was to create a ‘Montage’ effect but the scene had to still make sense. Max and I stood at either sides of the stage and reached out in front of us and then closed our fists and pulled then in to our chests. This was supposed to symbolize what the key issue of the scene was about: money and greed. Our gestus was supposed to be us reaching out for more and more money. It also worked in our favor because it didn’t make the scene less realistic, it was instead an abstract creation. To follow this through, we also became a door to block other characters instead of using props.

Our ‘What If’ moment was when Mother Courage gave money to the poor people so that they would give her daughter a proper burial. Here, Mother courage contemplated whether to give the poor more money on top of what she’d already given. After she gave money to Max, I greedily stuck out my hand in pursuit of more. Here Mother courage hesitated before taking out more money and handing it to me. If she didn’t give me the money then the scene could have played out differently or at least the poor people’s attitudes towards Mother Courage and her dead daughter would have been affected.

I really liked Francis’ group and what they came up with. Their ‘What If’ moment was whether Mother Courage should lay down her coat on her dead daughter or keep it for herself to stay warm. She chose to keep the coat for herself. This was shown clearly through the use of pause but was also carried out in a graceful and fluid way which benefited the scene because it didn’t look forced. The group also weren’t clear at one pint and so it looked as though Mother Courage had taken money from her daughters pockets rather than her own. This was not the case however the unintentional error was actually quite creative and effective. It was also unlike the rest because the money always came from Mother Courage's hand. 

Random meet up - Wednesday 9th November 2016

Phoebe and I met up earlier in the week to write up a structure of the work we would devise in our protest performance. We did this because it was clear that our previous method of just going straight onto discussions and then division of work wasn’t a success. Hopefully now that we have a skeleton to work with, no one will be stressing over the fact that ideas aren’t being listened to and instead we can just get on with the rehearsal straight away.

Lesson 2 Tuesday - 8th November 2016

During today’s session, we got straight into our political protest groups and began devising something that we could use for our protest performance. I started off by trying to mind map a few ideas that we could feed off of because apart from the idea of using powder paint we had no other ideas. My mind map includes using physical theatre and symbolism to create an affect on people. I also thought that it would be quite a good idea to perhaps show people life throughout war but then also the after affects of war (e.g people die during wars, post traumatic stress disorder, suicide, homelessness, ordinary life etc.) however it soon became apparent that this would take away from the main issue of ‘chemical warfare’. We also decided that powder paint probably wouldn’t be the best idea because it would run out too quickly and whiles it might intrigue passersby to come and investigate the scene, it might also look like we were just having a load of fun rather than actually trying to portray a message. Then when we tried to devise something, it was a complete failure due to us not coming together as a team. There was a person that wasn’t giving up ideas but was shutting everyone else’s ideas down, no one was really listening to one another and so everyone got fed up very quickly. This also meant that great ideas were never put into action.

Eventually we managed to just get on with something which we decided to improvise –just to see if something worked and it did. We all started on the floor sleeping and singing the national anthem. This then turned into horrific coughing. I then screamed in agony as though I’d been exposed to a bomb of some kind to an extent that I couldn’t move. The rest of the group then began to hold me down as I began to have a fit. Fits were a symptom to being exposed to chemical warfare, there were also many other effects which we displayed. This was done by one group member saying the effect aloud and then placing their hand on the area of my body that it would’ve affected. I responded to what they were saying, for example when my lungs were shutting down I took in long gasps of oxygen, and when my eye were meant to roll to the back of my head they did exactly that. Eventually, I died, everyone else began to cough again and then the scene repeated. We will obviously add to the section and possibly use it as a skeleton and change everything else completely.

Half of the groups then performed their protests whilst the other groups watched and vice versa. Our showing actually went well considering the circumstances and we were able to perform successfully and give our audience some brutal knowledge to take away. Our piece did lack props and things such as paint which would have been smothered on my body during the piece to represent the injury being caused to my body –this would have made things more obvious.

I really enjoyed Frankie’s characterisation of a homeless person. She really got in touch with what kind of a person she would be and managed to make her audience feel the weight of her character and also leave with it. This meant that she really stuck out as a person that I can still think about now and feel sympathetic towards. I also liked Gloria’s group’s interaction with their audience because it meant that we could leave her group with knowledge that could help us personally in everyday life. The knowledge was about our basic human rights and is something that everyone should know but not many people do (including myself up until now).

My group’s feedback was that our piece was strong and effective however our message wasn’t clear enough and people were unsure of what our political issue was. We understood and appreciated this constructive criticism because we ourselves agreed with it due to the fact that we didn’t have the posters and signs around us, we also didn’t have the paint ect. And chemical warfare isn’t exactly an obvious or everyday subject matter. Next week we aim to work together more efficiently and produce some material that will make up the whole protest.

Lesson 1 - Tuesday 1st November 2016

In today’s lesson we got into small groups and discussed ‘What is the function of theatre?’ We came up with loads of different ideas but there was a clear repetition in a few of the answers. For example many of the groups wrote down ‘something to challenge the audience’, ‘something for the audience to relate to’, ‘something that makes the audience feel connected’ and ‘to entertain’. There were also other, less popular ideas that came up such as ‘to make the audience uncomfortable’. This exercise allowed us as a class to engage with what we aim to give an audience and also allowed us to reconnect with what obviously has to be done in order to make a good performance, but also what have to happen in order to make a performance great. These extra things would set a performance apart from the rest of them and make a performance both unique and enticing for the audience.

What is theatre

After establishing this we were then put into different groups. My group consisted of myself, Francis, Antonia, Alex, Tianna and Milo. We were then given a newspaper and told to find an article that we could use as a stimulus to work from. We chose an article with the heading ‘Moors murderer Ian Brady makes new bid for move to prison so he can starve himself to death’  We then split into pairs and created short scenes that would later be merged together. The first scene showed Ian and a career in the mental institute talking. The scene addressed the main issue of Ian refusing to eat food and telling his career that he was well and didn’t need to be in the institute anymore. The second scene showed the mother of one of the children that was murdered by Ian noticing his possible release in the news paper and getting upset about it. The last scene displayed the lawyers discussing whether Ian should be allowed to be removed from the mental institute and instead placed in a prison. Things that came up in the debate was the fact that it would be cheaper for Ian to be placed in prison however there was also the contradictions that Ian was allowed to refuse food in prison without being force fed and therefore he would be able to starve himself to death. The political side of the performance was the questioning of whether Ian should be given the opportunity to enter an environment where he had a clear intent of starving himself so that he could die, but the audience had to think if he deserved to have such an easy escape root out of his fears after killing 5 children. After all, each of the children’s family and friends have to live with the pain, why shouldn’t he?

We then performed our scenes to the class. I really liked Sarah’s group because their scene was memorable and funny. It made fun of the serious issue of machines taking over more and more jobs every day. It also met most of the criteria of creating a good performance that we made at the beginning of the lesson. This showed that the group had both considered what they wanted to get across but also how they could do it successfully.

We then got back into our groups and discussed how we could turn our ‘dramatic’ theatre pieces into ‘epic’ theatre pieces. My group discussed doing a lot of narrative sections and maybe always being present in each scene or taking on other roles. For example, using the actor that plays Ian as the Mother as well would cause the audience to sympathise with the situation and political issue rather than the character. This would be because the character would look identical to the evil murderer/loving mother and so a bias opinion wouldn’t be created.

After break we created our own ‘Political Protest Groups’. My group consisted of myself, Sherene, Leanne, Loyde, Phoebe and Angelica. We then all said our ideas of what we’d like to protest about. I feel deeply towards the whole exam process and really wanted to do that. Phoebe really didn’t like that idea and so we began to search for other ideas. Loyde then came up with the idea of doing chemical warfare and everyone getting into overalls with a gas mask and using powder paint to somehow represent the chemicals. We were all delighted with this idea and loved the idea of using powder paint in such a symbolic way. And so the election between Loyde and myself started. The votes for exams and Chemical warfare were even which made things ten times more difficult. Obviously I was bias to my own idea, especially since I felt so strongly about it and since the group had come up with plenty of work to back the issue such as using a passerby to do a Q and A with someone in our group which would show that everyone has different mentalities and so not everyone should be marked under exactly the same criteria (be that the allocated time in an exam, difficulty etc). Sadly, Loyde won the election instead of me but I think we could do so much once we back up our work with the correct research. I look forward to putting proper ideas down next week now that we have an issue to protest about.

Research

Facts and ideas of Brecht:
(knowledge taken from http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/zwmvd2p/revision/2)
- The playwright Bertolt Brecht was born in 1898 in the German town of Augsburg. 
- During the First World War he served as a medical orderly 
- The war affected Brecht hugely and so he traveled in pursuit of his career in theatre.
- Brecht had his citizenship removed from him in 1933 by Nazi's and so became an outcast. He was a stateless citizen. 
- Brecht's experiences during both Wold Wars meant that he had seen brutal things hat affected him throughout later life.
- Brecht died in 1956, and was regarded as one of the greatest theatrical practitioners.
- During his life he was influenced by Chinese theatre and Karl Marx.
- A lot of Brecht's work was political and featured his own voice in one way or another.
- His ideas were influential. He wanted to make the audience think and use a range of devices to remind them that they were watching a show that conveyed a message and not real life in which a character relationships would be formed.
- He also experienced homosexuality
- He was a big fan of Charlie Chaplin
- Brecht's writing rarely included intervals
- Brecht wasn't only a talented playwright, he was also a good poet and director
- He attended drama schol"
- 'Naturalistic' and 'dramatic' theatre involves the audience experiencing moments of catharsis. Brecht created 'Epic theatre' which goes against the two popular methods of acting. He wanted the audience “hang up their brains with their hats in the cloakroom” -meaning that they wouldn't experience he emotional connection and therefore could judge a character without being bias.
- He called the distancing of emotions the 'verfremdungseffekt' effect aka the 'V' effect.
- His work had a political, social or moral message.
- Brechtian theatre breaks the forth wall


The devices Brecht used to create epic theatre included:
   - The 'V' effect
   - Narration
   - Coming out of role/third person narration
   - Speaking the stage directions
   - Direct address
   - Using playing cards
  - Mulitiroling
  - Split-role
  - Minimal set/costume/props
  - Symbolic props
  - Simple white lighting because it 'illuminates he truth' (lighting crew shouldn't purposely be hidden either.
 - Song and dance hat aren't in rhythm
 - Montage (he was influenced by silent film director 'Sergei Eisenstein'
 - Spass (fun) and Gestus (social comment)
 - Scenes are episodic
 - Fractured narrative
 - Gestus is what an actor does to capture a moment physically so that it registers with the audience
 - Brecht created a theatre company called 'Berliner Ensemble'

Some of Brecht's Plays:
- 'The Threepenny Opera' (1955)
- 'The Mother' (1931)
- 'The Caucasian Chalk Circle' (1948)
- 'Happy End' (1929)
- 'Drums in the Night' (1922)

Who he collaborated with and some associates:
- Karl von Appen
- Walter Benjamin
- Eric Bentley
- Ruth Berghaus
- Ruth Berlau
- Berliner Ensemble
- Benno Besson
- Arnolt Bronnen
- Emil Burri
- Ernst Busch
- Paul Dessau
- Slatan Dudow
- Hanns Eisler
- Erich Engel
- Erwin Faber
- Lion Feuchtwanger
- Therese Giehse
- Alexander Granach
- Elisabeth Hauptmann
- Paul Hindemith
- Oskar Homolka
- Angelika Hurwicz
- Herbert Ihering (de)
- Fritz Kortner
- Fritz Lang
- Wolfgang Langhoff
- Charles Laughton
- Lotte Lenya
(Sourced from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht)