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.