Thursday, 16 April 2015
Thursday, 26 March 2015
VAUDEVILLE
1881-1920
Pre Vaudeville
Before the American Civil War, theatre was mainly dominated by burlesque clubs in America. They featured many risqué things. Theatre was not only a place to be entertained, it was for men to have a drink. It was mainly focused towards a male audience, with the middle class being the main target audience, as higher classes were generally venturing towards the theatre over these burlesque clubs.
After The Civil War
In 1881 a man named Tony Pastor decided that theatre shouldn't be just for men and that these shows that feature a wide variety of different performances in one evening are missing a completely separate audience.
So he conducted an experiment and put on a cabaret and called it Vaudeville. This featured a performance of Shakespeare, acrobats, singers, presentations of dance, and comedy all in the same evening. However, he removed all the risqué and inappropriate content and aimed not just to a rich audience, but to the middle class too. He banned drinking from the theatre, as he wanted a family oriented show, rather than a prominently male audience.
What Did He Find Out?
He found out that they could make a huge amount of money if they kept putting on performances like this, and as the years went by, more and more amusements became available. Circus acts toured, dime-museums appealed to the curious, amusement parks, riverboats, town halls featured "cleaner" productions of variety entertainment, while saloons & music-halls and burlesque houses catered to those with a taste of the risqué.
What Was The Purpose?
The performance should not make the audience get emotionally attached to a character or situation. The sole purpose of Vaudeville was to entertain their audience. Over the years from 1880 to the early 1920s they realised the easiest way to this was to make people laugh. This is why an increasing numbers of Vaudevilles featured comedy sketches. These were often slapstick in nature.
The Demise Of VaudevilleAs the years went on, Vaudeville became more popular and appealed to many different audiences, and featured for the first time both Irish and Black performers. However, the jokes that were featured were often highly racist towards themselves.
Technology became Vaudevilles competition. Silent movies had started to come out and the cinema was a much cheaper option for the general public. The theatre wasn't the cheapest form of entertainment.
So consequently Vaudevilles in theatre became less common as they could not support themselves as much as before.
So What Now?
As we have progressed, Vaudeville has been reborn into shows like Britain's Got Talent and the Royal Variety performances. However, we also have kept the comedy sketches that were brought to life by Vaudeville. Morecambe and Wise, Laurel and Hardy, two entertainment duos that sparked from Vaudeville.
This is called New Vaudeville. 39 Steps, which we are each doing scenes from, is a spoof of Vaudeville performances.
What Makes It New Vaudeville?- Over the top physicality
- Comedy sketch type performance
- No character relationship with the audience
- Often recognising the audience, and general acknowledgement of their presence
Shaw and Lee - Vaudeville Legends (1949)
General notes made from watching the YouTube video:
Some seriousness but used to make the comedy more effective. A guy tries to sing to entertain the audience, but other people (who I presume are Shaw and Lee) keep walking on and distracting the audience and the singer himself. Turns out he is a presenter or the opening act, and welcomes Shaw and Lee. Comedy duo with some slapstick, killer jokes and general wisecracks. Dance moves that work well with just the two of them. It is Charlie Chaplin but on stage!
What We Covered In Lesson
We had to mime part of the scene to work on the physicality of our characters. We did the section where I beckon Margaret in and order her about, and I question what Hannay's sleeping arrangements should be. Crofter was clearly identified by the audience as the old man with the power in the scene. He is a loud mouthed Scot who controls the conversation, unaware of the other characters who are gazing upon each other.
We each then had to decide in our groups who had the power and authority in the scene. My group consists of myself, and old man named Crofter who owns the house in the scene, (not the big house mentioned, but one just off stage). Dan McKay played Hannay, a gentleman who is looking for a place to stay, but his goal is to reach 'Alt na Shellach'. Meg Robinson plays Margaret, Crofter's wife. As a group we concluded that Crofter has the power in the scene, as he can decide where the scene goes (if Hannay stays or has to leave). He also has power over Margaret, who succumbs to his every order.
Evaluation
Our
Pre Vaudeville
Before the American Civil War, theatre was mainly dominated by burlesque clubs in America. They featured many risqué things. Theatre was not only a place to be entertained, it was for men to have a drink. It was mainly focused towards a male audience, with the middle class being the main target audience, as higher classes were generally venturing towards the theatre over these burlesque clubs.
After The Civil War
In 1881 a man named Tony Pastor decided that theatre shouldn't be just for men and that these shows that feature a wide variety of different performances in one evening are missing a completely separate audience.
So he conducted an experiment and put on a cabaret and called it Vaudeville. This featured a performance of Shakespeare, acrobats, singers, presentations of dance, and comedy all in the same evening. However, he removed all the risqué and inappropriate content and aimed not just to a rich audience, but to the middle class too. He banned drinking from the theatre, as he wanted a family oriented show, rather than a prominently male audience.
What Did He Find Out?
He found out that they could make a huge amount of money if they kept putting on performances like this, and as the years went by, more and more amusements became available. Circus acts toured, dime-museums appealed to the curious, amusement parks, riverboats, town halls featured "cleaner" productions of variety entertainment, while saloons & music-halls and burlesque houses catered to those with a taste of the risqué.
What Was The Purpose?
The performance should not make the audience get emotionally attached to a character or situation. The sole purpose of Vaudeville was to entertain their audience. Over the years from 1880 to the early 1920s they realised the easiest way to this was to make people laugh. This is why an increasing numbers of Vaudevilles featured comedy sketches. These were often slapstick in nature.
The Demise Of VaudevilleAs the years went on, Vaudeville became more popular and appealed to many different audiences, and featured for the first time both Irish and Black performers. However, the jokes that were featured were often highly racist towards themselves.
Technology became Vaudevilles competition. Silent movies had started to come out and the cinema was a much cheaper option for the general public. The theatre wasn't the cheapest form of entertainment.
So consequently Vaudevilles in theatre became less common as they could not support themselves as much as before.
So What Now?
As we have progressed, Vaudeville has been reborn into shows like Britain's Got Talent and the Royal Variety performances. However, we also have kept the comedy sketches that were brought to life by Vaudeville. Morecambe and Wise, Laurel and Hardy, two entertainment duos that sparked from Vaudeville.
This is called New Vaudeville. 39 Steps, which we are each doing scenes from, is a spoof of Vaudeville performances.
What Makes It New Vaudeville?- Over the top physicality
- Comedy sketch type performance
- No character relationship with the audience
- Often recognising the audience, and general acknowledgement of their presence
Shaw and Lee - Vaudeville Legends (1949)
General notes made from watching the YouTube video:
Some seriousness but used to make the comedy more effective. A guy tries to sing to entertain the audience, but other people (who I presume are Shaw and Lee) keep walking on and distracting the audience and the singer himself. Turns out he is a presenter or the opening act, and welcomes Shaw and Lee. Comedy duo with some slapstick, killer jokes and general wisecracks. Dance moves that work well with just the two of them. It is Charlie Chaplin but on stage!
What We Covered In Lesson
We had to mime part of the scene to work on the physicality of our characters. We did the section where I beckon Margaret in and order her about, and I question what Hannay's sleeping arrangements should be. Crofter was clearly identified by the audience as the old man with the power in the scene. He is a loud mouthed Scot who controls the conversation, unaware of the other characters who are gazing upon each other.
We each then had to decide in our groups who had the power and authority in the scene. My group consists of myself, and old man named Crofter who owns the house in the scene, (not the big house mentioned, but one just off stage). Dan McKay played Hannay, a gentleman who is looking for a place to stay, but his goal is to reach 'Alt na Shellach'. Meg Robinson plays Margaret, Crofter's wife. As a group we concluded that Crofter has the power in the scene, as he can decide where the scene goes (if Hannay stays or has to leave). He also has power over Margaret, who succumbs to his every order.
Evaluation
Our
Thursday, 19 March 2015
THE ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN PERIOD
In 1576 James Burbage, father to actor Richard Burbage, bought a lease and permission to build 'The Theatre' in Shoreditch, London. 'The Lord Chamberlain's Men' (theatre company led by Richard Burbage, performing Shakespeare's plays) were the company in residence from 1594 to 1596.
Audience interaction, noise, no scripts - theatre Shakespeare-style!
- writers began by presenting their idea for a plot. The actors and managers then decided whether they liked it or not, and would then offer a down payment for its completion.
- writers created their characters with certain actors in mind. For example, knowing that Richard Burbage was the Chamberlain's leading man, and that he had a good memory for long scripts, Shakespeare created the parts of Richard III and Hamlet for him. As Richard grew older, Shakespeare made more mature characters.
- each player received his own 'role' - a long sheet of parchment with his lines written on them. No one else knew who else would be on stage with then until they actually rehearsed the scene.
- rehearsals were used to sort out the details not specified in the script. Entrances, costumes and songs were all filled in by the actors.
IN 1593 LONDON, THEATRES CLOSE DUE TO OUTBREAKS OF THE BUBONIC PLAGUE IN ENGLAND
Moving Across The River
- From 1596 - 1597 - The city of London authorities banned public performances of plays within the city limits.
- 1597 - Dispute of the lease of 'The Theatre'. Puritan owner, Giles Allen disapproved of the 'Theatre' and the acting troupe. Burbage opens negotiations to re-new the lease of 'The Theatre'.
- 1597 - Shakespeare's company of actors moved to the Curtain Theatre after failed negotiations of the new lease for the 'Theatre'.
- 1598 - Timber from 'Theatre' taken to use for the construction of a new venue, to be called The Globe Theatre.
- 1599 - The Globe Theatre is opened on Bankside, Southwark, London.
1603 THE BUBONIC PLAGUE RAVAGES LONDON AGAIN, KILLING 33,000 PEOPLE. 1608 - THE 'THEATRE' CLOSES.
The Globe Theatre
- June 29th 1613 - Fire at the Globe Theatre during a performance of Henry VIII.
- 1614 - Globe Theatre is rebuilt on its original foundations, with the new rof being tiled, not thatched... 2 years before William Shakespeare's death.
Not All Theatres Were Outside
Until 1609, the indoor theatres were used by 'boy companies'. These were grown from choir schools that privately performed once per week, differing from the week-long stretch that adult companies would perform at other venues.
The audience was thought to be more educated and wealthy. Indoor plays had more music, more flashy props such as jewels and pearls, and more speeches than action.
After reading it through, we all decided what parts we would like. We also held a discussion on accents, and we were informed that these characters probably held a West Country style accent. I took my inspiration for the accent from the cult film, Hot Fuzz, with the line from the police officer in the station: “nobody tells me nothin’.”
“Have the lion’s part written? Pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study.”
Clearly, Snug is a self-confessed sloth who doesn’t want many lines, due to his poor brain. Shakespeare was known for his deliberate use of punctuation. Therefore, my character’s line is longed out from the use of commas. Each couple of words requires another breath; he comes across as knackered by the end of his line!
Shakespeare also wrote the names of characters for a reason, therefore ‘Snug’ is a character meant to be lazy. He prefers the “snug” life of a bed and a hot beverage, or a nice cold one in the local!
Monday 23rd March 2015
Evaluation
Audience interaction, noise, no scripts - theatre Shakespeare-style!
- writers began by presenting their idea for a plot. The actors and managers then decided whether they liked it or not, and would then offer a down payment for its completion.
- writers created their characters with certain actors in mind. For example, knowing that Richard Burbage was the Chamberlain's leading man, and that he had a good memory for long scripts, Shakespeare created the parts of Richard III and Hamlet for him. As Richard grew older, Shakespeare made more mature characters.
- each player received his own 'role' - a long sheet of parchment with his lines written on them. No one else knew who else would be on stage with then until they actually rehearsed the scene.
- rehearsals were used to sort out the details not specified in the script. Entrances, costumes and songs were all filled in by the actors.
IN 1593 LONDON, THEATRES CLOSE DUE TO OUTBREAKS OF THE BUBONIC PLAGUE IN ENGLAND
Moving Across The River
- From 1596 - 1597 - The city of London authorities banned public performances of plays within the city limits.
- 1597 - Dispute of the lease of 'The Theatre'. Puritan owner, Giles Allen disapproved of the 'Theatre' and the acting troupe. Burbage opens negotiations to re-new the lease of 'The Theatre'.
- 1597 - Shakespeare's company of actors moved to the Curtain Theatre after failed negotiations of the new lease for the 'Theatre'.
- 1598 - Timber from 'Theatre' taken to use for the construction of a new venue, to be called The Globe Theatre.
- 1599 - The Globe Theatre is opened on Bankside, Southwark, London.
1603 THE BUBONIC PLAGUE RAVAGES LONDON AGAIN, KILLING 33,000 PEOPLE. 1608 - THE 'THEATRE' CLOSES.
The Globe Theatre
- June 29th 1613 - Fire at the Globe Theatre during a performance of Henry VIII.
- 1614 - Globe Theatre is rebuilt on its original foundations, with the new rof being tiled, not thatched... 2 years before William Shakespeare's death.
Not All Theatres Were Outside
Until 1609, the indoor theatres were used by 'boy companies'. These were grown from choir schools that privately performed once per week, differing from the week-long stretch that adult companies would perform at other venues.
The audience was thought to be more educated and wealthy. Indoor plays had more music, more flashy props such as jewels and pearls, and more speeches than action.
After Queen
Elizabeth
King James took the throne after Elizabeth passed away in
1603. The Jacobean period ran until 1625. Jacobean theatre was dark and
disturbing – grotesquely violent and shockingly obscene.
Sexuality was very prevalent in Jacobean performances along with a heightened sense of violence and general immoralities.
Sexuality was very prevalent in Jacobean performances along with a heightened sense of violence and general immoralities.
As the economy declined, so did the delicacy of theatre
performances moved from outdoor to indoor, because of the changeable weather.
Jacobean Drama
Revenge Plays and
Tragicomedies
Revenge Plays:
- obscene
- violent
- protagonist = revenger
a hero avenging an unfair or cruel death
- obscene
- violent
- protagonist = revenger
a hero avenging an unfair or cruel death
Tragicomedies:
- more grotesque
- dark humour and very sexual nature
- more grotesque
- dark humour and very sexual nature
Important Plays
and Playwrights
Two most produced Jacobean revenge plays are John Websters’
‘The Duchess of Malfi’, and ‘The White Devil’.
Theatre in Decline
1642 – English Civil War. Parliament suppress plays and as a
result the Globe was pulled down and
houses were built on top. 1648 – Puritans ordered all playhouses and theatres to be
pulled down. All actors were to be arrested. Anyone attending plays were fined.
It would be 12 years before theatres were reopened.1649 – Civil War led to execution of King Charles I by
Puritans.1653 – Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England.
THEATRE STOPS! It will be 7 long years before the
Restoration begins.
CONSTRUCTING THE
SCENE
“Scene II. Athens.
QUINCE’s house.”
We were given this scene from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’
Our group consisted of:
Harry Francis - Snug
Liam McMorrow - Flute
Tom Falconar - Quince
Toby Saddleton - Bottom
Carl Tyler - Starveling
Ali Heathfield – Snout
Kai Brassington – Sound and Lighting Designer
Dan McKay – Lighting Designer and Co-Director
Ellie Curtis – Director
Liam McMorrow - Flute
Tom Falconar - Quince
Toby Saddleton - Bottom
Carl Tyler - Starveling
Ali Heathfield – Snout
Kai Brassington – Sound and Lighting Designer
Dan McKay – Lighting Designer and Co-Director
Ellie Curtis – Director
After reading it through, we all decided what parts we would like. We also held a discussion on accents, and we were informed that these characters probably held a West Country style accent. I took my inspiration for the accent from the cult film, Hot Fuzz, with the line from the police officer in the station: “nobody tells me nothin’.”
“Have the lion’s part written? Pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study.”
Clearly, Snug is a self-confessed sloth who doesn’t want many lines, due to his poor brain. Shakespeare was known for his deliberate use of punctuation. Therefore, my character’s line is longed out from the use of commas. Each couple of words requires another breath; he comes across as knackered by the end of his line!
Shakespeare also wrote the names of characters for a reason, therefore ‘Snug’ is a character meant to be lazy. He prefers the “snug” life of a bed and a hot beverage, or a nice cold one in the local!
Monday 23rd March 2015
Today we had to put our individual characterisation into
practise, by rehearsing the scene on stage. Dan and Ellie had decided to place
our piece on stage, rather than performing in our drama studio. We worked hard
at finishing our piece, and ran it two to three times. We showed the
performance to the rest of the class at the end of the lesson.
Evaluation
Tuesday, 3 March 2015
PHYSICAL THEATRE
What is 'physical theatre'?
It could be simply defined as a form of theatre that puts emphasis on movement rather than dialogue. Physical theatre is essentially anything that puts the human body at the centre of the storytelling process of a piece. As a result, the piece often becomes quite abstract, using movement in a stylised and representational fashion. With expression mainly coming through movement, little to no dialogue is used. However, physical theatre can still be classed as such with dialogue present, but to express certain emotions and actions, movements often tell the story better than dialogue in physical theatre.
DV8
DV8 are arguably among the most renowned practitioners for physical theatre as a complete art form. They have a focus on looking at the dramatic potential that can be unlocked through movement. Their work is often described as existing at a crossroads where drama, sound and dance meet. DV8 are known for using physical theatre to explore complex aspects of human relationships and social or cultural issues. For example, in their production of 'Can We Talk About This?' (the trailer is shown below) the director and performers used physical theatre to express extremely complicated and delicate social and political issues. The main them of the production looked at multiculturalism, separatism and militant Islam. Words and the use of their bodies were combined to express what is sometimes difficult to discuss merely through speech on its own.
Frantic Assembly
combining dialogue and physical movement
The company's production of Lovesong, by popular playwright and author, Abi Morgan, illustrates another level of physical theatre. There is a substantial amount of dialogue within the script, but much of the impact comes from the movement work representing the relationship of a couple over the years. As a class, we discussed how a story is more moving through movement illustrating an argument in a relationship, over merely having the argument take place, similarly showing the love and relationship of this couple, it would be more engaging to see it with a more visual perspective.
Stylised Movement
We spoke about what it would be like if rather than just hearing of the war at the beginning of Macbeth through the characters dialogue, we saw it, with the witches having some form of control over the whole thing. This would create an alternative, more visual performance of the narrative that occurs before Shakespeare's play truly begins. With the witches being a puppet over the battle, the performance utilises aspects of physical theatre, making the performance a more abstract and interesting piece, especially for those who simply feel that Shakespeare's plays have a focus on dialogue. Kenneth Branagh's (Henry V, Othello, Much Ado About Nothing and more) version of Macbeth was hailed for its physicality, particularly during the battle scene at the beginning of the production.
Physical theatre can also be used in the way director, Steven Berkoff used it in The Trial. It was used so that people would provide the scene, whether it was furniture for a room or a busy street. The use of people to create everything allows great opportunities for dynamic impact. In The Trial, it was the cast, very simple frames and a rope on an empty performance space that created the entire staging of the piece.
Combing Arts Forms
Physical theatre has a focus on movement, but it can be both separated or united with speech to expand and explore its meaning. It could be devised dialogue, ot contain substantial elements of work beyond the printed script. These elements could be other art forms such as music, dance, media use or visual images. A combination of these elements alongside a script allows for a new and interesting piece of theatre than the traditional, naturalist style. The audience could be reached upon in such away that breaks the 'fourth wall', making the audience a collaborator in the action. It isn't entirely unusual for physical theatre to encourage or demand audience participation.
Commedia
Commedia dell'arte began in 16th Century Italy. It was a popular form of street theatre based on improvised scenarios among stock characters. These were universal characters; masters, servants, lovers. Commedia dell'arte is a very physical form as many of the characters wear masks to block facial expressions from the audience. As a result, the performers must rely on their bodies to be understood by the audience.
Techniques of Physical Theatre
MIME - this usually means stylised movement but can be comparatively realistic.
GESTURE - a gesture may be something small but can have emotional impact or it can be a particular movement that defines a character.
STATUS - this may be executed by use of levels or by distance or strength of contact, or a combination of all of these with voice work.
PROXIMITY - how close or far you are from your co-performers can be a source of very powerful impact. For example, the threatening gangster who speaks to his victim from a distance, or from a couple of inches away.
STANCE - this is associated with strength as the body could radiate assertion and authority or weakness by stance, incorporating posture.
HARSHNESS AND TENDERNESS - used here as umbrella terms to focus on the fact that in physical work the gestures and bigger movements come together to express the emotions of the piece.
MOVEMENT - every movement needs to be rehearsed with precision.
NOT MOVING - if the stage is full of characters moving, immobility can have a powerful effect.
MASK WORK - the impact of a mask is visual and without the facial features to show action, movement becomes an even more central performance instrument.
DANCE WORK - this doesn't need to be a 'dance', any movement relative to a dance style is useful in physical theatre.
MOTIF - this is repeated use of a movement pattern which has meaning and reminds us of the central theme of the work.
Contact Improvisation
This is a developed form of improvisation. The interest is in the starting point - a point of contact. The improvisation is the movement that develops from that. Even if you're not a trained dancer, you can experiment with shared movements. The impact of a stage punch depends on the reaction of the recipient. The movements are associated and work together. Contact improvisation helps achieve a successful move such as the 'stage punch'.
There are three basic rules:
- to absorb an impulse by the partner
- to resist or ignore it
- to respond to it
03/03/2015
After discussing all of the above, and formulated them into our own notes, we were given our groups. My group consists of:
- Toby
- Meg
- Ellie
- Dan S
- Carl
- Ashley
As a group, we were tasked with constructing a physical theatre piece based on the idea of a religious argument or viewpoint. We immediately began researching topical religious stories such as the Mohammed Emwazi news story, and the Avijit Roy case. We settled on the Charlie Hebdo shooting news story that was globally known as a terror act that affected not only the families of the victims, but those who belonged to the religion of the extremists, and how they were labelled alongside the killers, even though they were nothing like them.
In my research, I found possible quotes that we could use for dialogue. With physical theatre, dialogue can be taken from reali life quotes from people related to the topic area, such as in DV8's 'Can We Talk About This?'. The dialogue I found was:
"I have neither a wife nor children, not even a dog. But I'm not going to hide." This was a quote from Charbonnier, a french satirical caricaturist and journalist for Charlie Hebdo who had had his offices firebombed in 2012.
"We have avenged the Prophet Muhammed. We have killed Charlie Hebdo." These were the chants heard by witnesses to the horrific crimes committed by the brothers who underwent the shootings, as the killers fled the scene, this is was their chant.
Our discussion soon fell towards the whole idea of being labelled alongside these extremists as a representation of the entire religion. We felt that each individual labelled in this way would have had their own reaction to being labelled in such way. Some may gain strength in their faith, in the knowledge that they know how they should truly go about their religious faith. Others may lose faith in their own religious community. Some may question their own faith, questioning what sort of religion they actually follow. We wanted to show these confused states off, and provide the message that being labelled alongside the extremists just by following the same religion is unfair and unjust.
Toby and I constructed the first physical representation, which was an idea of showing the reputation of the religious faith as the story unfolds. At the start, we would all create a ball in the centre with our bodies, that represents the reputation of the religion. As the narrative progresses, the ball slowly has parts falling away, starting with myself and Ashley, peeling off, illustrating how the reputation is falling. This would lead to a striking ending where we would each have some dialogue saying how labeling other followers of the same religion alongside extremists is wrong.
After creating the first 'reputation ball', we go into creating the offices of Charlie Hebdo. Toby, Ashley and I became office chairs for Meg, Ellie and Carl to be seated on. They each followed a chronological set of movements of drawing the cartoons seen in Charlie Hebdo, As they repeat the movement of drawing, simple yet effective choreography, an image is projected slowly that is the famous image that sparked the brothers destructive mindset, and caused them to commit horrific, planned murders. As this is all going on, a cycle of the word 'Charlie' can be heard, each of us saying it in turn, before it soon overlaps with everyone saying it faster and louder. The sounds are ceased by Dan, who shouts the word 'Muhammed'. The three office workers turn around, and stare at Dan, before the 'reputation ball' is created once again. Ashley and I drift away however, showing that the reputation has started to fall.
A park scene is then created, again using our bodies to construct the set. Meg and Carl form a bench, Ellie creates a tree, Dan becomes a public bin and Toby is a man placing some rubbish in the bin. The scene is frozen with myself and Ashley to the side of the stage. Ashley then enters, and some contact improvisation takes place, as he dismisses Toby, the civilian placing rubbish in the bin, with a push to the shoulder. Toby responds, and retreats to becoming another part of the tree behind Ellie. I then enter, and more contact improvisation occurs, as I enter placing my shoulder on Ashley's frozen, still reaching hand. He turns around, and as he does so I push his right shoulder, and he reacts by turning over his other shoulder, and then looking at my eyes, stating the word 'Charlie'. I then reply with the same word, and on this note, we both say it at the same time. We represent the brothers, and their discovery of the drawing of Muhammed in the Charlie Hebdo magazine.
Thursday 5th March 2015
Today we managed to completely choreograph the rest of the piece. This was my own personal aim, as on Monday we only had the first period to finalise what we had before we were performing them. Toby introduced us to our music that would supplement the piece itself, which was a song by the band Good Charlotte, called 'Once Upon A Time: The Battle of Life and Death'. It had a strange, eerie beat to it, with what sounded like a French choir slowly vocalising to the beat, which soon crescendo'd into a more intense sound, allowing a juxtaposition within the sound, which allowed us to formulate our piece based on the movement of the sound.
We also finished the piece similar to how we began it, with the 'reputation ball' slowly depleting in numbers to illustrate the lowering reputation of the Muslim faith. We also featured another layering of quotes from the real life event, which crescendo'd until Toby screamed 'JE SUIS CHARLIE'. This was the final moment of our piece, a hard-hitting insight into the reaction to the event from the views of the brothers, the general public, and other followers of the same religion.
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It could be simply defined as a form of theatre that puts emphasis on movement rather than dialogue. Physical theatre is essentially anything that puts the human body at the centre of the storytelling process of a piece. As a result, the piece often becomes quite abstract, using movement in a stylised and representational fashion. With expression mainly coming through movement, little to no dialogue is used. However, physical theatre can still be classed as such with dialogue present, but to express certain emotions and actions, movements often tell the story better than dialogue in physical theatre.
DV8
DV8 are arguably among the most renowned practitioners for physical theatre as a complete art form. They have a focus on looking at the dramatic potential that can be unlocked through movement. Their work is often described as existing at a crossroads where drama, sound and dance meet. DV8 are known for using physical theatre to explore complex aspects of human relationships and social or cultural issues. For example, in their production of 'Can We Talk About This?' (the trailer is shown below) the director and performers used physical theatre to express extremely complicated and delicate social and political issues. The main them of the production looked at multiculturalism, separatism and militant Islam. Words and the use of their bodies were combined to express what is sometimes difficult to discuss merely through speech on its own.
combining dialogue and physical movement
The company's production of Lovesong, by popular playwright and author, Abi Morgan, illustrates another level of physical theatre. There is a substantial amount of dialogue within the script, but much of the impact comes from the movement work representing the relationship of a couple over the years. As a class, we discussed how a story is more moving through movement illustrating an argument in a relationship, over merely having the argument take place, similarly showing the love and relationship of this couple, it would be more engaging to see it with a more visual perspective.
Stylised Movement
We spoke about what it would be like if rather than just hearing of the war at the beginning of Macbeth through the characters dialogue, we saw it, with the witches having some form of control over the whole thing. This would create an alternative, more visual performance of the narrative that occurs before Shakespeare's play truly begins. With the witches being a puppet over the battle, the performance utilises aspects of physical theatre, making the performance a more abstract and interesting piece, especially for those who simply feel that Shakespeare's plays have a focus on dialogue. Kenneth Branagh's (Henry V, Othello, Much Ado About Nothing and more) version of Macbeth was hailed for its physicality, particularly during the battle scene at the beginning of the production.
Physical theatre can also be used in the way director, Steven Berkoff used it in The Trial. It was used so that people would provide the scene, whether it was furniture for a room or a busy street. The use of people to create everything allows great opportunities for dynamic impact. In The Trial, it was the cast, very simple frames and a rope on an empty performance space that created the entire staging of the piece.
Combing Arts Forms
Physical theatre has a focus on movement, but it can be both separated or united with speech to expand and explore its meaning. It could be devised dialogue, ot contain substantial elements of work beyond the printed script. These elements could be other art forms such as music, dance, media use or visual images. A combination of these elements alongside a script allows for a new and interesting piece of theatre than the traditional, naturalist style. The audience could be reached upon in such away that breaks the 'fourth wall', making the audience a collaborator in the action. It isn't entirely unusual for physical theatre to encourage or demand audience participation.
Commedia
Commedia dell'arte began in 16th Century Italy. It was a popular form of street theatre based on improvised scenarios among stock characters. These were universal characters; masters, servants, lovers. Commedia dell'arte is a very physical form as many of the characters wear masks to block facial expressions from the audience. As a result, the performers must rely on their bodies to be understood by the audience.
Techniques of Physical Theatre
MIME - this usually means stylised movement but can be comparatively realistic.
GESTURE - a gesture may be something small but can have emotional impact or it can be a particular movement that defines a character.
STATUS - this may be executed by use of levels or by distance or strength of contact, or a combination of all of these with voice work.
PROXIMITY - how close or far you are from your co-performers can be a source of very powerful impact. For example, the threatening gangster who speaks to his victim from a distance, or from a couple of inches away.
STANCE - this is associated with strength as the body could radiate assertion and authority or weakness by stance, incorporating posture.
HARSHNESS AND TENDERNESS - used here as umbrella terms to focus on the fact that in physical work the gestures and bigger movements come together to express the emotions of the piece.
MOVEMENT - every movement needs to be rehearsed with precision.
NOT MOVING - if the stage is full of characters moving, immobility can have a powerful effect.
MASK WORK - the impact of a mask is visual and without the facial features to show action, movement becomes an even more central performance instrument.
DANCE WORK - this doesn't need to be a 'dance', any movement relative to a dance style is useful in physical theatre.
MOTIF - this is repeated use of a movement pattern which has meaning and reminds us of the central theme of the work.
Contact Improvisation
This is a developed form of improvisation. The interest is in the starting point - a point of contact. The improvisation is the movement that develops from that. Even if you're not a trained dancer, you can experiment with shared movements. The impact of a stage punch depends on the reaction of the recipient. The movements are associated and work together. Contact improvisation helps achieve a successful move such as the 'stage punch'.
There are three basic rules:
- to absorb an impulse by the partner
- to resist or ignore it
- to respond to it
03/03/2015
After discussing all of the above, and formulated them into our own notes, we were given our groups. My group consists of:
- Toby
- Meg
- Ellie
- Dan S
- Carl
- Ashley
As a group, we were tasked with constructing a physical theatre piece based on the idea of a religious argument or viewpoint. We immediately began researching topical religious stories such as the Mohammed Emwazi news story, and the Avijit Roy case. We settled on the Charlie Hebdo shooting news story that was globally known as a terror act that affected not only the families of the victims, but those who belonged to the religion of the extremists, and how they were labelled alongside the killers, even though they were nothing like them.
In my research, I found possible quotes that we could use for dialogue. With physical theatre, dialogue can be taken from reali life quotes from people related to the topic area, such as in DV8's 'Can We Talk About This?'. The dialogue I found was:
"I have neither a wife nor children, not even a dog. But I'm not going to hide." This was a quote from Charbonnier, a french satirical caricaturist and journalist for Charlie Hebdo who had had his offices firebombed in 2012.
"We have avenged the Prophet Muhammed. We have killed Charlie Hebdo." These were the chants heard by witnesses to the horrific crimes committed by the brothers who underwent the shootings, as the killers fled the scene, this is was their chant.
Our discussion soon fell towards the whole idea of being labelled alongside these extremists as a representation of the entire religion. We felt that each individual labelled in this way would have had their own reaction to being labelled in such way. Some may gain strength in their faith, in the knowledge that they know how they should truly go about their religious faith. Others may lose faith in their own religious community. Some may question their own faith, questioning what sort of religion they actually follow. We wanted to show these confused states off, and provide the message that being labelled alongside the extremists just by following the same religion is unfair and unjust.
Toby and I constructed the first physical representation, which was an idea of showing the reputation of the religious faith as the story unfolds. At the start, we would all create a ball in the centre with our bodies, that represents the reputation of the religion. As the narrative progresses, the ball slowly has parts falling away, starting with myself and Ashley, peeling off, illustrating how the reputation is falling. This would lead to a striking ending where we would each have some dialogue saying how labeling other followers of the same religion alongside extremists is wrong.
After creating the first 'reputation ball', we go into creating the offices of Charlie Hebdo. Toby, Ashley and I became office chairs for Meg, Ellie and Carl to be seated on. They each followed a chronological set of movements of drawing the cartoons seen in Charlie Hebdo, As they repeat the movement of drawing, simple yet effective choreography, an image is projected slowly that is the famous image that sparked the brothers destructive mindset, and caused them to commit horrific, planned murders. As this is all going on, a cycle of the word 'Charlie' can be heard, each of us saying it in turn, before it soon overlaps with everyone saying it faster and louder. The sounds are ceased by Dan, who shouts the word 'Muhammed'. The three office workers turn around, and stare at Dan, before the 'reputation ball' is created once again. Ashley and I drift away however, showing that the reputation has started to fall.
A park scene is then created, again using our bodies to construct the set. Meg and Carl form a bench, Ellie creates a tree, Dan becomes a public bin and Toby is a man placing some rubbish in the bin. The scene is frozen with myself and Ashley to the side of the stage. Ashley then enters, and some contact improvisation takes place, as he dismisses Toby, the civilian placing rubbish in the bin, with a push to the shoulder. Toby responds, and retreats to becoming another part of the tree behind Ellie. I then enter, and more contact improvisation occurs, as I enter placing my shoulder on Ashley's frozen, still reaching hand. He turns around, and as he does so I push his right shoulder, and he reacts by turning over his other shoulder, and then looking at my eyes, stating the word 'Charlie'. I then reply with the same word, and on this note, we both say it at the same time. We represent the brothers, and their discovery of the drawing of Muhammed in the Charlie Hebdo magazine.
Thursday 5th March 2015
Today we managed to completely choreograph the rest of the piece. This was my own personal aim, as on Monday we only had the first period to finalise what we had before we were performing them. Toby introduced us to our music that would supplement the piece itself, which was a song by the band Good Charlotte, called 'Once Upon A Time: The Battle of Life and Death'. It had a strange, eerie beat to it, with what sounded like a French choir slowly vocalising to the beat, which soon crescendo'd into a more intense sound, allowing a juxtaposition within the sound, which allowed us to formulate our piece based on the movement of the sound.
We also finished the piece similar to how we began it, with the 'reputation ball' slowly depleting in numbers to illustrate the lowering reputation of the Muslim faith. We also featured another layering of quotes from the real life event, which crescendo'd until Toby screamed 'JE SUIS CHARLIE'. This was the final moment of our piece, a hard-hitting insight into the reaction to the event from the views of the brothers, the general public, and other followers of the same religion.
The Projections
I had been given the task of creating the PowerPoint to
supplement our performance. We begin with the image that Charlie Hebdo magazine
released that sparked the brother’s rampage. As our piece progresses, myself
and Ashley, who play the brothers, graffiti on the projection of the first
image, which fades into the second image that I created, shown here:
The French line at the bottom of the image is what I graffiti onto the projection. Primarily I wanted to write “combattre les jusqu'à ce qu'il ne est plus Fitnah” which stands for “fight them until there is no more Fitnah” which is a line from the Qur’an (2:191 – 193). ‘Fitnah’ stands for disbelief or unrest, and I translated it into French to relate to the setting of the piece. However, I was unsuccessful in removing the white background of the graffiti, taken from Dafont.com, and chose to stick with just ‘Fitnah’, placed on the white shirt in the image to avoid a less professional look to the image. (http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/quran/023-violence.htm)
As the brothers are killed, there is a newspaper headline with an exert explaining the death of the Kouachi brothers. This shows the national effect that this event had on the world. The newspaper is a real newspaper creator in France, but the article and headline I generated myself. The date of the paper is the day after the brothers had been announced to be deceased.
To finish the piece, we do a crescendo of vocal sounds relating to the subject matter, for example as my character I shout “We avenged the Prophet Muhammed” which is a quote from the brothers as they fled the scene of the crime. The words “Je Suis Charlie” appears at the background as Toby shouts those words, which is the social hashtag for Twitter that swarmed the world, and the magazine also released that on the cover of their magazine post-attack, with an ‘All is forgiven’ slogan.
EVALUATION
Firstly we watched the other group perform their piece. It was a solid movement performance however the comment was made that it was dance based and not completely focused on being a physical theatre piece.
When performing ours, we ensured that we had dialogue to prevent the idea of it being a dance piece. We also used stillness in movement as we found that it was a more effective illustration of the narrative for the audience than showing it through movement.
I enjoyed performing the physical theatre piece, as it allowed me to branch away from the formal naturalistic styles of acting, and I would very much like to adapt and continue our piece to create a solid physical theatre performance. I would like to perform this piece again to a larger audience, to raise awareness of the message that we based our piece on, that those that follow a religion shouldn't be linked with extremists, it isn't fair.
Tuesday, 24 February 2015
BRECHT
Initial Discussion Notes
- "quirky"
- "light-hearted"
- "Loserville did a lot of Brechtian style of performance"
- born in 1898 in Germany
- was a medic in World War 1 - became a pacifist, appalled by war
- moved to Berlin to search for a career in theatre
- fled Berlin in 1933 when the Nazis rose to power
- Nazis formally removed his citizenship
Brecht's Influences
Brecht became resident in the USA in 1941. However, he was called before the House of Un-American Activities Committee, who were an anti-communist committee. Brecht was accused of writing "a number of very revolutionary poems, plays, and other writings." (http://www.openculture.com/2012/11/bertolt_brecht_testifies_before_the_house_un-american_activities_committee_1947.html)
Brecht returned to Europe in 1947 and formed the Berliner Ensemble.
Brecht had a strong, political, anti-war voice. He had great courage to express his peronal voice in the world of theatre and developed a unique style of performance.
Epic Theatre
Naturalistic theatre acted as a mirror to what was happening in society. Brecht wanted his audience to think - he was quoted that audiences should "hang up their brains with their hats in the cloakroom."
Brecht was against cathartic theatre. If the audience believe in the action onstage and become emotionally involved, they lose the ability to think and judge. He wanted audiences to be emotionally distant.
Brecht used a range of theatrical techniques to remind the audience that they were watching theatre; a presentation of life, not real life itself. THIS IS EPIC THEATRE.
Verfremdunseffekt
Often called the alienation effect. Brecht didn't want the audience alienated, just distanced. He wanted audiences to be engaged and excited, but not emotionally involved with the characters. This always involved breaking the fourth wall, and other techniques such as:
Brechtian Techniques
- narration
- coming out of role
- gestus
- spass (fun)
- speaking stage directions
- non-linear narratives
- freeze frames (tableaus)
- directly addressing the audience
- using placards
- multi-rolling
- minimal props/costumes/set
- symbolic props
- symbolic lighting
- song and dance
- montage
The Caucasian Chalk Circle
We were given a scene from The Caucasian Chalk Circle, a play by Brecht himself. The task was to construct and perform the scene utilising the Brechtian styles discussed, and to ensure a focus to the acting style that is Epic Theatre.
My group consists of:
- Danny
- Meg
- Tom
- Kai
- Carl
- Ellie
- Dom
Our initial approach was a readthrough of the scene, to gain some understanding of what the narrative of the scene was. After completing this, we set on choosing characters, and as there were many more roles than there were actors, we found that before we even really began, we were using Brecht's technique of 'multi-rolling'.
Tom was away for our first lesson on this, and so we chose his characters for him, and filled him in when he returned. However, upon finalising the character list, Kai was unfortunately absent from the second lesson, where we were to finish staging the scene. Therefore we decided that as it was our last rehearsal before the performance day, we will give Kai's parts to Tom who attended the second lesson. This was to ensure that we could successfully perform the piece without any confusion next lesson. The final character list is as follows:
The Singer - Harry
Mother-In-Law - Danny
Lavrenti - Carl
Grusha - Ellie
The Monk (Nun) - Meg
One of the Women - Dom
Another Woman -Kai Tom
First Woman - Dom
A Very Old Peasant - Tom
Third Woman -Kai Tom
The Musician - Carl
A Peasant - Tom
The Guests - Carl, Dom, Tom,Kai
An Old Woman - Dom
A Man - Carl
Dying Man/Yussup - Harry
We began staging the scene by including another Brechtian style, dance. Brecht apparently enjoyed using song and dance in his plays, and we felt we had to honour that, even though ours seemed somewhat more modernised. I begin by narrating the Singer's lines whilst the rest of the cast do a short choreographed static dance to express joy before the scene has even begun. This is to excite and engage the audience, but also to remind them of the distant life of the theatre compared to their own lives. After finishing my lines, I take my placard off that reads 'The Singer', another Brechtian technique, and place myself under a dust sheet that represents a mosquito net, as the script reads. My position is on two chairs, spread to represent a bed, with my feet facing the audience. At the foot of the 'bed' is another placard that reads 'Dying Man/Yussup'. Even though I am playing multiple roles, it is clear enough to show the new character I have become. I then read the stage directions below the Singer's lines, in a neutral voice, to illustrate that when lines are spoken in this way, they are in fact the stage directions. We decided that for each of our characters lines, if stage directions follow them, that character shall read them, unless a narrator would be more suitable, to which case I read them, from the confines of the dust sheet (mosquito net).
Here is the props list that we devised upon completing two run throughs of the entire scene. The list consists of the props we found within the scene from the stage directions. The paper cakes will be crumpled balls of paper on a tray, a simple yet effective use of minimalist props.
The paper bottles represent the bottles that the Nun gives out. Firstly, we changed the Monk to a Nun as the performer was a female, Meg, and we felt that we could integrate more comedy from the idea of an American preacher-style Nun.
The bottles are made from paper as Brecht used a technique known as minimal props, and alongside the idea of labeling the characters using placards, we felt that to represent items, we merely use paper and mark on them what they represent.
The dust sheet, alongside the two chairs, make up the dying man's bed, which is set stage left, allowing the majority of the scene to take place centre-stage. The bed has a placard on the foot of the construction, to indicate which character is inside the bed itself. In this image, a duvet is being used, as the dust sheet was currently in use.
This image shows Grusha (Ellie) and her 'baby'. Keeping with the theme of minimalist props, we are using a pillow with BABY written on a piece of paper that is stuck to the front, to indicate what the pillow actually represents.
Each actor will have placards that have their characters names written on them. We decided as a cast that we should each have different ways of illustrating what character we were playing. For example, I have one placard stuck to me, as the Singer, but after I am finished, I rip off the placard and get in the bed construction, which features a placard at the foot of the creation, indicating that I am the dying man (Yussup). Tom's idea was to have all the character names that he is playing written on one placard, that is stuck to his body. He would then circle the character he is about to play. The concern was that an audience might get confused once more than one character was circled. However, Tom stated that he would define the circle to ensure it was clear what each character was. As well as this, he had differentiated the characters to a great extent, vocally and physically, to illustrate the immense difference between them, just in case the placard might not be clear.
These three images show the start of the production. I am standing on the far right of the image, as the Singer, indicated by my placard. The rest of the cast are seen posing in three dance moves that are a part of the choreography we have created for the beginning of the piece. Brecht used song and dance in his Epic Theatre techniques, and so we decided to feature a small movement piece in ours, to supplement the singing at the beginning, which we have changed to a narration to a beat. Later on in the scene, a drunk peasant (Tom) sings to the musician's (Carl) jazz beat. We decided that a song needed to be in it,m however there is no indication of the tune for the songs that Brecht has written into the script, therefore we decided to devise our own, chilled jazz beat that Carl pretends to play on his paper ukulele, but makes the sounds with his mouth. Tom then decides when to join in with the singing before being kicked out by the Mother-In-Law (Danny), as the narrative progresses.
02/03/2015
For our exploration of Brecht, 'epic theatre' and his other techniques that supplement his ideas as a practitioner, we had to perform a scene from his play 'The Caucasian Chalk Circle'. The play is about a women's discovery of a baby, and her aims to be a better parent for that child than its birth parents. The first idea we came up with was adding 'Spass' to the Singer's lines at the start of the scene. We found that everyone was not too keen on singing the lines, and without any indication of rhythm of pitch from Brecht, Danny settled on the idea of having the ensemble perform a short, repeated routine of dance moves whilst I, the singer, spoke the lines in a comedic an engaging fashion. This immediately grabbed the attention of the audience, who were at first confused by the random dance that opens the performance, but the choreography supplemented my dialogue, and also utilised Brecht's technique of dance and song in his plays. I feel that this was an effective, engaging and enlightening opening to the piece, but also a solid introduction to Brecht's style, its abstract but interesting nature, and an overall enjoyable experience. As a group, I feel that we achieved the style of Brechtian theatre successfully, and used many of his techniques in one scene. I feel that even though in normal productions this would not be the case, only a few of his techniques would be used, for educational purposes and to use as many as we could in the limitation of one scene, allowed us to develop our understanding of each technique. One technique in particular shone in our group, and that was speaking the stage directions. I had the idea of the character who has stage directions that follow their last line should read the direction, to allow the other characters to position themselves according to that direction. This also allowed for a more fluent piece, as there were little to no stoppages to look at who was saying what line. The other technique that shone was the use of placards. We each took on different ways to represent each character we played, as we multi-rolled a fair bit in total. I had one placard sellotaped to my chest as 'The Singer', and I ripped that off after my introductory dialogue and became the dying man, to which a placard was placed at the foot of the constructed bed (made with minimal props) to illustrate that I had become the 'Dying Man/Yussup'. Personally, I feel that Tom's idea for multi-rolling worked best. He had each named character written on one sheet of paper, which was sellotaped to his chest. He then pointed to each character as he became that persona, and differentiated his vocals and movements enough to clearly indicate the shifting characters, making it easier to understand for the audience.
Overall, I feel that I enjoyed the study of Epic Theatre this past week, as it has educated me stronly in the Brechtian theory, and I feel that I can use some of his techniques in my work later in my study of Performing Arts. Brechtian styles lend themselves well to musicals, which I have a passion for, and therefore I feel that it somewhat suits my style of performance. However, I feel that I prefer other avenues of performance to Brecht, but I would not neglect its use in theatre, as I feel that it is a strong style that should not be ignored in the world of theatre. In our performance, I did feel at times that we were over-acting our lines, and although it works on the technique of 'Spass', it did not seem to suit our acting style as a company. Although we would likely use techniques such as minimal props, placards, and the occasional spoken stage direction, the over-acting made me feel as though the performance was less of an acting experience and more of a group of budding actors shouting dialogue for a laugh from the audience. In reflection, we were likely not over-acting the piece, we were merely trying to fit in all the techniques Brecht used into one scene, and this meant that energy levels were high, which detracted from the more serious notions of performance that we may be used to. Therefore it has been an interesting and engaging experience studying Brecht, and I definitely would like to pursue that study further given the chance. I would like to revisit something similar, and create a performance that made us feel more successful in our own performance as actors and as a company.
- "quirky"
- "light-hearted"
- "Loserville did a lot of Brechtian style of performance"
- born in 1898 in Germany
- was a medic in World War 1 - became a pacifist, appalled by war
- moved to Berlin to search for a career in theatre
- fled Berlin in 1933 when the Nazis rose to power
- Nazis formally removed his citizenship
Brecht's Influences
Brecht became resident in the USA in 1941. However, he was called before the House of Un-American Activities Committee, who were an anti-communist committee. Brecht was accused of writing "a number of very revolutionary poems, plays, and other writings." (http://www.openculture.com/2012/11/bertolt_brecht_testifies_before_the_house_un-american_activities_committee_1947.html)
Brecht returned to Europe in 1947 and formed the Berliner Ensemble.
Brecht had a strong, political, anti-war voice. He had great courage to express his peronal voice in the world of theatre and developed a unique style of performance.
Epic Theatre
Naturalistic theatre acted as a mirror to what was happening in society. Brecht wanted his audience to think - he was quoted that audiences should "hang up their brains with their hats in the cloakroom."
Brecht was against cathartic theatre. If the audience believe in the action onstage and become emotionally involved, they lose the ability to think and judge. He wanted audiences to be emotionally distant.
Brecht used a range of theatrical techniques to remind the audience that they were watching theatre; a presentation of life, not real life itself. THIS IS EPIC THEATRE.
Verfremdunseffekt
Often called the alienation effect. Brecht didn't want the audience alienated, just distanced. He wanted audiences to be engaged and excited, but not emotionally involved with the characters. This always involved breaking the fourth wall, and other techniques such as:
Brechtian Techniques
- narration
- coming out of role
- gestus
- spass (fun)
- speaking stage directions
- non-linear narratives
- freeze frames (tableaus)
- directly addressing the audience
- using placards
- multi-rolling
- minimal props/costumes/set
- symbolic props
- symbolic lighting
- song and dance
- montage
The Caucasian Chalk Circle
We were given a scene from The Caucasian Chalk Circle, a play by Brecht himself. The task was to construct and perform the scene utilising the Brechtian styles discussed, and to ensure a focus to the acting style that is Epic Theatre.
My group consists of:
- Danny
- Meg
- Tom
- Kai
- Carl
- Ellie
- Dom
Our initial approach was a readthrough of the scene, to gain some understanding of what the narrative of the scene was. After completing this, we set on choosing characters, and as there were many more roles than there were actors, we found that before we even really began, we were using Brecht's technique of 'multi-rolling'.
Tom was away for our first lesson on this, and so we chose his characters for him, and filled him in when he returned. However, upon finalising the character list, Kai was unfortunately absent from the second lesson, where we were to finish staging the scene. Therefore we decided that as it was our last rehearsal before the performance day, we will give Kai's parts to Tom who attended the second lesson. This was to ensure that we could successfully perform the piece without any confusion next lesson. The final character list is as follows:
The Singer - Harry
Mother-In-Law - Danny
Lavrenti - Carl
Grusha - Ellie
The Monk (Nun) - Meg
One of the Women - Dom
Another Woman -
First Woman - Dom
A Very Old Peasant - Tom
Third Woman -
The Musician - Carl
A Peasant - Tom
The Guests - Carl, Dom, Tom,
An Old Woman - Dom
A Man - Carl
Dying Man/Yussup - Harry
We began staging the scene by including another Brechtian style, dance. Brecht apparently enjoyed using song and dance in his plays, and we felt we had to honour that, even though ours seemed somewhat more modernised. I begin by narrating the Singer's lines whilst the rest of the cast do a short choreographed static dance to express joy before the scene has even begun. This is to excite and engage the audience, but also to remind them of the distant life of the theatre compared to their own lives. After finishing my lines, I take my placard off that reads 'The Singer', another Brechtian technique, and place myself under a dust sheet that represents a mosquito net, as the script reads. My position is on two chairs, spread to represent a bed, with my feet facing the audience. At the foot of the 'bed' is another placard that reads 'Dying Man/Yussup'. Even though I am playing multiple roles, it is clear enough to show the new character I have become. I then read the stage directions below the Singer's lines, in a neutral voice, to illustrate that when lines are spoken in this way, they are in fact the stage directions. We decided that for each of our characters lines, if stage directions follow them, that character shall read them, unless a narrator would be more suitable, to which case I read them, from the confines of the dust sheet (mosquito net).
Here is the props list that we devised upon completing two run throughs of the entire scene. The list consists of the props we found within the scene from the stage directions. The paper cakes will be crumpled balls of paper on a tray, a simple yet effective use of minimalist props.
The paper bottles represent the bottles that the Nun gives out. Firstly, we changed the Monk to a Nun as the performer was a female, Meg, and we felt that we could integrate more comedy from the idea of an American preacher-style Nun.
The bottles are made from paper as Brecht used a technique known as minimal props, and alongside the idea of labeling the characters using placards, we felt that to represent items, we merely use paper and mark on them what they represent.
The dust sheet, alongside the two chairs, make up the dying man's bed, which is set stage left, allowing the majority of the scene to take place centre-stage. The bed has a placard on the foot of the construction, to indicate which character is inside the bed itself. In this image, a duvet is being used, as the dust sheet was currently in use.
02/03/2015
For our exploration of Brecht, 'epic theatre' and his other techniques that supplement his ideas as a practitioner, we had to perform a scene from his play 'The Caucasian Chalk Circle'. The play is about a women's discovery of a baby, and her aims to be a better parent for that child than its birth parents. The first idea we came up with was adding 'Spass' to the Singer's lines at the start of the scene. We found that everyone was not too keen on singing the lines, and without any indication of rhythm of pitch from Brecht, Danny settled on the idea of having the ensemble perform a short, repeated routine of dance moves whilst I, the singer, spoke the lines in a comedic an engaging fashion. This immediately grabbed the attention of the audience, who were at first confused by the random dance that opens the performance, but the choreography supplemented my dialogue, and also utilised Brecht's technique of dance and song in his plays. I feel that this was an effective, engaging and enlightening opening to the piece, but also a solid introduction to Brecht's style, its abstract but interesting nature, and an overall enjoyable experience. As a group, I feel that we achieved the style of Brechtian theatre successfully, and used many of his techniques in one scene. I feel that even though in normal productions this would not be the case, only a few of his techniques would be used, for educational purposes and to use as many as we could in the limitation of one scene, allowed us to develop our understanding of each technique. One technique in particular shone in our group, and that was speaking the stage directions. I had the idea of the character who has stage directions that follow their last line should read the direction, to allow the other characters to position themselves according to that direction. This also allowed for a more fluent piece, as there were little to no stoppages to look at who was saying what line. The other technique that shone was the use of placards. We each took on different ways to represent each character we played, as we multi-rolled a fair bit in total. I had one placard sellotaped to my chest as 'The Singer', and I ripped that off after my introductory dialogue and became the dying man, to which a placard was placed at the foot of the constructed bed (made with minimal props) to illustrate that I had become the 'Dying Man/Yussup'. Personally, I feel that Tom's idea for multi-rolling worked best. He had each named character written on one sheet of paper, which was sellotaped to his chest. He then pointed to each character as he became that persona, and differentiated his vocals and movements enough to clearly indicate the shifting characters, making it easier to understand for the audience.
Overall, I feel that I enjoyed the study of Epic Theatre this past week, as it has educated me stronly in the Brechtian theory, and I feel that I can use some of his techniques in my work later in my study of Performing Arts. Brechtian styles lend themselves well to musicals, which I have a passion for, and therefore I feel that it somewhat suits my style of performance. However, I feel that I prefer other avenues of performance to Brecht, but I would not neglect its use in theatre, as I feel that it is a strong style that should not be ignored in the world of theatre. In our performance, I did feel at times that we were over-acting our lines, and although it works on the technique of 'Spass', it did not seem to suit our acting style as a company. Although we would likely use techniques such as minimal props, placards, and the occasional spoken stage direction, the over-acting made me feel as though the performance was less of an acting experience and more of a group of budding actors shouting dialogue for a laugh from the audience. In reflection, we were likely not over-acting the piece, we were merely trying to fit in all the techniques Brecht used into one scene, and this meant that energy levels were high, which detracted from the more serious notions of performance that we may be used to. Therefore it has been an interesting and engaging experience studying Brecht, and I definitely would like to pursue that study further given the chance. I would like to revisit something similar, and create a performance that made us feel more successful in our own performance as actors and as a company.
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