Brecht: Part 3

Lesson: 28th September 2017

The performance of the Brecht inspired piece was postponed until next Thursday, which allowed for more improvements to the piece.

There were a few things that we removed from the piece in order for the pace to improve and for it to fit more into the Brechtian style. We removed the first few seconds of the first scene where we would insult a member of the audience (because the rest of the class were now expecting to be insulted); we also removed the part where I set up the map of the world because it slowed the performance down, removing it allowed the pace to improve; we also removed the part where Izzy and Alex sang as the Sun and the Night because that again slowed the pace down. We decided to start from the Newsreporters where we introduce the weather and the main theme of the piece which allowed for a quicker pace and a greater understanding from the audience as to what the issue was that we were presenting.

During the part where we reenacted the hurricane, as shown in the previous log, we decided to add the phrase "What kind of f****** name is Hurricane Irma?". This allowed for spass as well as reminding the audience that they're watching a performance and not real life. The actors playing the weather (myself, Izzy, and Maya) said this line because it showed that even the weather is annoyed at having a name assigned to a hurricane again encouraging spass. However, during this part of the performance, we often become confused as to what to do and for how long to show the hurricane for. In addition to this, only a couple of us vocalised the hurricane noises which made this part seem less rehearsed. To improve this, we could all vocalise the hurricane or use media/music so the audience can hear the hurricane.



I wrote the script to the above scene in order to create a serious part of the performance that is integral to a Brecht inspired piece. I wanted to show the various reactions that a person would have to their home, businesses, and life being destroyed by a hurricane and by climate change. I made three distinct characters that all share a common fear of the hurricane, what it has caused and what it is caused by, by showing what the people have lost. #1 has lost their home and the neighbourhood that they held with utmost respect; #2 has lost all the people that they love and are desperately trying to find them again; #3 has lost their business and everything that they have worked for, hence why they talk about the looters. I chose to allow the characters to speak some parts at the same time because of the common fear that they share and it also makes an impact on the audience by having this unison.

There are some positives to this scene. For example the word use seems poetic which allows the audience to feel emotional about the tragedy that has befallen on these people; the word use also allows the audience to think about the tragedy and how much these people have suffered due to the impact of climate change. By using factual evidence about Hurricane Irma, such as looters who stole from shops and that the world's major cities such as London will probably be underwater due to climate change, it allowed the scene to seem more real. However, as this is a Brechtian performance, the seriousness of this scene was juxtaposed by Trump in the following scene, which reminds the audience that this is a performance and not real life as suggested by the Serious Scene. It also allowed the audience to recognise what the main issue is by us saying "Climate change is killing us"; this is an improvement form the last time that we performed the piece because before the audience were confused as to what the main issue was but as this is somewhat blatant, the audience can now understand the performance better.

On the other hand, there were some negatives about this performance. For example, I didn't look at the audience when recording this scene, possibly because the only 'audience' at this point was Alex when she recorded it. During the actual performance next week, I will try and maintain eye contact with the audience; not only is this somewhat interaction with the audience, it also prevents the audience from not seeing my facial expressions due to the emotions that my character may be feeling. Another negative about this performance of this scene is that the placards that we used were somewhat distracting because we were holding them. In order for this not to be an issue, I will try and use string so that they can be hung around our necks, leaving our hands free to emote more during this scene and other scenes within the performance.

During the full performance of this scene, myself, Lauren, and Maya were stood in front of the risers which made our characters seem more important which was immediately contrasted by Trump getting on top of the risers in the following scene. Izzy and Alex stood by the risers (as they don't have any lines during this scene and also kept all actors onstage, leaving no illusions from the audience) and slammed on the risers at specific lines to punctuate them and make the scene more serious.

After the serious scene, Izzy suggested that the actor playing Trump should put orange make up on in order to create spass and make fun of Trump. Although the idea is good, doing this after the serious scene slowed the pace exponentially. I suggested that Trump do this during the serious scene to juxtapose it, however this could distract the audience from the seriousness of the scene, so it was suggested that Trump should face the back to put his make up on so that when he turns around, he's already in 'Trump-mode'.

During the Trump scene, it was suggested that Trump should vocalise more so that the audience can hear what he's saying in relation to climate change and so the other actors know when to move. There have been some improvements to the speech that Trump gives such as evidence from a tweet (not from Trump) that says (along the lines of) that a lesbian mayor has caused the hurricane rather than climate change. It isn't a huge stretch to think that Trump could think this due to his objection to climate change after pulling out of the Paris agreement and his somewhat homophobic nature.

After the Trump scene, it was suggested by a Y13 BTEC that there should be a small scene to round the whole performance off and link the beginning to the ending. We decided to have an ending newsroom scene with the Newsreporters saying goodbye to the audience. This reminds the audience of what happened at the start of the performance and also creates an episodic structure.

The placards, although a Brechtian technique, were distracting because they were very see through and could see what was written on the other side. To improve this, we should have one character name on a single piece of paper and use string so that we don't have to hold them, allowing for movement of our hands. This would also solve the issue of turning them around.

We should also title each scene so that it's easier for the audience to differentiate between each scene. Titles could be "Dance", "Trump's Speech", and "Weather Report". This would also help us as the actors, to remember what order the scenes go in. This also allows for a more Brechtian style.

In addition to this, we all need to make a distinct difference between our own voice and the voices of our characters.