We performed our final Brecht piece in this lesson, with around an additional half an hour rehearsal time before we performed the piece. We used this time to further refine the piece and add titles to each section of the performance. We did this firstly to again remind the audience that they are watching a performance, and also to easily guide the audience through the piece so that they didn't get confused about what scene transitioned into another. Below is a video of our final performance:
The timings for each scene are as follows:
Scene 1 - News Report: 0.00 - 0.50
Scene 2 - Dance Break: 0.51 - 1.44
Scene 3 - The Point: 1.5 - 2.52
Scene 4 - Trump: 2.53 - 4.35
Scene 5 - News Report: 4.36 - 4.55
Scene 1 - News Report
This scene is a weather report of the different kinds of weather that the world is facing on a daily basis.
At around four seconds into the piece we said the title of the scene - mentioned above - and counted down to when the scene was about to begin. This allowed for the audience to understand what the scene was based around and also enable them to understand what was going on during the scene and why we were doing it. It also allows the scenes to be split up accordingly and make it easier to define what each scene is. This shows an episodic structure as the piece runs in chronological order (from the report, to the hurricane, to the aftermath) which is a Brechtian technique.
At around ten seconds into the piece it is clear to see where the improvements have been made from our first full run through in front of an audience. The pace is a lot quicker as we get into the main body of the piece at an earlier time than when we did with the previous performance. This was so this first scene didn't drag on for too long and allowed the audience to see what the main point of our piece was a lot quicker instead of going through fifty seconds of irrelevant material. Another improvement from the last performance is that we all said "The weather forecast" at the same time which firstly allowed the audience to understand what we were saying and again improved the pace. This also allowed for chorus, another Brechtian technique, to be used within the piece. In addition to this, we also created spass within the first ten seconds through the exaggeration of camera angles and how the lines were split up. This suggests that the Reporters don't care about the report and are trying to get their lines out as quickly as possible.
At 17 seconds into the piece, our first multi role begins to emerge for myself, Izzy, and Maya. While Alex and Lauren were speaking, we changed our placards from Reporter/Cameraman to Wind/Sun/Rain. Multi- role is a much needed aspect of a Brechtian piece and by allowing multi-role within the first scene, it allowed the audience to see that this was a Brechtian based performance. This also allows for a quicker pace as we weren't waiting for people to change their placards; additionally this allows for the changing of the placards to be more obvious which was an improvement that I suggested in a previous blog. The lines that Alex and Lauren were quite satirical which creates spass e.g. "S****y Britain" which is quite truthful to what the weather is usually like in Britain which the audience, as they are from Britain, would be fully aware of. These lines also present the world issue somewhat, as the world issue is about climate change which has connotations with the weather.
At 23 seconds I break the fourth wall by directly communicating with the audience by asking them where Britain is. This again creates spass because it's ironic for a weather type to not know where the place is where they should be over. The wind could be over Britain because of the hurricane blowing over from America, but as I completely miss where Britain is on the map, this interpretation may not be valid. The weather types are also sarcastic towards the weather reporters. At around this mark, the weather archetypes are greatly exaggerated because we are meant to be presenting a part, not being a part and by doing this, it allows the audience that they are watching a performance and also distances them slightly - creating the Verfremdungseffekt. This was also enhanced by the use of placards.
At 44 seconds we introduce part of the world issue - Hurricane Irma. This allows the audience to see where the performance may be heading which captures Brecht's thoughts that theatre should be for the brain and not for the heart. This turns the scene vaguely serious, however, this is immediately juxtaposed by the line "What kind of a f*****g name is Hurricane Irma?" which allowed the audience to see that the piece is a performance, and not real life as well as breaking the fourth wall somewhat and producing more spass about the issue. This also shows the technique of chorus again.
There were many positives in this scene such as the clearly defined title and the improvement in pace. We also immediately used many Brechtian techniques which would allow a different audience to discover that the piece was Brecht inspired. However, there were negatives about the piece as well, including the slower pace from 0.30 to 0.41. In order to rectify this, the Reporters could have said their lines a little closer together so that the overall pace could improve.
Another improvement from the last full performance that was recorded in the removal of the transition from Scene 1 into Scene 2. Previously, the transition slowed down pace but with the removal of this transition, the performance flowed more successfully. Additionally, this transition was not clearly choreographed but was to show the chaos of the hurricane. Instead of the transition showing the chaos of the hurricane, I think the following scene better shows the chaos and doesn't involve any fabrics which made the transition look messy and awkward.
Scene 2 - Dance Break
This entire scene is a Brechtian technique as Brecht often used dance breaks to break up the seriousness of the piece and to break up action. This was to remind the audience that they're watching a performance and to slightly distance the audience. I think that our dance piece effectively reminded the audience that they were watching a piece of theatre because people in real life don't usually reenact a hurricane through dance, or break into a dance number in general.
Again, we used a title for this scene for the same aforementioned reasons in Scene 1. At 1.23, spass is again presented by the multiple dies, followed by jazz hands, followed by multiples dies again. The multiples dies symbolise the multiple deaths that the hurricane has caused and could cause the audience to become quite emotional. But as the word die is shouted and this part of the sequence is immediately followed by jazz hands, it juxtaposes the seriousness of the scene and reminds the audience that they are watching a performance. In addition to this, the two lifts within the piece suggest to me of how people and things may have been thrown around during the hurricane due to the force of the wind.
There were many positives about this scene because we all knew what we were doing within the scene. Moreover we were all relatively in sync and the majority of the actions were greatly exaggerated. From my knowledge, everything within the scene went correctly. To improve, we could have made the sequence slightly longer with a few more lifts to symbolise a higher amount of devastation that the hurricane has caused.
Scene 3 - The Point
This scene shows the world issue and allows the audience an insight to what people who have been affected by the hurricane might be thinking about. I wrote the script to this scene with the intention of gaining an emotional response from the audience which would then be immediately contrasted by the performance of Trump. I didn't name any of the characters because I wanted the people to remain anonymous to enhance how much more important Trump thinks he is; it also represents that the devastation was so great, it affected so many people in the same way and in different ways. I thought it was important that we had a serious scene in the middle of the performance so that every other scene could gain a new meaning. It was also important for this scene to get a response from the audience which was then juxtaposed by Trump in order to distance the audience (Verfremdungseffekt) so that they could be reminded that this has happened but this piece is not the real events. The characters represented the three things that affected most people; the general devastation, the loved ones that have been lost, and the businesses that have been ruined. Throughout the scene, their own lines link back to what they've lost which enhance their loss and make it more real, initially, for the audience. Additionally, I had the characters say some lines at the same time so that they'd make more of an impact within the piece, especially the last line of the scene ("Climate change is killing us") which provides the audience with the world issue. The differing opinions of what has caused the hurricane is provided which also shows the differing opinions on climate change itself. Moreover, as we all looked at the audience while saying our speeches/lines, it half broke the fourth wall because we were telling them what has gone wrong and why it has gone wrong. This enabled the audience to understand our emotions a bit more. This scene also allowed for myself, Lauren, and Maya to multi-role.
At the beginning of this scene, we forgot to say the title like we had done for all the other scenes which would have provided the audience with an insight into what the scene was about. However, this mistake may have made more of an impact with the audience due to the unexpectedness of the scene. This may have symbolised how the strength and destruction of Hurricane Irma was largely unexpected, certainly by those who don't live in areas where hurricanes are common and don't know the amount of destruction that can evolve from the hurricane.
A negative for myself is that I didn't manage to say the first line in time with the others; "Everything is gone.". This may have reduced the impact of the line slightly but may have not been that noticeable. Moreover, we didn't say the final line in sync which again may have impacted the effect of the line on the audience. The line was intended to be said a bit slower than how it was said in the performance to allow for greater impact on the audience. As it was said quite fast, the impact was lost massively.
Scene 4: Trump
This scene shows an additional aftermath to the hurricane and shows the political spin on the piece, a technique that was used by Brecht in all of his own pieces, such as his take on Hitler's Rise To Power. It shows the current politics due to climate change. Donald Trump himself has made it clear that he didn't take the hurricane seriously by not providing that much aid to the parts of the country he now presides over that have been badly affected by the hurricane. Additionally, Trump has made his stance on climate change clear due to him pulling the US out of the Paris climate change which we hopefully captured in this piece. We highlight his opinion on climate change during his speech as he doesn't think it's real and pins the blame onto other people.
At the beginning of this scene, there seemed to be a pacing issue due to the rolling out of the black cloth that was rolled out for him to walk on. It seemed there was a lack of communication about who was going to pull the cloth out which is highlighted by four of us trying to roll out the cloth.
At 3.05 Trump interacts with audience which shows how important he thinks he is compared to everyone else hence why he high fives the audience. It also shows an exaggerated archetype of Trump, as does the make up that is applied on stage during the previous scene which shows that the piece has no illusions.
At 3.35 Trump says that "fake news" had said that everyone had been evacuated from the site of the hurricane. Not only does this suggest that Trump is blaming the USA's problems on fake news, it also shows that Trump doesn't know what's occurring in his own country. This is also very topical due to many claims of fake news that come from the US. We decided to include this because it is very topical and shows Trump's disdain towards the situation. It also shows spass towards the situation of the hurricane.
At 4.05, Trump again says something that is current and topical - "We need a wall." This shows Trump's plans to build a wall between Mexico and the USA which was one of his main plans/points during the run up to the US presidential election. We show spass in this section of the piece by changing placards to Wall which reminds the audience of the Verfremdungseffekt and that the piece is a performance. We decided to do this with people instead of using an actual wall because it shows that Trump would use anything to get his wall - even with using real people, suggesting the political side, again, to the performance. Trump literally breaks the fourth wall by stepping through the fake wall and talking to the audience when he has stepped through, which created spass. During his speech, he lists things that can't get through the wall such as "Blacks...Jews...Mexicans...the hurricane". This suggests that Trump is very racist and also allows the political element to break through again.
There were many positives to the overall scene. Trump perfectly captured spass as people laughed at him; this was because the audience may have been uncomfortable and awkward about what he was saying as it's what he says in real life, without thinking about how much of an impact it makes on those he is referencing. In this, we completely captured the political undertone that is needed in a Brechtian style performance. However, there were some negatives about this scene as we didn't use as much dispassionate narration as I would have hope. Trump only briefly mentioned the other people on stage and I would have felt that we would have covered this area if Trump had described the other people a bit more; although, the way he described other people, made the audience laugh and created more spass. On a more personal note, I kept smiling with laughter during most of Trump's speech which may have distracted the audience slightly. In the future, I will try and be more serious if I have to be during a funny scene.
Scene 5 - News Report
This is a very short scene to end the piece. It shows a circular order to the piece whereby it finishes where it started. We decided to do this because it makes the audience understand that the entire piece was a news report on the hurricane, people's reaction to the hurricane, and the political reaction to the hurricane. The short abrupt end to the piece leaves the audience thinking about their own stance on climate change and what politicians who rule them think. We also had a quick transition between this scene and the previous scene which greatly improved the pace. Additionally, Izzy had a clearly defined difference between her Trump voice and Cameraman voice.
Media/Technology
We had a projected world map on the floor of the stage area. This was used so that the weather could try and be over the area that was specified by the Reporter. It also shows that there were less illusions because the weather could directly 'affect' the area chosen. However, the map ended up being upside down due to a technology malfunction which meant that the projection was not as effective as it has been in previous performances.
We used music for the dance - the song is called Nominal, Everyday Anyone and was effective for the dance. We turned the music on ourselves so that there would be minimal/no illusions within the piece.
The lighting within the piece was used for a reason. The white light was used so that it appeared like the audience were looking through a phone screen because Izzy had 'recorded' the News Report scene with a phone. It also suggests an innocence for the people before the hurricane. The red light which created a red background represented the deaths that occurred during the hurricane and also the deceit of the politicians who were supposedly trying to help the situation.
Set
Brecht wanted a minimalistic and simple set which we used within our piece. We used the risers pictured because firstly it allowed the audience to see everyone during the first scene and secondly, provided levels so that Trump was on the top most level during his speech because it is clear that he feels as if he's the most important person in the room. The black cloth also suggested that Trump feels as though he is again more important.
Characters
The characters are assigned as follows:
Me: Reporter; Wind; #1; Wall
Izzy: Cameraman; Sun; Trump
Maya: Reporter; Rain; #3; Wall
Lauren: Reporter; #2; Wall
Alex: Reporter; Wall
Myself and Alex made placards - in the picture opposite - to show the difference between each character. Using placards is another Brechtian technique and were used throughout allowing the Brechtian style to be shown.
Overall Improvements
I feel like we should have used more dispassionate narration to create more spass within the piece and would additionally show Trump's disdain towards the hurricane. Moreover, we should have tried to use repetition so that we could foreshadow events within the piece. Finally, we should have thought more about matching our clothing and make up choices so that we could all be symbolically matching.
No comments:
Post a Comment