For the first lesson under the style of contemporary theatre (which stems from the early 20th century to the present day), we looked at Bertolt Brecht. I have commented before on Brecht in earlier blogs so my interpretation of his style can be found in those.
Chipp wanted to approach Brecht again for various reasons. The first was because the first time we looked at Brecht was at the very start of the year so our understanding was under the level that would be expected for BTEC. Moreover, the understanding that we had of Brecht was not entirely correct and so we would not be able to apply this to Director's Challenge in Y13. We were informed that Brecht didn't use Epic Theatre, instead Epic Theatre is the name of Brecht's style which does make more sense. We discussed what Brecht would expect from a performance as well as what Brecht would be excited about in the theatre today.
From a performance, Brecht would expect that nothing would be hidden from an audience, that the actors would break the fourth wall, and that technology would be used to express views that the characters would not be able to express themselves. In the past, Brecht's technological influences would be limited to placards, lighting, and sound that. Now, however, Brecht would be vastly excited about the technology on offer such as the ability to project onto the back wall of a stage as well as the use of mobile technology to create complete interaction and the breaking of the fourth wall would be much more possible. Mobile technology could be used so that the audience can suggest via polls what they think about the character's, their actions, or what they think the performance shows about society.
The definition of the Verfremdungseffekt that I was using was to distance the audience from the action, but this is not what Brecht wanted to do. The translation of this has been butchered. The definition given by Chipp that it actually means to tilt the audience's perception is much more fitting in my opinion. This would mean that the audience would see another character's perception of the story and mean that they leave the performance with a better chance of questioning what they've seen and how it applies to society (in some way, this reminds me of the Gecko performance of The Wedding that I saw earlier this year - this can be seen in another blog).
We looked at a play called Our Country's Good which was written in 1988 by British playwright, Timberlake Wertenbaker, adapted from the Thomas Keneally novel The Playmaker. The story concerns a group of Royal Marines and convicts in a penal colony in New South Wales, in the 1780s, who put on a production of The Recruiting Officer. It was first staged at the Royal Court Theatre, London, on 10 September 1988, directed by Max Stafford-Clark. It ran on Broadway in 1991. The scenes that we looked at are as follows:
Below is a video of Bella, Lauren, and I performing a section of Scene 3:
The main thing that we tried to do for the staging of this was to show the status of the three characters and how they related to each other. As we had to be more than one character as we were missing an actor to play one character, we didn't stick as much to the status given by Wertenbaker. We still managed to show status by having different heights which altered the proxemics of the scene. If we had more time, I would have liked to make the status more obvious in some points and subtler in others which would make the piece more rounded.
The National Theatre is a public funded theatre that supports new talent. It was originally based in the Old Vic Theatre, London, whilst the current theatres that it currently 'lives' in were being built. It tours across the UK and provides performances of plays/musicals written by Shakespeare, international classical drama writers, and contemporary playwrights. Additionally, it provides National Theatre Live which is where performances of National Theatre productions are broadcast to cinemas across the UK and around the world; the first National Theatre Live was in 2009. The calls for a National Theatre date as far back as 1847 where there seemed to be a 'star' system in the theatre industry in Britain. Finally, on October 22nd 1963, the National Theatre opened with a production of Hamlet. The company houses three separate theatres: Olivier Theatre, named after Laurence Olivier, the first artistic director; Lyttelton Theatre, named after Oliver Lyttelton, the first board chairman; and Dorfman Theatre, named after Lloyd Dorfman. There was also a Temporary Theatre from April 2013 to May 2016.
The Five Truths Series
The National Theatre created the Five Truths Series which was a series in which a scene from Hamlet and the character Ophelia are examined. They are presented in five different ways in the style of five different theatre practitioners: Stanislavski, Brecht, Artaud, Grotowski, and Brook.
Stanislavski
In my opinion, I think that this version of the piece was the most boring one, especially compared to the more interesting and genuinely frightening versions such as the Artaud inspired one. It was very naturalistic, which could be used to describe Stanislavski's style of theatre, and although there seemed to be vast amounts of emotion that Ophelia had about the deaths of her potential husband and her father but not as much compared with that of the Grotowski version. This piece did show the emotion that would be needed to become fully immersed in the character and it seems as though the actress may have thought about the Magic If which is why she seems so affected by the Hamlet's death.
Brecht
The Brecht piece was much more interesting to watch than the Stanislavski piece. To me, I think that this piece was more compelling to watch due to Ophelia's lesser reaction to Hamlet's death which showed her to be distancing the audience - the Verfremdungseffekt - and also suggests that the actress is presenting an archetype rather than immersing herself into the character. Additionally, Ophelia shows less emotion throughout the piece than what is shown in the Stanislavski and the Grotowski pieces, especially when she commits suicide at the end. This would allow the audience to think about the reasons why she committed suicide, rather than the emotional needs - theatre is for "the brain not the heart".
Artaud
Artaud was a French dramatist who worked at around the same time as Brecht. He, however, took a different route to Brecht, and in some ways was somewhat similar to Stanislavski, because he wanted the audience to become emotional when watching a piece, although, Artaud wanted the audience to look into their fears, rather than get lost into the piece that they were watching. Artaud presented the Theatre of Cruelty where he wanted the audience to experience discomfort/confusion about the piece that they were watching. In many of Artaud's pieces, there was no storyline, but rather a theme that ran throughout, which is similar to the political themes presented in Brechtian theatre. His pieces would have minimal dialogue, instead animalistic noises - such as grunts and screams - were used to present the story. He was heavily influenced by surrealism due to a life long addiction to opiates such as heroin. Additionally, he had spells inside mental institutions which also influenced his work.
Visual Poetry - Instead of words, Artaud used stylised movement, gesture, dance, music, and sound effects to communicate with the audience.
Dream World - Combined with visual poetry, Artaud used symbolic props and costumes in order to affect the audience's emotion and subconscious.
Assaulting the Audience - Lights, music, sound, and images were used to shock and confront the audience; this has been made easier in recent years due to the development of technology.
Involving the Audience - The action would take place around the audience which would allow them to be closer and more a part of the action; in some Artaud inspired pieces (and in my GCSE Drama devised piece) actors can go into the audience in order to affect them emotionally.
Deliberate Cruelty - This is an attack on the audience's emotions and senses in a deliberate attempt designed to shock and total involve the audience.
This version of the scene from Hamlet was again exciting and interesting to watch. There was a complete change of props from the previous two pieces, including a goldfish bowl from which the camera was placed which I thought was an effective way of getting the audience directly involved with the action. For the first few minutes of the piece there were distorted sounds and images on screen where the sounds were amplified. At this point the actress was making the form of words with her mouth but wasn't actually speaking, so when she began to speak I got shivers from how distorted and unexpected her voice was. I thought this piece was the most effective way of showing Ophelia's pain because I thought the distortions could resemble her emotional pain and may also show the state of her mind which gives a clearer reason to her death - which seemed vastly more dramatic than in the other pieces. This piece also attacked the audience's senses (and made my younger brother scared when I watched it in the room with him!) which directly involved the audience.
Grotowski
Grotowski was a Polish dramatist who thought that theatre had become too infected with extravagant costume, make up, acting and staging. The only thing, to him, that was required for a performance was the actors themselves and that the relationship between the actor and the audience was key and wanted to eliminate unnecessary movement. He wanted audiences to experience truths about human experience through watching actors access their own inner truth. He did this by training actors to be stripped away of pre-conceived ideas and masks that would aid them in their acting. Additionally, he trained actors to have supreme power over their mental and physical state and wanted an actor's voice and body to be mirrored by the text.
This version of the scene was again interesting to watch, however, the first time I watched it (without researching the practitioner) I found the piece confusing which may have affected my view on the piece. Much like Artaud, the piece was far more dramatic in showing Ophelia's mental state, especially at the beginning where Ophelia seemed to be losing herself in her grief. Her voice and body at this point mirror the text and suggest that she is very affected by the prior events. Additionally, this piece was effective because there was less of a build up to her death in the beginning, which for me was easier to watch because it was less boring for the audience. There were fewer props and less of a focus on hair and make up which allows the audience to focus on the person rather than on what's around them which sticks to Grotowski's style of theatre.
Brook
Brook is an English theatre and film director who was inspired by Artaud, Brecht, and Grotowski. He has directed a lot of Shakespeare with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He wants to liberate actors from methods and wants to break down the classic conventions of theatre. He called these classic conventions 'Deadly Theatre'. He also coined terms such as 'Holy Theatre' (seeks out spiritual/ritualistic nature of theatre) and 'Rough Theatre' (popular without pretentions to art). His personal theatre was 'Immediate Theatre' which is the notion of experimental theatre but is a pretty useless theory.
I found this version of the piece quite boring to watch as the tone stayed relatively the same throughout and didn't really present Ophelia's emotions. However, it could be said that the tone of the piece shows how bad her mental state is because she hardly seems to be reacting. Despite this, I found it harder to connect with Ophelia in the piece than I had in others such as Artaud.
In order to consolidate our learning of Brecht and his ideas, we created a mind map (pictured below). The headings include:
- Works - Links to Stanislavski - Epic Theatre - Backstory - Influences
As a collective, we discovered far more about Brecht than we had before in smaller groups. We were able to see how and why Brecht created what he did and when he created it. In my opinion, if we had done this research at an earlier date, before we had created our performances, we would have had a better understanding on Brechtian techniques which would have made our performances better as a whole. By doing this, we gained a greater understanding of the techniques needed to make a better Brechtian performance.
In order to show this, we presented each topic in a Brechtian style through songs, dance, and dispassionate narration. Myself and Izzy used both a song (rap) and archetypes to present the links between Brecht and Stanislavski. We decided to do a rap battle because it showed both spass and archetypes well, as well as incorporating a song element to the piece.
In addition to this, other groups created:
- A song to show Brecht's influences and his works.
- A dance break to show epic theatre.
- A physical piece with dispassionate narration to show Brecht's backstory.
All of these created a spass element and also effectively showed Brechtian techniques whilst also being able to understand them more clearly.
Lesson: 5th October 2017
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
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.
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.
We performed our full performances to the class and in doing so, we easily found things that needed to be improved and which parts worked well within the context. Our issue that we explored was Climate Change and we explored this in a Brechtian style using many of his ideas I highlighted in my previous post about this Brecht performance.
We have three scenes in the piece and the timings are approximately as follows: Scene 1: 0.00-1:53 Scene 2: 1:53-2:37 Scene 3: 2:37-4:09
Scene 1
Up to about 10 seconds in, the other actors in the group commented on a specific audience members hair which shows a Brechtian technique of interacting with the audience and breaking the fourth wall. It also reminded the audience that they were watching a performance and not a real life issue. While this was occurring, I was setting up the image of the world from Google Maps that was projected onto the floor. As this was done while the audience was watching the performance, this presented no illusions to the audience, another Brechtian technique. The Google Maps image was commented on by Maya ("You've left Google Maps on.") which again showed the audience that this is a performance by coming out of character.
The lighting that is shown in the first scene is kept the same throughout - a bright white light that didn't hide anything from the audience. This enables the audience to see any costume or scene changes which again shows that there were no illusions, keeping with the Brechtian technique.
At around 25 seconds Izzy and Alex burst out into songs of contrasting nature. Izzy sang songs about the sun (such as "Sunshine, Lollypops and Rainbows") and Alex sang songs about the night (such as "Rhythm of the Night"). I thought that this could represent two differing opinions on climate change; one that climate change is not real, hence why the sun is cheery about everything as the sun doesn't believe that anything is wrong with the world; another that climate change is real, hence why the dark seems miserable in comparison to the sun, as the dark knows that climate change is negatively affecting the world.
At 39 to 48 seconds we presented the weather, but instead of presenting the weather 'normally' like what we did in our original piece, we decided to exaggerate camera angles and exaggerate the role of the CameraWoman played by Izzy. Not only did this present multi-role for Izzy (the Sun and the CameraWoman) is also presents the Brechtian technique of 'spass' which pokes fun at the issue in the scene. This meant that the scene was more satirical than just presenting the weather normally.
At 1:09, we tried to show the weather being sarcastic towards the NewsPresenters which showed spass towards the issue. We used phrases such as "75 mile an hour winds, lets go 185" from the Wind (played by myself) and "Nice try b*****s" from the Rain (played by Maya) again showing the use of multi-role. This also presented archetypes and guestus of weather through the movements that we did as Sun, Rain, and Wind, as we showed them as stereotypes. This can be seen at the Rain's aforementioned line, as it shows that Rain always ruins Sun.
During the Transition (1:37-1:53) between Scene 1 and Scene 2, we used grey cloths (to signify the hurricane) and are planning to use more props such as sun cream, a model house, and general items that would remind the audience of the Wizard of Oz.. This again shows spass as it suggests that Hurricane Irmak, as mentioned in my previous entry about this topic, is akin to the twister shown in Wizard of Oz. It also remind the audience that this is a performance because they aren't watching a production of Wizard of Oz so may be slightly distanced from the action on stage (creating a slight Verfremdungseffekt) due to the familiarity of the objects flying past their faces. This section is supposed to represent the hurricane entering so we wanted sound effects that sounded like a hurricane. Instead of using sound effects pre-created, Lauren was able to make hurricane type sounds which reduced the amount of illusion and also broke the 4th wall.
A positive of this scene was that we immediately used a lot of Brechtian techniques which shows the audience that the performance is in the style of Brecht, even if they don't necessarily know who Brecht is and what his style is. In addition to this, this scene was a massive improvement from the first performance of this scene, as we could easily hear what all people were saying and we were more sure of what we were doing during this scene.
However a negative of this scene was that the pace was way too slow as there was lots of stopping and waiting for things to happen. To improve this we will probably move from each line slightly quicker, in order to keep up the pace of the following two scenes.
Scene 2
Scene 2 consisted entirely of a dance break from 1:53-2:37 and included music, both of which are Brechtian techniques. I had to turn the music on myself which showed the audience again that there were no illusions. During this scene we were trying to show the hurricane in full force hence why there are two lifts which show the hurricane picking things up and killing people in the process. During this scene we showed spass again when we said "die" and consequently died for 8 beats of the song and then did jazz hands. This juxtaposed the seriousness of the scene which again reminded the audience that they were watching a performance and not a real life situation. To improve this scene we could add dispassionate narration to part of it, which is another Brechtian technique that I don't think we used properly in the final scene. Moving it here would make the scene fit more into the overall performance as I think, at the moment, this scene is awkwardly placed and the transition into it doesn't really fit either.
Scene 3
One negative at the beginning of this scene was that the music didn't stop after the previous scene at around 2:40. I had to run off and stop the music. The loudness of the music coupled with my unexpected exit may have distracted the audience and missed part of Trump's (played by Izzy) speech.
At the beginning of the scene, Maya and I, rolled out a black cloth for Trump to walk on as it makes him seem 'important' because he believes that he's one of the most important people in the world, just because he is the President of the USA. We decided to include a satire of President Trump in our performance because he doesn't believe that climate change is as much as a global threat as other nations are making it out to be. Trump has pulled the USA out of the Paris Climate Change Agreement in July 2017, something that was signed during the Obama administration, which agreed to limit the amount of carbon being emitted from each country. In addition to this, I wanted Izzy to play both the Sun and Trump because they don't believe that climate change is real and that things will be alright if they don't pay attention to climate change.
At 3:14, Trump mentions Obama and the crowd which is current political satire and spass as Trump mentioned the large turnout at a speech of his which took place in support of Hurricane Irma to see what the President would say about the issue at hand.
At around 3:22, Trump mentioned "fake news" another current topic related to Trump and climate change as Trump could believe that climate change is fake news. At this, I exploded one side and Maya mourned me, and Alex exploded the other side and Lauren mourned her. This presents a sharp contrast between the comedy of Trump and the deaths that occur around him. It also shows Trump's obliviousness to the current situation of the deaths of Hurricane Irma and climate change in general.
At 3:43 Trump mentions a Wall and that the Wall "could have stopped the hurricane". This relates to politics and again using spass because one of Trump's main election points was that he was going to build a wall between Mexico and the USA. Trump literally breaks the 4th wall by stepping through the wall created by our bodies and immediately speaks to the audience. Trump also breaks the 4th wall by directing his speech towards the audience. To make this more obvious, we will need to include placards that specify that the other actors are playing the Wall.
A positive about this scene was that there was lots of spass and humour by the exaggeration of Trump. This also created guestus because Izzy made a stereotype of what Trump is usually like during his speeches. This was something that the audience can relate to but by using ourselves to make the Wall, it reminded the audience that this is a performance.
A major negative about this scene was that it confused the audience as to what the issue being presented was. Trump didn't mention anything about climate change only about politics involoving Trump. In fact, this was an issue throughout the piece as it wasn't made clear what the world issue was and didn't really leave the audience thinking. The world issue could have been about climate change, hurricanes, or US politics. To improve this, we would need to make the world issue slightly more obvious, but not so much that it is blatant.
We will use placards to identify these roles which is another Brechtian technique.
Set
The image opposite is what our set looked like for the majority of the performance. The Risers gave height and also mad it easier to see people as they were acting. They also made it easier for Trump to be higher than all the other actors during the final scene. We did this because trump often presents himself as though he feels as though he is more important than everybody else.
Overall Improvements
In order to make this performance more Brechtian we would need to add in more of his techniques such as dispassionate narration and a more clear addition of the Verfremdungseffekt. We also need a more serious moment in the middle of the performance. For example, the scene could be about someone who's lost everything in the hurricane which would be juxtaposed by the comedy of Trump.
Our practitioner for the next three weeks in our lessons with Miss Starbuck is Bertolt Brecht. Brecht is one of the most influential practitioners in theatre in the 20th century where his main idea was to distance the audience from the piece and to constantly remind them that they were watching a piece of theatre and not a real life situation. He wanted to create a social or political message in each of his works as well as incorporating songs, dance, and breaking the fourth wall through dispassionate commentary and by addressing the audience directly, all to remind the audience that they are watching a piece of theatre. Brecht also used guestus where an actor creates a stereotype of a character.
We had to create a Brechtian performance using the above criteria creating two to three different scenes based on this. Brecht often used the news in different situations; for example one Brechtian performance included Hitler's rise to power but based around the vegetable stock market.
In groups, we used current newspapers to decide on a topic that interested us, and could also be manipulated into a Brechtian style. For our topic, my group chose climate change, due to recent events such as Hurricane Irma and Donald Trump's reluctance to accept the changing climate and his insensitivity to people affected. We also wanted to explore other people's reactions to climate change and to Hurricane Irma.
Initially, we assigned each member of our group as a type of weather (sun, rain, wind, snow, storm) and attempted to personify them as though they were 'people'. This would remind the audience that they were watching a performance, as well as bringing in guestus as the weather was stereotyped, for example, the sun was joyous. Instead of this, however, we decided that two types of weather should be changed into news presenters and keep the weather types sun, rain, and wind, as they are traditional types of weather. At the moment, we have minimal multi-role, with Issy the only actor to have two roles, but we will try to incorporate more of this into the piece.
We then tried to make our idea into three scenes that would try and get our main point across, without being too obvious, in order to make the audience leave thinking about what they have seen, another Brechtian technique. We tried to sandwich the 'serious' part of the performance in-between less serious parts that could be regarded as comedic, such as adding in an over-the-top caricature of Trump and making the personification of the weather extreme.
We created the first scene with ease, using the initial characters mentioned above and exaggerating them to remind the audience that this was simply a piece of theatre. We decided that there should be a world map projected onto the floor, so that actors playing the weather could do so over the area of the map that they are most prominent. For example, the sun would be mainly over the equator, particularly around areas of desert. This projection would be in the centre of the 'stage' and aforementioned news presenters would be off the map off stage left. When we performed this section back, it was brought up that the news presenters seemed to not be part of the scene, we could place them on the map, maybe where the most weather 'damage' would occur.
In addition to the first scene, we suggested that the news presenters should comment on one of the audience members. This would break the fourth wall, a Brechtian technique, and cause interaction with the audience. This would again remind the audience that they're watching a piece of theatre and not something that is real.
For clothing choices, we have decided to go for something simple, such as we will all wear black trousers/leggings. We initially decided that each weather should wear a different coloured shirt, but as not all the actors are weather, we may have to adapt this idea in later sessions. This was supposed to represent that climate change is something that different people have different opinions on, hence the different coloured shirts. This would also switch characters easily without the need to change costume. To aid this, we could use placards with our character's names on (another Brechtian technique) which would highlight what role we would be playing.
During the mini performance, I felt that we didn't all know what we were doing, possibly due to slight lack of communication, or we didn't know what lines to say, which may have negatively impacted the overall effect. Although, we all exaggerated our characters; for example, because I was the wind, my movements were large but fluid, something which I think got across to the audience.
In sessions to come, we will hopefully make more scenes and improve on the scene that we made int he first Brecht based session. We will also try to incorporate more Brechtian techniques such as dispassionate commentary and use more media such as news videos about climate change.
