"Art is not a mirror with which to reflect reality, but a hammer with which to shape it" Bertolt Brecht
Lesson 1
Verfrendungseffekt (the v effect) - an alienation technique, defamiliarisation, strange making. Used to highlight a particular moment when you want the audience to question what they are watching.
We had to walk in the space in neutral. Jack then called out a number and we had to get into groups of that number. He then called out an object and an emotion, we then had to become those things, we were asked to become: a sexy washing machine, a sic toilet, a depressed sandwich and an angry motorbike. The angry motorbike then became an improvisation where one person had to be a motorbike and the other had to be the owner of the motorbike, we then watched the groups and found that lots of groups broke the forth wall and really opened the scene up to the audience using comedy. This exercise made me really think about how the audience feels and how the actor is usually forced to act in a traditional sort of way but Brecht completely abolished that. Brecht's theatre makes the audience think about the political problem and actually do something about it rather then just being 'Cathartic'.
"The audience can no longer have the illusion of being the unseen spectator" B. Brecht
Exaggerated gesture
Encourage actors to make large clear gestures or alter their voices to draw attention to their self
- I don't know and stop gesture
- exaggerated it, made it bold
- using strings
- normal gesture with phrase
- exaggerated both voice and gesture
Catharsis - expunging your emotion so you don't have to do any thing about the problem
Characterisation
- find neutral
- created 6 different characters
- old man old woman, lead with nose stick out bottom, tense bum cheeks so legs stick out
- champagne and special brew drunks, hips out, chin down, then prop
- pregnant woman, belly sticking out hands on back
- fat man capitalist, belly out and hands on belly with cigar in mouth
- then we did improvisation, war breaks out
I really enjoyed this exercise, as I was allowed to enter a role that I would probably never play. This was interesting for me so I really tried to go all out. It really showed me how you can make a character out of a physicality and evolve into be a slightly believable character.
