More about Bertolt Brecht

In this lessons we were taught the different types of techniques and devices that Brecht uses when directing I've also learnt that he fled from Nazi Germany and went to America to continue his work .
Brecht thought that when people came to see naturalism he wanted them to forget about their and also the wider world .

In naturalism there is no direct address , but in Berchtesgaden plays the actors tell the audience the characters they will be playing . Brecht also used different types of alienation effects and this is because he wanted the audience to feel aware of where they were.

Examples Alenation effects  

* Plays were performed with the house lights on so the audience remained aware
* Scenes were sung while placards were held . These were used to give the audience information .


Alenation techniques breaks the illusions of the drama.

At the beggining of a Brecht play the characters would come on stage and use direct address to introduce the characters they would be playing . If there was an who would be playing two characters Brecht always had the characters change on stage .

Usually Brecht would start of a scene bringing something unexpected . He describes this as a slap in the face or a wake up call . The characters would use placards to tell the audience what is happening. He didn't want the actors to play the roll realistically which is the opposite of naturalism.

The actors would remain physically and emotionally attatched and sometimes this would be used to make the audience think about their lives and life itself.