Theatre of cruelty (what it is )
Theatre of cruelty was created by Aratud. theatre should represent reality and that it should have an effect over the audience. Artaud created Theatre of cruelty because he was very interested in having
Describe your piece and how it links to Artaud theatre of cruelty in Eastern theatre. He really admired the Balinese dance and performance which is partly why Artaud created theatre of cruelty. He wanted to passion and a convulsive conception of life restored back to theatre.
He included violence and rigour and also extreme conducted because he wanted the audience to be aware of what they were watching. Artaud included things such exaggerating the lighting , making the audience feel uncomfortable and also exaggerating sound which created disturbance. Aratud had his own interpretation of cruelty.
He thought of it as a way to shatter false reality. He believed that text had been an oppressive ruler advocated. Artaud referred theatre as being a vortex. This because he wanted the audience to feel like they were in a different world as soon as they step into the theatre making them feel trapped and powerless.
We began the lesson by getting into groups of four. We had to come up with our own type of theatre of cruelty using Artaud's techniques. My group included Nadine Matthew and Eleanor. Last week in the these groups we discussed different types of nightmares that we've had. We noticed that in each one of our nightmares the similarities were that we all had the colour black present in each of our nightmares. We realised that the colour black can bring all types of feelings and moods towards a person. For example making them feel confused and also making them feel like nothing is there and everything is empty and that they are all alone.
We decided to use this by closing the windows and rolling the blinds making the room dark as possible. Adding on to this we decide to have background music. We realised that creating a very deep suspense can also make someone feel scared and confused because they are left not knowing what's going to happen next. We didn't have any costume but we all had black bomber jackets and we used white po-stick notes to cover our mouths .
We did this because we wanted hide our identity as possible and we wanted the people in our class to think that we were totally different people.
Before we could begin this we started off by sending everyone outside. This is was also linked to my group and I building a very deep suspense because my classmates were very confused because they didn't know what was going on. We tried to hide ourselves as much as we could.
Eleanor crouched behind the door so that nobody could see her when she opened it. As my classmates came in the door creaked open and the background music was playing. They came in very slowly which was great for my group and because it showed that we really had an effect over them.
After they all came in Eleanor slammed the door which signified that they were all trapped and there was no way out. We jumped, grabbed,pushed,pulled,and even and made different types of sounds that made them feel uncomfortable. I'd my weakness was trying to make sounds whilst having the po-stick note stuck on my mouth because it was really hard to get the sound out.
As we continued our piece we then pushed everyone one to the middle making sure they were in a tight circle. We ran around them twice and as we did this I could hear the reactions from my classmates and I could tell that they were really scared by mumbling to themselves that they did not want to be there any-more. After running around a couple of times we then stopped and stared directly into their eyes and did this for thirty seconds.
At this point in time there was nothing but silence. This linked to the fact that silence can also be apart of a nightmare and also make someone feel scared by them being confused of what will happen next. We then ripped off the po-stick notes from our mouths and then screamed loudly in unison. This really effected our classmates because the scream was used as a shock making them aware of what was happening around them Also made them scared and some of them felt really out of their comfort zone.
Monday 23 March 2015
Tuesday 17 March 2015
Tuesday 3rd February 2015
We were introduced to a theatre director called Artaud. Antonine Artaud was a French theatre director play write poet and essayist. He was born in Marselie France. Both his parents were natives of Smyrna modern Izmir and he was affected by his Greek ancestry.
His mother gave birth to nine children, but only Antonin and one sister survived infancy. When he was four years old, Artaud had a severe case of meningitis , which gave him a nervous, irritable temperament throughout his adolescence. Artaud was in the French army in 1916 .
But unfortunately he was dis-chard illegally due to excessive sleep walking. Artaud then move back to Paris to become a writer. He worked and performed with other theatre directors and continued writing poems and essays. As the years passed on Artaud began to run theatre's and directing as well as writing.
Artaud formed his theatre techniques and link them with his own interpretation of theatre. Artaud believe in the universal language which is language that everyone understood. he also believed in making the audience uncomfortable because he wanted them to be aware of what is happening.
Artaud believed in having the audience exhausted and also the actors and actresses. Artaud has various techniques that shocks the audience and also having very harsh and dramatic effect is apart of Artaud techniques. He also had repairing gestures and aggressive behaviour which also linked with how he interprets theatre.
So for the first task we were asked stand spread out in the space. We were given instructions by our teacher to follow exactly what she was saying. At first she asked to reach for sky for the sky. After this we were then asked to use levels and speed. After this exercise I was extremely exhausted and really tired. I realised that this exercise is linked to one of Artaud techniques which was that he wanted to make both the actors and the audience feel exhausted.
His mother gave birth to nine children, but only Antonin and one sister survived infancy. When he was four years old, Artaud had a severe case of meningitis , which gave him a nervous, irritable temperament throughout his adolescence. Artaud was in the French army in 1916 .
But unfortunately he was dis-chard illegally due to excessive sleep walking. Artaud then move back to Paris to become a writer. He worked and performed with other theatre directors and continued writing poems and essays. As the years passed on Artaud began to run theatre's and directing as well as writing.
Artaud formed his theatre techniques and link them with his own interpretation of theatre. Artaud believe in the universal language which is language that everyone understood. he also believed in making the audience uncomfortable because he wanted them to be aware of what is happening.
Artaud believed in having the audience exhausted and also the actors and actresses. Artaud has various techniques that shocks the audience and also having very harsh and dramatic effect is apart of Artaud techniques. He also had repairing gestures and aggressive behaviour which also linked with how he interprets theatre.
So for the first task we were asked stand spread out in the space. We were given instructions by our teacher to follow exactly what she was saying. At first she asked to reach for sky for the sky. After this we were then asked to use levels and speed. After this exercise I was extremely exhausted and really tired. I realised that this exercise is linked to one of Artaud techniques which was that he wanted to make both the actors and the audience feel exhausted.
We then advanced to the next task. We had to move around the space and what ever instruction we were given we had to follow it. For example when the teacher said the number one we had to jump up and touch the sky and if she said number two we had to roll on the floor. This again made me feel the same way as I did in the first task the only difference was is that the second task was more energetic than the first one.
Task 3 After the second task we proceeded onto the next task which we had to include the use of universal language. My classmates and I discovered that universal language is used so that everyone in the audience can understand it. For example you do not have to use words but instead you could use techniques such as hand gestures, facial expressions , breathing, and many more other techniques.
For this task we had to use breathing to create and emotion. We were divided into two groups. My group and did anger. We conveyed anger by breathing heavily as if we've just been in a massive fight. At first we did this in unison and then half way through we did it at different times.
For this task we had to use breathing to create and emotion. We were divided into two groups. My group and did anger. We conveyed anger by breathing heavily as if we've just been in a massive fight. At first we did this in unison and then half way through we did it at different times.
My classmates and I also learnt that Artaud liked the audience to feel uncomfortable. For the next task we were asked to walk around the space. An emotion would be said and we had to interact with other people to convey this emotion. For example when Emma said the word lust Pakize jump onto me and had her legs wrapped around me and I had one of my hands on her leg and one on her bottom. Our facial expressions were quite lustrous as we stared directly into each others eyes which I believed really exaggerated the word lust.
As we continued to learn about Artaud and his techniques we realised that in order for Artaud to be successful having both the audience and the actors exhausted , things really needed to be exaggerated. For the next task we had to get into a line . Emma gave us an emotion and the person who was at the start of the line had to start off this emotion and the emotion that was given has to be exaggerated as we went along. One strengths for this exercise would have when we did anger.
This is because different types of facial expressions were and levels and also hand gestures were used to express anger. I conveyed anger by keeping still and having my face in a very straight way. One of my weaknesses was when we did happy or exciting. This is because people in my class used obvious facial expressions and movement and it was very hard to try and find something different to do but what I was thinking of had already been used go along .
We then had to separate into two groups and do the same exercise. I found that this was quite easier as there were less people and it was easier to come up with and idea of how you could exaggerate and emotion
This is because different types of facial expressions were and levels and also hand gestures were used to express anger. I conveyed anger by keeping still and having my face in a very straight way. One of my weaknesses was when we did happy or exciting. This is because people in my class used obvious facial expressions and movement and it was very hard to try and find something different to do but what I was thinking of had already been used go along .
We then had to separate into two groups and do the same exercise. I found that this was quite easier as there were less people and it was easier to come up with and idea of how you could exaggerate and emotion
Tuesday 3 February 2015
Acting Assesment evaluation
My classmates bad I have been explore a Brecht play called Dr Korczack's example. After reading through script for two weeks and getting to understand the play even more we had to get into groups of three. My group included Valentina and Christopher. Emma then divided the scenes between each group and told us that we had to use the script from Dr Korczack's example and assign ourselves to a character and use Brechtian devises in our pieces. My group had scenes 18,19,20. Before we got to work we each chose the character we wanted to.
I volunteered to play both Dr Koczack's and the Priest , Valentina was Adizio and Chris was Stephanie . After choosing our characters we then moved on to re-reading the script and included where we could insert different types of Brechtian techniques. In the beggining of our scene was all about when The Priest, Stephanie and Adizio. This was when the Priest wasn't allowing Adizio and Stephanie in the garden because they were Jews . My group and I discussed that we would start off our.
Piece by introducing ourselves by standing in a V line and using direct address (which is one of the common techniques to be used in a Brecht) plays and introduce ourselves and the characters we are playing. This was a short lesson and we had to continue the rest next week. Next week the whole class sat down and spent at least half an hour in each other's group and started making the dolls out of newspapers and bottles. After this we all went onto working on our Brecht pieces. Firstly we quickly went over what we did last week. We then moved on to beginning the scene.
This is where Adizio and Stephanie are trying to get into the church but the priest wouldn't let them because the we're Jews, they then have an argument and the Priest tells them to get out. While Adizio and Stephanie walk out Adizio throws the stone at the church. When inserting Brechtian techniques and devices into our pieces we included unison , direct address and montage's. We also included canon as well. We used these devices to exaggerate the smash of the stone that had been thrown at the church and show the image of Jews not being accepted.
We then moved onto scene 19 and this where doctor Korczack gives Stephanie and Adizio a talk about how he's disappointed in both of them and is explaining to Adizio how important tithe children's court is. For this scene I was going to get changed on stage turning from the priest into doctor Korczack. I was going to wear all white for the Priests scene and then all black with a tie and glasses when transforming to Dr Korczack.
We also used levels to show how doctor Korczack going from having a higher status to being when arguing with Adizio . Also there is a part where doctor Korczack is talking to the soldier . We used one of the dolls to be like the soldier , had the doll facing doctor Korczack while doctor Korczack spoke to the audience . At the ending of scene 19 we use cannon to exaggerate when doctor Korczack says I'd wish you'd just shoot by saying the word bang. For scene 20 we decided that we would have Adizio and Stephanie would use direct address for this scene, and we used the script because this was a device that Brecht used because he still wanted the audience to know that they were still in the theatre.
On the day of our assessment we did a quick rehearsal and then we started. We did the scenes in order from 1 -23 . Each group did very and definitely used a lot of Brecht devices. My group did well in the beginning but unfortunately my two other colleagues did not learn their lines very well and ended having to it early because of this . I was very angry about this purely because we did great work in the rehearsals. I enjoy working with Dr Korczack's example script.
My strengths I would say would have to be that I can Identify where we could put the different types of Brecht techniques and also being able to know them another strength was I was able stay in my character role throughout the piece. One of my weaknesses I would have to say was that I kept using direct address as an advantage and kept using it continuously. A target that I would set is that I would explore other Brecht techniques than the ones I did in my piece and try and use those as well instead of repeating the one's I had in my piece already.
I volunteered to play both Dr Koczack's and the Priest , Valentina was Adizio and Chris was Stephanie . After choosing our characters we then moved on to re-reading the script and included where we could insert different types of Brechtian techniques. In the beggining of our scene was all about when The Priest, Stephanie and Adizio. This was when the Priest wasn't allowing Adizio and Stephanie in the garden because they were Jews . My group and I discussed that we would start off our.
Piece by introducing ourselves by standing in a V line and using direct address (which is one of the common techniques to be used in a Brecht) plays and introduce ourselves and the characters we are playing. This was a short lesson and we had to continue the rest next week. Next week the whole class sat down and spent at least half an hour in each other's group and started making the dolls out of newspapers and bottles. After this we all went onto working on our Brecht pieces. Firstly we quickly went over what we did last week. We then moved on to beginning the scene.
This is where Adizio and Stephanie are trying to get into the church but the priest wouldn't let them because the we're Jews, they then have an argument and the Priest tells them to get out. While Adizio and Stephanie walk out Adizio throws the stone at the church. When inserting Brechtian techniques and devices into our pieces we included unison , direct address and montage's. We also included canon as well. We used these devices to exaggerate the smash of the stone that had been thrown at the church and show the image of Jews not being accepted.
We then moved onto scene 19 and this where doctor Korczack gives Stephanie and Adizio a talk about how he's disappointed in both of them and is explaining to Adizio how important tithe children's court is. For this scene I was going to get changed on stage turning from the priest into doctor Korczack. I was going to wear all white for the Priests scene and then all black with a tie and glasses when transforming to Dr Korczack.
We also used levels to show how doctor Korczack going from having a higher status to being when arguing with Adizio . Also there is a part where doctor Korczack is talking to the soldier . We used one of the dolls to be like the soldier , had the doll facing doctor Korczack while doctor Korczack spoke to the audience . At the ending of scene 19 we use cannon to exaggerate when doctor Korczack says I'd wish you'd just shoot by saying the word bang. For scene 20 we decided that we would have Adizio and Stephanie would use direct address for this scene, and we used the script because this was a device that Brecht used because he still wanted the audience to know that they were still in the theatre.
On the day of our assessment we did a quick rehearsal and then we started. We did the scenes in order from 1 -23 . Each group did very and definitely used a lot of Brecht devices. My group did well in the beginning but unfortunately my two other colleagues did not learn their lines very well and ended having to it early because of this . I was very angry about this purely because we did great work in the rehearsals. I enjoy working with Dr Korczack's example script.
My strengths I would say would have to be that I can Identify where we could put the different types of Brecht techniques and also being able to know them another strength was I was able stay in my character role throughout the piece. One of my weaknesses I would have to say was that I kept using direct address as an advantage and kept using it continuously. A target that I would set is that I would explore other Brecht techniques than the ones I did in my piece and try and use those as well instead of repeating the one's I had in my piece already.
Sunday 7 December 2014
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.
Bertolt Brecht
This is my research on theatre practitioner Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht. I learnt that Brecht was born in 1898 and died in 1956 and that he was a play write, politician and theatre director. Brecht was a trouble maker at school and he was expelled for writing an anti war poem. When he was 16, the first world war broke out. Brecht was not very keen on taking part in the war and was ready to see his fellow classmates been killed. Bertolt Brecht had soon found a way of getting himself to not take part in the war, by registering himself to study a medical course and the Munich university he did not have to go to war.
Fearing persecution, Brecht left Germany in February 1933, when Hitler took power. After brief spells in Prague, Zurich and Paris he and Weigel accepted an invitation from journalist and author Karin Michealis to move to Denmark , where they settled in a house in Svendborg on the island of Funen.
This became the residence of the Brecht family for the next six years, where they often received guests including Walter Benjamin, Hanns Eisler and Ruth Berlau. During this period Brecht also travelled frequently to Copenhagen, Paris, Moscow, New York and London for various projects and collaborations.Brecht was also a Marxist. Brecht relationship to Marxism is extremely important and highly complex. From the 1920's until his death in 1956' Brecht identified himself as a Marxist. When he returned to Germany after World War II , he chose the German Democratic Republic, where his actress wife people Helen Weigel and he formed their own theatre troupe, the fame Berliner ensemble, and were eventually given a state theatre to run.
Yet Brecht's relationship to orthodox Marxist officials and doctrine was often conflictual, and his own work and life were highly idiosyncratic. Of a strongly anti-bourgeois disposition from his youth, the young Brecht was also initially repelled by Bolshevism. He was also interested in social justice.
Brecht created epic theatre in the 1920s. the main reason was because he wanted the audience to stop and think about what they were watching.In those times the different types of drama that there were are : mellow drama, realism and naturalism.
Bertolt Brecht. I learnt that Brecht was born in 1898 and died in 1956 and that he was a play write, politician and theatre director. Brecht was a trouble maker at school and he was expelled for writing an anti war poem. When he was 16, the first world war broke out. Brecht was not very keen on taking part in the war and was ready to see his fellow classmates been killed. Bertolt Brecht had soon found a way of getting himself to not take part in the war, by registering himself to study a medical course and the Munich university he did not have to go to war.
Fearing persecution, Brecht left Germany in February 1933, when Hitler took power. After brief spells in Prague, Zurich and Paris he and Weigel accepted an invitation from journalist and author Karin Michealis to move to Denmark , where they settled in a house in Svendborg on the island of Funen.
This became the residence of the Brecht family for the next six years, where they often received guests including Walter Benjamin, Hanns Eisler and Ruth Berlau. During this period Brecht also travelled frequently to Copenhagen, Paris, Moscow, New York and London for various projects and collaborations.Brecht was also a Marxist. Brecht relationship to Marxism is extremely important and highly complex. From the 1920's until his death in 1956' Brecht identified himself as a Marxist. When he returned to Germany after World War II , he chose the German Democratic Republic, where his actress wife people Helen Weigel and he formed their own theatre troupe, the fame Berliner ensemble, and were eventually given a state theatre to run.
Yet Brecht's relationship to orthodox Marxist officials and doctrine was often conflictual, and his own work and life were highly idiosyncratic. Of a strongly anti-bourgeois disposition from his youth, the young Brecht was also initially repelled by Bolshevism. He was also interested in social justice.
Brecht created epic theatre in the 1920s. the main reason was because he wanted the audience to stop and think about what they were watching.In those times the different types of drama that there were are : mellow drama, realism and naturalism.
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