This allows each scene to be able to accomplish the purpose in each scene. Narrative versus plot was a clear goal of Brecht. In some manner, the surface level of the story is enough narrative to accomplish the education of the audience. Tagged: brecht theatre acting acting theatre bertolt brecht. Posted on November 30, with 3 notes. After serving as a medical orderly in the First World War and appalled by the effects of the war, he went first to Munich and then to Berlin in pursuit of a career in the theatre.
That period of his life came to an end in when the Nazis came to power in Germany. Brecht fled and during this period the Nazis formally removed his citizenship, so he was a stateless citizen.
Ostensibly against communism, this committee also targeted intellectuals. By the time of his death in , Brecht had established the Berliner Ensemble and was regarded as one of the greatest theatrical practitioners. As an artist, Brecht was influenced by a diverse range of writers and practitioners including Chinese theatre and Karl Marx.
The turmoil of the times through which Brecht lived gave him a strong political voice. The opposition he faced is testament to the fact that he had the courage to express his personal voice in the world of the theatre. He also had an original and inspired talent to bring out a dynamic theatrical style to express his views.
His most acclaimed work is Mother Courage and Her Children. Although its set in the s, the play is relevant to contemporary society and is often regarded as one of the finest anti-war plays.
Fear and Misery of the Third Reich is Brechts most overtly antifascist play. This work analyses the insidious way the Nazis came to power. Bertolt Brecht was a theatre practitioner. He made and shaped theatre in a way that had a huge impact upon its development. Many of his ideas were so revolutionary that they changed the theatrical landscape forever. Modern theatre owes a lot to his methods.
When naturalistic theatre was at its height and acted as a mirror to what was happening in society, he decided to use it as a force for change. He wanted to make his audience think and famously said that theatre audiences at that time hang up their brains with their hats in the cloakroom.
In naturalistic or dramatic theatre the audience care about the lives of the characters onstage. They forget their own lives for a while and escape into the lives of others. When an audience cries for a character or feels emotion through the events happening to them its called catharsis.
Brecht was against cathartic theatre. He believed that while the audience believed in the action onstage and became emotionally involved they lost the ability to think and to judge. He wanted his audiences to remain objective and distant from emotional involvement so that they could make considered and rational judgements about any social comment or issues in his work. To do this he used a range of theatrical devices or techniques so that the audience were reminded throughout that they were watching theatre; a presentation of life, not real life itself.
His kind of theatre was called Epic theatre. He called the act of distancing the audience from emotional involvement the verfremdungseffekt.
The V Effect. Life Is A Brechtian Cabaret Old Chum Many people speak of alienating the audience making them separate from the action but verfremdungseffekt actually translates more closely to distancing.
However, its still often called the alienation effect or is shortened to the v effect and there are many ways of using it. Brecht definitely wanted his audience to remain interested and engaged by the drama otherwise his message would be lost. It was emotional investment in the characters he aimed to avoid.
His approach to theatre suits work which has a political, social or moral message. Perhaps you want the audience to consider the meaning in a parable a story with a wider moral message. You might want to explore a theme or issue and make your audience consider varying viewpoints or sides to an argument. If so you can learn a lot from the distancing devices used in Brechtian theatre. Epic theatre Brechtian theatre breaks the fourth wall, the imaginary wall between the actors and audience which keeps them as observers.
They are active members of the theatrical experience as they are kept thinking throughout, not switching off. Devices using the 'v' effect A theatrical device is a method or technique used onstage which has an aim or purpose. The aim when using the 'v' effect is to ensure that the audience are constantly reminded that theyre watching a piece of theatre.
Narration Narration is used to remind the audience that what theyre watching is a presentation of a story. Sometimes the narrator will tell us what happens in the story before it has happened. This is a good way of making sure that we dont become emotionally involved in the action to come as we already know the outcome.
For example, midway through a heightened scene the action might break for the actor to comment upon their character in the third person, Darius felt his anger rise. He wasnt being listened to and wanted revenge, before returning to the scene. I come out as my character in Act 2, Scene 2 to speak to the audience about how my character is feeling at that moment. Speaking the stage directions This device was used by Brecht more frequently in rehearsal than performance.
It helps distance the actor from the character theyre playing. It also reminds the audience that theyre watching a play and forces them to study the actions of a character in objective detail. The Emcee in our Cabaret performance will speak some stage directions as part of the script to reinforce to the audience that this is a performance, not real life. Direct address Speaking directly to the audience breaks the fourth wall and destroys any illusion of reality.
An example would be the moment where Grusha pleads to save baby Michael in. I cant. Using placards A placard is a sign or additional piece of written information presented onstage.
Using placards might be as simple as holding up a card or banner. Multimedia or a PowerPoint slideshow can also be used for this effect. The musical, Miss Saigon, for example, used a slideshow to demonstrate the loss of lives in the Vietnam War which was highly effective. Whats important is that the information doesnt just comment upon the action but deepens our understanding of it.
Hey, i am looking for an online sexual partner ; Click on my boobs if you are interested. Thursday, 8 November Narration. Brecht in his work uses narration, and sees narration as a very important tool; we did an exercise to explore narration and the use of it. In this exercise we had to act out an exercise and use narration to tell the story, however we had four types of narration that we had to use: one single narrator, an actor playing a character and stepping out to be a narrator, an actor speaking in third person and a singing narrator.
We had to tell a fairy story and use the four narrations, we did Cinderella, and we started off with the single narrator, this was because it is the classic way with fairy tales to have some one set the scene and the background, also it drew the audience in as it painted the picture for them.
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