The Price Evaluation (performance)

Overall, I enjoyed rehearsing for and performing The Price as I felt that it was a very interesting piece of theatre that could be interpreted in many ways, and I thought the direction that it was taken in was a good one. I thought the inclusion of song within our piece was a very creative and interesting route that was taken and helped to make the piece more interesting and easier to understand for the audience, who may have not had the chance to analyse the play as we have. Songs like 'Money, Money, Money' that was performed by the checkout girls I thought worked well due to the fact that it did a very good job of portraying how Brecht's theatre  worked and managed to successfully alienate the audience with strange happenings, such as the popping of the pregnant women's 'stomachs'. I also thought the Transitions between songs went well when performing the piece as well. The shopping announcements that were included in between the switching of the actors was a very good way of distracting attention from the changing of the actors, as there were actor/character changes throughout the performance and I felt it would have seemed very stiff and would have disrupted the fluidity of the performance if the audience had to wait for the actor changes every time. The changing of the actors was a very 'Brecht' way of performing theatre as we wanted to remind the audience that they were in a play so the changing of the characters never allowed them to get comfortable. It is also very brecht like to have the entire cast visible on stage at all times as well. One thing I felt could have gone better during the performance was the music cues. A couple of cues were missed towards the end of the play and the music was featured at the wrong times, meaning that the rhythm of the play was upset aswell. I also felt that we overused the Money song by the checkout girls too much towards the end and while funny, I felt it was slightly repetitive and boring at the end. Over all I have enjoyed working on and performing the piece, I just felt that minor things could have been improved.

nivenbrechtgenius: Raphael/Gus/Pippa/Keon Political protest

Raphael/Gus/Pippa/Keon Political protest

Political Protests

As part of our political themed term, one of our main tasks that we had to do was to create a short looping theatre piece that served as a political theatre "protest" based on something the group felt strong about. I joined a group with Raphael, Gus, Pippa and Emily. The topic that we decided to create our piece on was about Maximum security prisons, the effects that it had on the prisoners and if this is appropriate "justice" for them. We wanted to present this as more as a debate, rather than a one sided argument from the view point of us in the group. We decided to present this idea as our protest, as when it was raised by Raphael as a potential idea, we felt that it would be a good idea as it was a interesting idea to portray and research about, and also as we felt it was something not to many people thought about. We initially had 3 different locations that we could had worked with. The first was the gate in the basketball court, the second was the gated area leading to the new theatre, and the third was the fire exit with gates near the theatre strand. We decided to go with the location theme of gates as it helped to create a prision feel and also a feeling of claustrophobia, something that the prisoners often felt in these prisons. The idea of the cages/gates helped provide inspiration to have prisoners inside the gates, which in the end were Gus and Pippa.  We then decided that we would have Raphael as the main spokesmen, who would draw random people walking past into the audience by asking them questions and challenging the whole idea of the MS prisons. While that happened I would be in the audience and challenge his opinions. When we first started performing the piece, I was stationed already as an audience member, where people would join me and listen to the debate. After performing this a few times were were given feedback that it was not clear who I or Raph was due to the fact we both started the perfomance in similar postions. After hearing the feedback, I decided that it would be clearer if I started the performance from a distance. Once raph would attract an audience, I would walk over and he would call me out from the audience, asking me what I think about the prisons, thus sparking the debate. I felt that walking over was much more effective as it was much clearer that I was supposed to be "part of the audience". I even heard a girl ask someone else while I was performing if I was part of the performance, which let me know it worked well. When in the cage we had Gus and Pippa wear a plain white T-shirt, with the crime they "commited" on the front and the condition they leave with after the stay in the prison. The piece would then end with Raph declaring that they should be released and then unlocking the chain. Once that happened they would run free, screaming out into the space, then come back, meaning the piece would start again. That is how we looped our performance. If we were to do the performance again the one thing I would be more aware of is our location. When we started the play we had little to no audience to perform to, meaning at times were performing to ourselves. Towards the end of break, we managed to get a big audience on more than one occasion meaning that were were successful towards the end, but it would have been better to have a large audience from the beginning. The plus side to not having a major audience at the beginning is that I was able to take the feedback and improve our performance so that when the big audience came, our performance was at its peak.

Supemax Prison Interior.

The Price: Announcements

For the performance of the price, I was given the task to come up with shopping announcements to compliment some of the themes of the play. The theme that I had to compliment was the constant inflation of prices in modern times. That made me have to do a series of comical announcements which consisted of me announcing shopping prices going up instead of down. My shopping announcements were:

•   "Shopping announcement, you can now get 5 potatoes for 30 euros, a 25% increase! Have fun, spending money"
• "Shopping announcement, 5 slabs of lamb that was 10 euros is now 25 euros. We are now helping you, spend your money!"
• "Shopping announcement, 2 packets of jaffa cakes that was previously 1.50 euros, is now 4.50 euros. Helping you, spend money!"
• "Shopping announcements, new 19 inch samsung tv that was 150 euros is now 850 euros. Great christmas deal. Helping you, spend money!"

Epic Theatre/Verfremdungseffekt

Epic Theatre uses a mode of theatre that utilises gestus. One of the main features of epic theatre was for the audince to always be aware that they were always watching a play, a technique that was called the alienation effect (Verfremdungseffekt) Which as quoted: "Prevents the audience from losing itself passivley and completely created by the actor, and which consequently leads the audience to be a consciously critical observer". Brechts overall idea was to make sure the audience fet detatched from the play so they would become immersed within the fictionality of the play or feel emotionally attached to any of the characters. Brecht would highlight the idea of not becoming drawn into the fictional reality of the play by doing things like having the entire theatre lit up with normal lighting and having the soundmen and background people visible on stage. Brecht would also have the people wearing their own choice of clothes instead of having the dressed in black, making them even more visible. The V effect is achieved by the way the actor "never acts as if there were a fourth wall besides the 3 that surround him." This way the audience can no longer have the illusion of being an unseen spectator at an event that is really taking place. In other words the direct use of the audience in epic theatre is a way of shattering a stage "illusion" and generating the V effect. Brecht's use of the V effect is to make sure the audience are not fully immersed within the world of the play, due to the idea that Brecht wanted the audience to ask questions and become critical of themselves.

Helene Weigel on Epic Theatre

Character Choices

During one excercise we were given given character names and occupations. Once given these names (my "name" was Cedric Horehore") we each individually had to interpret character physicality and voice based only on the name of the character. This helped my personally understand how Brecht presented his characters to his audience. During this excercise I learned that by making big character choices with physicality and voice, they help amplify the character's personality to the audience, for example I decided to make my characters walk very rigid, stiff and quick to express that he is a formal person, but also someone who is always in a rush and quite busy. I also gave the character a very forced grotesque smile to communicate that his smile is more of a formality rather than a reflection of his personality or how he feels, and that in fact, he is probably a unplesant man. I also realised that Brecht uses names to reflect character so that the audience do not have to figure out the character and therefore do not connect to the character itself.

Gestus

Gestus is an acting technique that was developed by Brecht that uses a combination of gesture and attitude to present a character without  having to go too in depth to the characters emotions. We used and example of Gest in class to help clarify how it works. We had 2 scenes. The first scene I had to walk on stage as a soldier. I did this by walking very rigid and by taking carefully placed step. Once I got infront of the audience I saluted then walked back in the same way. The salute was the gesture that made the audience figure out I was a soldier without me having to say a word. The second scene had me repeat the same walk. This time "Dead Bodies" (other students) were placed on the floor. As I made the same journey, this time I had to kick the bodies as I walked, then I saluted as normal then walked off stage. This was then the attitude, as the audience managed to pick up that my character was someone who does not care about war due to the fact that I kicked the dead bodies As I walked past. Gestus reveals a specific aspects of a character: rather that his subconscious or other psychological aspects. Gestus makes visible a character's social relations and the casuality of his/her behaviour.

Video on Greece Finincial Crisis

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18115664

Response to "The Price"

The Price

When reading this play through for the first time, it initially makes no sense. None at all. Its almost off putting. The conversation goes from reading glasses to dead babies and its quite hard to follow. But this is a play that is very smartly written that raises issues without you even realising (For example, the play mentions greek currency as a refrence to the financial crisis, which I did not realise until a classmate raised the point). The play sparks many questions when analysed properly with out making it directly obvious that the play is more or less a political and social commentary. The play is appropriately set in a supermarket (considering the play is centered around money, and material objects) Some of the issues/questions asked were : 

• Are we obsessed with money?
• How much are we willing to pay for things?
• How have we got to this point?
• Does money always reflect value?
• The objectification of children
• The importantce of material things
• Being unable to meet financial demands

I think the tounge in cheek manner that the play is presented in makes the play slightly hard to understanb but im glad I had to read it a second time. As it is well worth the read.

Bertolt's Breakout

WW1 Medical Station

At age 16, well into his years of puberty, he didnt have to worry too much about trivial things such as bad hair day's or spots breaking out. No. The one thing that did break out, much to the dismay of many civillians all around the world was the First World war. Brecht was initially enthusiastic about war. Though this quickly changed due to him seeing his classmates "swallowed by the army". Upon daddy's reccomendation he managed to avoid the army by applying for an additional medical course at Munich University, in which he managed to enrol in 1917. There he managed to study drama with Arthur Kutscher, a
 historian of literarure and researcher of drama. Arthur is primarily known for working with and inspiring playwrights such as Peter Hacks, Klabund, Hanns Johst and Erich Muhsam. Although he is mainly responsible for inspiring Brecht's admiration for dramatist and cabaret star Frank Wedekind (who would be seen as a major factor to the development of  Epic theatre), he was also said to have been "bitterly critical" of Brechts work. July 1916 is when Brecht began writing newspaper articles under the name 'Bert Brecht'. Brecht did not manage to escape the clutches of the army as he was drafted into service in the autumn of 1918, though he was only sent back to Augsburg where he worked at a medical clinic. And even then he only stayed there for a month as the war ended soon after. Got pretty lucky if you ask me. 

Bertolt's Beginnings

When beginning this blog, I was thinking where to start, then it hit me. Being someone who is often told and fully believes in the phrase "Simple is just as effective as technical" (kinda made that up on the spot) I decided where else better to start, than the history of the main man himself, Bertolt Brecht. Bertolt had a rather unspectacular upbringing. A script did not fall from the sky when he was 9 years old, inspiring him to write for the better of humanity, nor did he decide to write socialist plays on the back of a truck while escaping from the Allied Forces of WW1. No. Bertolt Brecht was born in Augsburg, Bavaria to a protestant mother and a catholic father (who had to be persuaded to have a protestant wedding). While his father became a directing manager for the paper mill he worked at in 1914, his mother was making sure Brecht knew the Bible. Whether he enjoyed this as a child or not I am uncertain, But what both Him and I both are certain of is that that familiarity with the bible would have an impact on his writing during his life. He also drew direct inspiration from his mother, as from her came the came the "dangerous image of the self-denying woman" that recurs in his drama. Though he claimed he was from a background of poverty Brecht lived quite comfortably middle class. Going to a normal school in Augsburg, where he would meet a lifelong creative partner in Caspar (no not the ghost) Neher . Neher is quite a pivotal asset to Brecht as he designed many sets for him and helped establish the very distinctive iconography for Brecht's "Epic Theatre"

Rebel