tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24519637798072468092024-03-13T10:25:45.996-07:00Bertolt Brecht ResearchRaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535732000370344231noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2451963779807246809.post-39436719809064646442012-12-07T14:13:00.001-08:002012-12-07T14:13:32.646-08:00Brecht's Plays<br />
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Brief Overview of Brecht’s Plays</h1>
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Brecht’s work can be best desribed in three specific stages. ‘The Early Period’, ‘The Propaganda Plays’ and ‘The Plays of Brecht’s Maturity’.</div>
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The Early Period</h3>
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<img alt="Brecht's Early Period Plays" src="http://www.actorhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Brechts-Early-Period.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Brecht's Early Period Plays [i_278]" /></div>
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The Early Period plays are humorous, in a rather bleak and cynical way, and present social and political questions, attacking bourgeois values. Technically, the plays are (for their time) innovative: the bourgeois convention of the fourth wall is rejected, stories are improbable, settings exotic, songs serve as commentary on action. These early works include:</div>
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The Properganda Plays</h3>
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<img alt="Brecht's Propaganda Plays" src="http://www.actorhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Brechts-Propaganda-Plays.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Brecht's Propaganda Plays [i_279]" /></div>
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‘The Properganda Plays’ or ‘Lehrstücke’ are short, parabolic pieces, written between the years of 1928 and 1930. These plays, written to instruct children, are not attractive to audiences. Their simplicity and didacticism makes them austere to the point of severity. They are interesting as theatrical treatments of ideological questions but are rarely performed now. These included:</div>
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<span class="fcst fcs_t_bi" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Der Flug des Lindberghs [Der Ozeanflug] (The Flight of Lindbergh [the Ocean Flight])<br />Das Badener Lehrstück vom Einverständnis, (The Bavarian Parable Play of Understanding)<br />Der Jasager (The Yes-Sayer)<br />Der Neinsager (The No-Sayer)<br />Die Massnahme (The Measures Taken)<br />Die Ausnahme und die Regel (The Exception and the Rule).</span><div class="fcs" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<span class="fcst fcs_t_i" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Der Ozeanflug</span>, broadcast as a radio play, was produced without the reading of the main part, which was to be spoken by the audience, who were supplied with scripts.</div>
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There are also three longer propaganda plays:</div>
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<div class="fcsp " style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin: 5px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="fcst fcs_t_i" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Die Heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe (Saint Joan of the Slaughterhouses)</span>parodies, variously, Shakespeare, Schiller and Goethe. It contains many devices of what Brecht called “Epic theatre”, such as a loudspeaker announcing political events of the time, or projection of captions commenting on the drama.</div>
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<span class="fcst fcs_t_bi" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Die Mutter</span><div class="fcs" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div class="fcsp " style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin: 5px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="fcst fcs_t_i" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Die Mutter (The Mother)</span> deals explicitly and didactically with political revolution – written in a restrained puritanical style.</div>
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<span class="fcst fcs_t_bi" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Die Rundköpfe und die Spitzköpfe</span><div class="fcs" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div class="fcsp " style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin: 5px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="fcst fcs_t_i" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Die Rundköpfe und die Spitzköpfe (The Roundheads and the Peakheads)</span> is a strange play which takes its plot from Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure but presents also Hitler’s theory of inferior and superior races via the Peakheads and the Roundheads (the latter being the “master race”).</div>
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The Plays of Brecht’s Maturity</h3>
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<img alt="Plays of Brecht’s Maturity" src="http://www.actorhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Brechts-Plays-of-Maturity.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Plays of Brecht’s Maturity [i_280]" /></div>
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Brecht’s output of written works were huge. Esslin lists forty-nine stage works – which includes operas, adaptations and interludes. But four of the later plays stand out:</div>
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<span class="fcst fcs_t_bi" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mutter Courage und Ihre Kinder (Mother Courage and her Children; first performed 1941;)<br />Leben des Galilei (Life of Galileo; 1943)<br />Der Gute Mensch von Sezuan (The Good Person of Sezuan; 1943)<br />Der Kaukasische Kreidekreis (The Caucasian Chalk-Circle; performed in English, 1947; in German, not till 1954)</span><div class="fcs" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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In the first two we see episodic narrative theatre, each scene is prefaced by a caption indicating what happens. In performance, these could be displayed, projected or read out by the actors. In the third, scenes presenting the action are followed by interludes in which actors stand back from their roles and comment on the actions of the characters. In <span class="fcst fcs_t_i" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Caucasian Chalk-Circle</span>, Brecht uses a play within the play: in order to resolve the conflict of two groups of peasants who wish to farm a valley, a play is presented by singer, musicians and actors. The singer and musicians stand outside the drama of Grusche, Azdak, Simon and Natella, and provide both narrative and commentary.</div>
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The construction of the plays</h3>
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In order to achieve unity of action, to build suspense, and sustain its naturalistic illusion the dramatic play must be taut, well made and leading to a climax of catharsis. The epic play is more free. Suspense is not needed, and the whole can be loosely knit and episodic – each part making sense on its own.</div>
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The later, mature plays do lead to some definite end: Mother Courage’s loss of all her children, Azdak’s judgement in favour of Grusche or the non-solution of the gods to Shen-Te’s problem. But we can isolate episodes that stand alone – Mother Courage being the most simply episodic of the later plays.</div>
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In an earlier piece, <span class="fcst fcs_t_i" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fear and Misery of the Third Reich (Furcht und Elend des Dritten Reiches</span>, 1934-37), this episodic structure is much more marked. The “play” is, in fact, a series of related sketches on the theme suggested by the play’s title. The work started off as five playlets, became eight, then nineteen, grew to twenty-seven and was, at last, cut to twenty-four. In performance one could (and, perhaps, should) present a selection from the total without harm to the work’s integrity.</div>
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Brecht’s Plays in order of production</div>
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Drums in the Night (1922)</div>
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Baal (1923)</div>
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In the Jungle of the Cities (1923)</div>
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Edward II (1924)</div>
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The Elephant Calf (1925)</div>
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Man Equals Man (1926)</div>
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The Threepenny Opera (1928)</div>
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Happy End (1929)</div>
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Lindbergh’s Flight (1929)</div>
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He Who Says Yes (1929)</div>
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Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1930)</div>
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He Who Says No (1930)</div>
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The Measures Taken (1930)</div>
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The Mother (1932)</div>
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The Seven Deadly Sins (1933)</div>
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The Roundheads and the Peakheads (1936)</div>
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The Exception and the Rule (1936)</div>
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Fear and Misery of the Third Reich (1938)</div>
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Señora Carrara’s Rifles (1937)</div>
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The Trial of Lucullus (1939)</div>
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Mother Courage and Her Children (1941)</div>
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Mr Puntila and His Man Matti (1941)</div>
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Life of Galileo (1943)</div>
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The Good Person of Sezuan (1943)</div>
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Schweik in the Second World War (1944)</div>
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The Visions of Simone Machard (1944)</div>
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The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1945)</div>
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The Days of the Commune (1949)</div>
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The Tutor (1950)</div>
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The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1958)</div>
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Saint Joan of the Stockyards (1959)</div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 20.981481552124023px;"><a href="http://www.actorhub.co.uk/277/brief-overview-of-brechts-plays">http://www.actorhub.co.uk/277/brief-overview-of-brechts-plays</a></span></span></div>
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Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535732000370344231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2451963779807246809.post-84033373886183963752012-12-07T14:11:00.002-08:002012-12-07T14:14:03.483-08:00Brecht Research<br />
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Brecht’s ‘Epic Theatre’ and ‘Verfremdungseffekt’ techniques</h1>
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<img alt="Brecht's techniques" src="http://www.actorhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Brechts-techniques.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Brecht's techniques [i_273]" /></div>
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Epic Theatre</h3>
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…the epic poet presents the event as totally past, while the dramatic poet presents it as totally present.</div>
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From his late twenties Brecht remained a lifelong committed Marxist who, in developing the combined theory and practice of his “epic theatre”, synthesized and extended the experiments of Erwin Piscator and Vsevolod Meyerhold to explore the theatre as a forum for political ideas.</div>
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Epic Theatre proposed that a play should not cause the spectator to identify emotionally with the characters or action before him or her, but should instead provoke rational self-reflection and a critical view of the action on the stage. They must not sit back and feel, but sit forward and think. He wanted his audiences to adopt a critical perspective in order to recognise social injustice and exploitation and to be moved to go forth from the theatre and effect change in the world outside.</div>
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To do this, Brecht designed various theatrical techniques so that the audience would always be reminded that ‘the play is a representation of reality and not reality itself’. His modernist concern with drama-as-a-medium led to his refinement of the “epic form” of the drama. This dramatic form is related to similar modernist innovations in other arts, including the strategy of divergent chapters in James Joyce’s novel Ulysses, Sergei Eisenstein’s evolution of a constructivist “montage” in the cinema, and Picasso’s introduction of cubist “collage” in the visual arts.</div>
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Verfremdungseffekt</h3>
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One of Brecht’s most important principles was what he called the ‘Verfremdungseffekt’ which is roughly translated as “defamiliarization effect”, “distancing effect”, or the “estrangement effect”, and often mistranslated as the “alienation effect”. To achieve this Brecht wrote, “stripping the event of its self-evident, familiar, obvious quality and creating a sense of astonishment and curiosity about them”. he used various theatrical techniques such as the actor’s direct address to the audience, very harsh bright stage lighting and the use of songs which would interupt the stage action. In addition to this he used placards and even made the actors recite the stage directions out loud during the play itself.</div>
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All these elements discouraged the audience from identifying with characters and so losing detachment, the action must continually be made strange, alien, remote, separate. To do this, the director must use any devices that preserve or establish this distancing.</div>
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Brecht had no desire to destroy art as an institution; rather, he hoped to “re-function” the theatre to a new social use. Brechtian theatre articulated popular themes and forms with avant-garde formal experimentation. “Brecht’s work is the most important and original in European drama since Ibsen and Strindberg,” Raymond Williams argues, while Peter Bürger dubs him “the most important materialist writer of our time.”</div>
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Brecht’s theory of acting</h3>
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The Brechtian style of acting is acting in quotation marks.</div>
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Brecht’s view is that actor should not impersonate, but narrate actions of another person, as if quoting facial gesture and movement. Brecht uses the example of an accident-eyewitness. To show bystanders what happened, he may imitate, say, the victim’s gait but will only quote what is relevant and necessary to his explanation. Moreover, the actor remains free to comment on what he shows. As the audience is not to be allowed to identify with the character, so, too, the actor is not to identify with it either. Brecht agrees with Stanislavsky that, if the actor believes he is Lear, the audience will also believe it, and share his emotions. But, unlike Stanislavsky, he does not wish this to happen. The Brechtian actor must always be in control of his emotions. Brecht sees the actor’s task as greater than Stanislavsky’s merging of character and actor.</div>
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Chinese theatre and other influences</h3>
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Brecht was also influenced by Chinese theatre, and used its aesthetic as an argument for Verfremdungseffekt. Brecht believed, “Traditional Chinese acting also knows the alienation effect, and applies it most subtly…… The [Chinese] performer portrays incidents of utmost passion, but without his delivery becoming heated.” Brecht attended a Chinese opera performance and was introduced to the famous Chinese opera performer Mei LanFang in 1935. However, Brecht was sure to distinguish between Epic and Chinese theatre. He recognized that the Chinese style was not a “transportable piece of technique,” and that Epic theatre sought to historicize and address social and political issues.</div>
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His drama also owes much to a wide range of global theatrical conventions: Elizabethan, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Greek idea of Chorus, Austrian and Bavarian folk-plays, techniques of clowns and fairground entertainers. They are all evident in his work.</div>
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Brecht’s Impact</h3>
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<img alt="Modern day version of Brecht’s ‘Mother Courage’" src="http://www.actorhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Mother-Courage-National-Theatre.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Modern day version of Brecht’s ‘Mother Courage’ [i_263]" /></div>
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Brecht left the Berliner Ensemble to his wife, the actress Helene Weigel, which she ran until her death in 1971. Perhaps the most famous German touring theatre of the postwar era, it was primarily devoted to performing Brecht’s plays. By the 1970s, however, Brecht’s plays had surpassed Shakespeare’s in the number of annual performances in Germany.</div>
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There are few areas of modern theatrical culture that have felt the impact or influence of Brecht’s ideas and practices; dramatists and directors in whom one may trace a clear Brechtian legacy include: Dario Fo, Augusto Boal, Joan Littlewood, Peter Brook, Peter Weiss, Heiner Müller, Pina Bausch, Tony Kushner, Robert Bolt and Caryl Churchill.</div>
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In addition to the theatre, Brechtian theories and techniques have swayed over certain strands of film theory and cinematic practice; Brecht’s influence may be detected in the films of Jean-Luc Godard, Lindsay Anderson, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Joseph Losey, Nagisa Oshima, Ritwik Ghatak, Lars von Trier, Jan Bucquoy and Hal Hartley.</div>
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Bertolt Brecht</h1>
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Brecht was one of the most influential theatre practioners and pioneering figures of the 20th century. Not only did he make significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production but he also inspired many theatrical minds and styles since then. He was both playwright and producer/director of his own, and other peoples plays. He also wrote extensively on dramatic theory. Brecht and his fellow collaborator and wife, Helene Weigel toured with their post war theatre company, The Berliner Ensemble, who not only entertained but educated the audiences. His work with the Berliner Ensemble beagn in 1949 and it’s aim was to be was wholly didactic.</div>
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Brecht’s Beginnings</h3>
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Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.</div>
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Bertolt Brecht (Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht) was born in 1898 in Augsburg, Bavaria which is about 50 miles northwest of Munich. His mother had a great influence on him and taught him to read the bible, something that would have an impact on him and his writing throughout his life. He drifted towards the literary arts at an early age, writing poetry as a boy and even had a few poems published in 1914. His mother also inspired him with the “dangerous image of the self-denying woman” that recurs in his drama and writings.</div>
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Another great influence was Caspar Neher, who he met at school in Augsburg. Together they formed a lifelong creative partnership, Neher designing many of the sets for Brecht’s dramas and helping to forge the distinctive visual iconography of their epic theatre pieces.</div>
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From July, 1916, Brecht’s newspaper articles began appearing under the name ‘Bert Brecht’. The first world war broke out when Brecht was 16, at first he was enthusiastic about the war but soon changed his mind when he saw his classmates “swallowed by the army”. On his father’s recommendation, he registered with a medical course at Munich University in 1917. It was there that he studied drama and came into contact with Arthur Kutscher, who inspired in the young Brecht an admiration for the iconoclastic dramatist and cabaret-star Wedekind.</div>
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Brecht and the Theatre</h3>
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His studies were interupted in 1918 as Brecht was drafted into military service, only to be posted back to Augsburg as a medical orderly in a military VD clinic and then the war ended a month later. Some time in either 1920 or 1921, Brecht took a small part in the political cabaret of the Munich comedian Karl Valentin. Brecht’s diaries for the next few years record numerous visits to see Valentin perform. Brecht compared Valentin to Chaplin, for his “virtually complete rejection of mimicry and cheap psychology”. Valentin was one of Brecht’s chief influences as he watched him perform his clowning sketches at a local beer hall. Valentin did short sketches in which he played refractory employees, orchestral musicians or photographers, who hated their employers and made them look ridiculous.</div>
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Brecht’s first full-length play, Baal was written in 1918, followed by his second major play, Drums in the Night, in February 1919. This was the first of Brecht’s plays to be performed, and his theatrical theories had, apparently, already begun to take shape. It was then in 1922 that Brecht came to the attention of an influential Berlin critic, Herbert Ihering, who was quoted to saying: “At 24 the writer Bert Brecht has changed Germany’s literary complexion overnight….he has given our time a new tone, a new melody, a new vision.” That same year, the promising young dramatist married the opera singer and actress Marianne Zoff. Their daughter, Hanne Hiob, born in 1923, would become a famous German actress.</div>
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Brecht in Berlin</h3>
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Our theater must stimulate a desire for understanding, a delight in changing reality. Our audience must experience not only the ways to free Prometheus, but be schooled in the very desire to free him.</div>
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In 1924 Brecht moved to Berlin, a move he deemed necessary to continue his dramatic career. During the next few years, Brecht produced a string of well-received plays, the most popular of which was probably The Threepenny Opera, which he adapted from John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera along with composer Kurt Weill. The Threepenny Opera would go on to become the biggest theatrical hit in Berlin during the 1920s and helped lead the way in a worldwide resurgence of the popularities of musicals in general.</div>
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In 1927, he had begun to study Karl Marx’s Das Kapital, and by 1929 he had embraced Communism. These political beliefs would soon become evident in his plays as well. Another Brecht and Weill collaboration, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, caused an uproar when it premiered in Leipzig in 1930 with Nazis protesting in the audience.</div>
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In 1929, Brecht married Helene Weigel after he had divorced his first wife, Marianne Zoff in 1927 who had alreadt borne him a son, Stefan. The new couple also had a daughter, Barbara who, like Brecht’s other daughter, would go on to become an actress also. In February 1933, however, Bertolt Brecht’s career was suddenly and violently interrupted as the Nazis came to power in Germany. Brecht fled with his family to Prague. His books and plays were soon banned in Germany and those who dared stage his plays found their productions unpleasantly interrupted by the police.</div>
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Brecht traveelled around from Prague to Vienna to Zurich to the island of Fyn to Finland, where he lived for a while in Villa Marlebäck as a guest of the Finnish author Hella Wuolijoki. During this period of exile, Brecht awaited a pending visa to the United States, but he kept himself busy by completed the plays Mother Courage and her Children (1939), The Good Person of Szechwan (1941), and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Uri (1941).</div>
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Brecht in America</h3>
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In May of 1941, Brecht finally received his U.S. visa and relocated to Santa Monica, California, where he attempted to become a Hollywood screenwriter, but his unusual concepts were dismissed by Hollywood producers who couldn’t seem to grasp his artistic visions. His only successful Hollywood film was Hangmen Also Die (1943). The money he made from this film allowed him to write The Visions of Simone Marchand, Schwyk in the Second World War and his adaptation of John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi.</div>
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Unfortunately, Brecht’s stay in America would not be as successful or as lengthy as he might have hoped. In 1947, during the years of the “red scare,” the House Un-American Activities Committee called the playwright to account for his communist activities. On October 30, 1947, he appeared before the committee, wearing overalls, smoking a cigar and cracking jokes. Although he outwitted his investigators with half-truths and skilful innuendos, he feared the irrational political climate, and shortly after his testimony took a plane to Switzerland. He didn’t even wait to see the opening of his play Galileo in New York.</div>
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Brecht’s Later years</h3>
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On October 22, 1948, after 15 years of exile, Bertolt Brecht returned to Germany, settling in East Berlin where he was welcomed by the Communist cultural establishment. In 1954 he was rewarded with his own theatre–the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm. Brecht wrote very few plays in his last years in Berlin, none of them as famous as his previous works, but he wrote some of his most famous poems during these last years, including the “Buckower Elegies.” In 1955, Brecht received the Stalin Peace Prize. Unfortunately the following year, he contracted a lung inflammation and died of a heart attack on August 14, 1956.</div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 20.962963104248047px;"><a href="http://www.actorhub.co.uk/266/bertolt-brecht">http://www.actorhub.co.uk/266/bertolt-brecht </a></span></span></div>
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Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535732000370344231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2451963779807246809.post-88188059711515427652012-12-05T04:15:00.000-08:002012-12-05T04:15:22.076-08:00Quotes<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">“Because
things are the way they are, things</span></span></span></span></span></strong></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;"><br /></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;"> will not stay the way they
are.”</span></span></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">― </span></span></span><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/26853.Bertolt_Brecht" style="text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Bertolt
Brecht</span></span></span></a></span></span></strong></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;"><br /></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;"><br /></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">“In the dark times </span></span></span></span></strong></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;"><br /><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong>Will there also be
singing?</strong></span></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">Yes,
there will also be singing.</span></span></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">About the dark
times.” </span></span></span></span></strong></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;"><br /><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong>― </strong></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/26853.Bertolt_Brecht" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong>Bertolt
Brecht</strong></span></a></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: orange;"><br /></span><span style="color: orange;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong>“Art is not a mirror held up to
reality<br />but a hammer with which to shape it.” <br />― </strong></span><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/26853.Bertolt_Brecht"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong>Bertolt
Brecht</strong></span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong> </strong></span></div>
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<br /><span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong>“Hungry man, reach for the book: it is a weapon.”
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</span><span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">― </span><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/26853.Bertolt_Brecht"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Bertolt
Brecht</span></a></span></strong></div>
Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535732000370344231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2451963779807246809.post-27344496128805820872012-12-05T04:09:00.002-08:002012-12-05T04:09:51.749-08:00Videos to watch <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535732000370344231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2451963779807246809.post-55243149540996070512012-11-19T13:29:00.001-08:002012-11-19T13:29:16.159-08:00Defamiliarization<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">Defamiliarization</b><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"> or </span><b style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">ostranenie</b><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"> is the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art" style="background-color: yellow; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; text-decoration: initial;" title="Art">a</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; text-decoration: initial;" title="Art"><span style="background-color: yellow;">rtistic</span></a><span style="background-color: yellow; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"> technique of forcing the audience to see common things in an unfamiliar or strange way</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">, in order to enhance perception of the familiar. A central concept in </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_century_art" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; text-decoration: initial;" title="20th century art">20th century art</a><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"><span style="background-color: white;"> and theory, ranging over movements including</span><span style="background-color: yellow;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: yellow;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; text-decoration: initial;" title="Dada">Dada</a><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">, </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; text-decoration: initial;" title="Postmodernism">postmodernism</a><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">, </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_theatre" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; text-decoration: initial;" title="Epic theatre">epic theatre</a><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">, </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">and </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; text-decoration: initial;" title="Science fiction">science fiction</a><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">, it is also used as a tactic by recent movements such as </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_jamming" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; text-decoration: initial;" title="Culture jamming">Culture jamming</a><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: yellow; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">Defamiliarization of that which is or has become familiar or taken for granted, hence automatically perceived, is the basic function of all devices.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"> And with defamiliarization come both the slowing down and the increased difficulty (impeding) of the process of reading and comprehending and an awareness of the artistic procedures (devices) causing them. (Margolin 2005)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The technique appears in English Romantic poetry, particularly in the poetry of <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wordsworth" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Wordsworth">Wordsworth</a>, and was defined in the following way by<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Taylor_Coleridge" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Samuel Taylor Coleridge">Samuel Taylor Coleridge</a>, in his <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biographia_Literaria" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Biographia Literaria">Biographia Literaria</a></i>: "To carry on the feelings of childhood into the powers of manhood; to combine the child’s sense of wonder and novelty with the appearances which every day for perhaps forty years had rendered familiar [. . .] this is the character and privilege of genius."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: yellow;">In more recent times, it has been associated with the poet and playwright <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Bertolt Brecht">Bertolt Brecht</a>, whose <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verfremdungseffekt" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Verfremdungseffekt">Verfremdungseffekt</a> ("alienation effect") was a potent element of his approach to theater.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> Brecht, in turn, has been highly influential for artists and filmmakers including Jean-Luc Godard and Yvonne Rainer.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamiliarization">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamiliarization</a></span></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Verfremdungseffekt: </i>The <span style="background-color: transparent;">distancing effect</span></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">The </span><b style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">distancing effect</b><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">, more commonly known (earlier) by John Willett's 1964 translation </span><i style="background-color: yellow; font-size: 13px;">the alienation effect</i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"> or (more recently) as </span><i style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">the estrangement effect</i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"> (</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_language" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: initial;" title="German language">German</a><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">: </span><span lang="de" style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;" xml:lang="de"><i><b>Verfremdungseffekt</b></i></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">), is a </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performing_arts" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: initial;" title="Performing arts">performing arts</a><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"> concept coined by </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playwright" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: initial;" title="Playwright">playwright</a><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: initial;" title="Bertolt Brecht">Bertolt Brecht</a><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span style="background-color: yellow;">"which prevents the audience from losing itself passively and completely in the character created by the actor, and which consequently leads the audience to be a consciously critical observer."</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-0" style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verfremdungseffekt#cite_note-0" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial; white-space: nowrap;">[1]</a></sup><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"> Brecht's term describes the aesthetics of his </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_theatre" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: initial;" title="Epic theatre">epic theatre</a><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">The distancing effect is achieved by the way the "artist never acts as if there were a </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_wall" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Fourth wall">fourth wall</a><span style="background-color: white;"> besides the three surrounding him [...] The audience can no longer have the illusion of being the unseen spectator at an event which is really taking place" (Willett 91). </span><span style="background-color: yellow;">The use of direct audience-address is one way of disrupting stage illusion and generating the distancing effect. In performance, as the performer "observes himself," his objective is "to appear strange and even surprising to the audience.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> He achieves this by looking strangely at himself and his work" (Willett 92). Whether Brecht intended the distancing effect to refer to the audience or to the actor or to both audience and actor is still controversial among teachers and scholars of "Epic Acting" and Brechtian theatre.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">By disclosing and making obvious the manipulative contrivances and "fictive" qualities of the medium, </span><span style="background-color: yellow;">the actors alienate the viewer from any passive acceptance and enjoyment of the play as mere "entertainment." </span><span style="background-color: white;">Instead, the viewer is forced into a critical, analytical frame of mind that serves to disabuse him or her of the notion that what he is watching is necessarily an inviolable, self-contained narrative.</span><span style="background-color: yellow;"> This effect of making the familiar strange serves a didactic function insofar as it teaches the viewer not to take the style and content for granted</span><span style="background-color: white;">, since the medium itself is highly constructed and contingent upon many cultural and economic conditions.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">It may be noted that </span><span style="background-color: yellow;">Brecht’s use of distancing effects in order to prevent audience members from bathing themselves in empathetic emotions </span><span style="background-color: white;">and to draw them into an attitude of critical judgment may lead to other reactions than intellectual coolness. Brecht's popularization of the </span><i style="background-color: white;">V-Effekt</i><span style="background-color: white;"> has come to dominate our understanding of its dynamics. But the particulars of a spectator’s psyche and of the tension aroused by a specific alienating device may actually </span><i style="background-color: white;">increase</i><span style="background-color: white;"> emotional impact.</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verfremdungseffekt#cite_note-6" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial; white-space: nowrap;">[7]</a></sup><span style="background-color: white;"> Audience reactions are rarely uniform, and there are many diverse, sometimes unpredictable, responses that may be achieved through distancing.</span></span></div>
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Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535732000370344231noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2451963779807246809.post-61220008335490404372012-11-13T11:57:00.000-08:002012-11-13T13:54:20.063-08:00Brechtian Advise To Actors<span style="background-color: #93c47d;"><br /></span>
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="background-color: #93c47d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Rational,
calm detachment,<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="background-color: #93c47d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"The Brechtian style
of acting is acting in quotations marks"<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="background-color: #93c47d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The
actor should not impersonate, but narrate actions of another person, as if
quoting facial gesture and movement,<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="background-color: #93c47d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As the
audience is not to be allowed to identify with the character, so, too the
actor is not to identify with the character they are portraying.<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="background-color: #93c47d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Brecht
agrees with Stanislavsky what, if the actor believes he is the character,
the audience with also believe it, and share his emotions. But, unlike Stanislavsky,
he does not wish this to happen.<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="background-color: #93c47d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Rather
than live or "be" the character, an actor must portray them -
become a representation of that person.<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="background-color: #93c47d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bretch,
in rehearsals, advised actors to speak in the third person, the past tense
and even say the stage directions in order to help this.<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="background-color: #93c47d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The
play is cemented as not being real and the focus can move back to the
message.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
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Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535732000370344231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2451963779807246809.post-74433504784799918192012-11-12T13:11:00.001-08:002012-11-19T13:29:36.173-08:00Dialectical Theatre and Epic Theatre<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"><b><br /></b></i>
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<i style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"><b>Dialectical theatre</b></i><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"> is a label that the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; text-decoration: initial;" title="Germany">German</a><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"> </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernist" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; text-decoration: initial;" title="Modernist">modernist</a><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_practitioner" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; text-decoration: initial;" title="Theatre practitioner">theatre practitioner</a><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; text-decoration: initial;" title="Bertolt Brecht">Bertolt Brecht</a><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"> came to prefer to </span><b style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">Epic theatre</b><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"> near the end of his career to describe the type of theatre that he had developed earlier in his career. From his later perspective, the term "Epic Theatre" had become too formal a concept to be of use anymore; one of Brecht's most-important </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist_aesthetics" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; text-decoration: initial;" title="Marxist aesthetics">aesthetic</a><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"> innovations prioritized </span><i style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refunctioning" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Refunctioning">function</a></i><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"> over the sterile opposition between </span><i style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">form</i><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"> and </span><i style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">content</i><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">.</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-willett281_4-0" style="line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_theatre#cite_note-willett281-4" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial; white-space: nowrap;">[5]</a></sup><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"> According to </span><a class="new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Manfred_Wekwerth&action=edit&redlink=1" style="background-image: none; color: #a55858; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; text-decoration: initial;" title="Manfred Wekwerth (page does not exist)">Manfred Wekwerth</a><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">, one of Brecht's directors at the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berliner_Ensemble" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; text-decoration: initial;" title="Berliner Ensemble">Berliner Ensemble</a><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"> at the time, the term refers to the "'</span><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectics#Marxist_dialectics" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; text-decoration: initial;" title="Dialectics">dialecticizing</a><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">' of events" that his theatre produces.</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-willett282_5-0" style="line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_theatre#cite_note-willett282-5" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial; white-space: nowrap;">[6]</a></sup></span></span><br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_theatre#Dialectical_theatre"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_theatre#Dialectical_theatre</span></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: #f4cccc;"><b>Epic theatre</b> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_language" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="German language">German</a>: <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><i>episches Theater</i></span>) was a theatrical <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_movement" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Art movement">movement</a> arising in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twentieth-century_theatre" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Twentieth-century theatre">early to mid-20th century</a> from the theories and practice of a number of <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_practitioners" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Theatre practitioners">theatre practitioners</a>, including <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Piscator" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Erwin Piscator">Erwin Piscator</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Mayakovsky" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Vladimir Mayakovsky">Vladimir Mayakovsky</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vsevolod_Meyerhold" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Vsevolod Meyerhold">Vsevolod Meyerhold</a> and, most famously,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Bertolt Brecht">Bertolt Brecht</a>. Although many of the concepts and practices involved in </span><span style="background-color: yellow;">Brechtian epic theatre had been around for years, even centuries, Brecht unified them, developed the style, and popularized it. Epic theatre incorporates a mode of acting that utilises what he calls <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestus" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Gestus">gestus</a></i>.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">The epic form describes both <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Aristotelian_drama" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Non-Aristotelian drama">a type of written drama</a> and a methodological approach to the production of plays: "Its qualities of clear description and reporting and its use of choruses and projections as a means of commentary earned it the name 'epic'."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-0" style="line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_theatre#cite_note-0" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial; white-space: nowrap;">[1]</a></sup> Brecht later preferred the term "<a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_theatre" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Dialectical theatre">dialectical theatre</a>" which he discussed in his work <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_Organum_for_the_Theatre" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="A Short Organum for the Theatre">A Short Organum for the Theatre</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Organum_1-0" style="line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_theatre#cite_note-Organum-1" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial; white-space: nowrap;">[2]</a></sup></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">One of the goals of epic theatre is for the audience to always be <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metatheatre" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Metatheatre">aware that it is watching a play</a>: "It is most important that one of the main features of the ordinary theatre should be excluded from [epic theatre]: the engendering of illusion."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2" style="line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_theatre#cite_note-2" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial; white-space: nowrap;">[3]</a></sup></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">Epic theatre was a reaction against popular forms of theatre, particularly the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalism_(theatre)" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Naturalism (theatre)">naturalistic</a> approach pioneered by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_Stanislavski" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Constantin Stanislavski">Constantin Stanislavski</a>. Like Stanislavski, Brecht disliked the shallow spectacle, manipulative plots, and heightened emotion of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melodrama" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Melodrama">melodrama</a>; </span><span style="background-color: yellow;">but where Stanislavski attempted to engender real human behavior in acting through the techniques of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislavski%27s_system" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Stanislavski's system">Stanislavski's system</a> and to absorb the audience completely in the fictional world of the play, Brecht saw Stanislavski's methodology as producing escapism.</span><span style="background-color: #f4cccc;"> Brecht's own social and political focus departed also from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Surrealism">surrealism</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_Cruelty" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Theatre of Cruelty">Theatre of Cruelty</a>, as developed in the writings and dramaturgy of<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonin_Artaud" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Antonin Artaud">Antonin Artaud</a>, who sought to affect audiences viscerally, psychologically, physically, and irrationally.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_theatre" style="background-color: #f4cccc;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_theatre</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">Dramatic form developed in Germany after World War I by <a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/bertolt-brecht" style="color: #003399; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: initial;">Bertolt Brecht</a> and others, </span><span style="background-color: yellow;">intended to provoke rational thought rather than to create illusion.</span><span style="background-color: #f4cccc;"> It presents loosely connected scenes often interrupted by direct addresses to the audience providing analysis, argument, or documentation. </span><span style="background-color: yellow;">Brecht's goal was to use alienating or distancing effects to block the emotional responses of the audience members and force them to think objectively about the play.</span><span style="background-color: #f4cccc;"> Actors were instructed to keep a distance between themselves and the characters they portrayed and to </span><span style="background-color: yellow;">emphasize external actions rather than emotions.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: #f4cccc;"> <a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/epic-theatre#ixzz2C8KbAOgH" style="color: #003399; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: initial;">http://www.answers.com/topic/epic-theatre#ixzz2C8KbAOgH</a></span></span><br />
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Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535732000370344231noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2451963779807246809.post-41539290983767810162012-11-12T13:04:00.003-08:002012-11-13T13:52:11.415-08:00Mother Courage<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;"><br /></span>
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<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;"><i><b>Mother Courage and Her Children</b></i> (German: <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><i>Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder</i></span>) is a play written in 1939 by the German dramatist and poet <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Bertolt Brecht">Bertolt Brecht</a> (1898–1956) with significant contributions from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margarete_Steffin" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Margarete Steffin">Margarete Steffin</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1" style="line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Courage_and_Her_Children#cite_note-1" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial; white-space: nowrap;">[1]</a></sup> After four very important theatrical productions in Switzerland and Germany from 1941 to 1952—the last three supervised and/or directed by Brecht—the play was filmed several years after Brecht's death in 1959/1960 with Brecht's widow and leading actress, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helene_Weigel" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Helene Weigel">Helene Weigel</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2" style="line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Courage_and_Her_Children#cite_note-2" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial; white-space: nowrap;">[2]</a></sup></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;"><i>Mother Courage</i> is considered by some to be the greatest play of the 20th century, and perhaps also the greatest anti-war play of all time.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3" style="line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Courage_and_Her_Children#cite_note-3" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial; white-space: nowrap;">[3]</a></sup></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;"><i>Mother Courage</i> is one of nine plays that Brecht wrote in an attempt to counter the rise of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Fascism">Fascism</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Nazism">Nazism</a>. In response to the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Poland" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Invasion of Poland">invasion of Poland</a> by the German armies of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Adolf Hitler">Adolf Hitler</a> in 1939, Brecht wrote <i>Mother Courage</i> in what writers call a "white heat"—in a little over a month.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4" style="line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Courage_and_Her_Children#cite_note-4" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial; white-space: nowrap;">[4]</a></sup> As leading Brecht scholars <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Manheim" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Ralph Manheim">Ralph Manheim</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Willett" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="John Willett">John Willett</a> wrote:</span></div>
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;"><span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;"><i>Mother Courage</i>, with its theme of the devastating effects of a European war and the blindness of anyone hoping to profit by it, is said to have been written in a month; judging by the almost complete absence of drafts or any other evidence of preliminary studies, it must have been an exceptionally direct piece of inspiration.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Courage_and_Her_Children#cite_note-5" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial; white-space: nowrap;">[5]</a></sup></span></dd></dl>
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<tr><td><b><i style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">"Brecht's genius was to mix humor in the great tragedies</i></b></td></tr>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><b><i style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">- not always, but as a contrast."</i></b></td></tr>
<tr><td style="text-align: right;"><span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">Therese Giehse, 1968.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" style="line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Courage_and_Her_Children#cite_note-6" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial; white-space: nowrap;">[6]</a></sup></span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">Following Brecht's own principles for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_drama" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Political drama">political drama</a>, the play is not set in modern times but </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">during the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years%27_War" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Thirty Years' War">Thirty Years' War</a> of 1618–1648. It follows the fortunes of Anna Fierling, nicknamed "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Courage" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Mother Courage">Mother Courage</a>", a wily <a class="extiw" href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/canteen" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #663366; text-decoration: initial;" title="wikt:canteen">canteen</a>woman with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Army" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Swedish Army">Swedish Army</a> who is determined to make her living from the war. Over the course of the play, she loses all three of her children, Swiss Cheese, Eilif, and Kattrin, to the same war from which she sought to profit.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;"><i>Mother Courage</i> is an example of Brecht's concepts of <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_Theatre" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Epic Theatre">Epic Theatre</a> and <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verfremdungseffekt" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Verfremdungseffekt">Verfremdungseffekt</a></i> or "estrangement effect".<i>Verfremdungseffekt</i> is achieved through the use of placards which reveal the events of each scene, juxtaposition, actors changing characters and costume on stage, the use of narration, simple props and scenery.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;"> For instance, a single tree would be used to convey a whole forest, and the stage is usually flooded with bright white light whether it's a winter's night or a summer's day.</span><span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;"> Several songs, interspersed throughout the play, are used to underscore the themes of the play, while making the audience think about what the playwright is saying.</span></div>
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<br />Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535732000370344231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2451963779807246809.post-82866343589684450692012-11-12T13:04:00.001-08:002012-11-13T13:51:34.207-08:00Brecht Research <br />
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) offered a challenge to Aristotle's ancient </span><span style="background-color: yellow;">approach to theatre as a spectator activity</span>. <span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">He sought to stimulate the minds of his audience, integrating economics and politics into his plays, in hopes that those watching </span><span style="background-color: yellow;">would respond with intellect, not emotion. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">As Eyre and Wright describe him, "</span><span style="background-color: yellow;">He was a brilliant man of the theatre</span><span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">, highly receptive to the avant-garde of his day, quick to improve it and somewhat too precipitate to turn it into theory. He was a communist: not a left-winger, not a liberal, nor a humanitarian. From his twenties onwards, he thought and worked in terms of Marxist dialectic and he really wasn't kidding."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Over the course of his career, Brecht developed </span><span style="background-color: yellow;">his so-called epic theater, in which narrative, montage, self-contained scenes, and rational argument were used to create a shock of realization in the spectator.</span><span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"> To create a distancing effect, Brecht promoted acting and staging that would merely demonstrate what was being portrayed, thus giving the audience a more objective perspective on the action. In Brecht's plays, say Eyre and Wright, "lucidity reigns: nothing is worse than a jumble of confused impressions."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">They go on to offer a look at Brecht's continuing role in political theater:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Throughout the 1960s and 70s, Brecht was revered by left-leaning theatricals as a sage whose slightest jottings could be relied on as a guide to morality, politics and life itself. In the 1990s the collapse of faith in Marxism put a stop to that. But although his Mao-like status hasn't lasted, his plays (or some of them) have quietly entered the theatrical mainstream. Whether they've entered as what they are, or in disguise, is harder to say. Some productions get praised for following his thinking to the hilt, others get praised for throwing his boring theories out of the window. Sometimes both are said of the same production.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Among Brecht's celebrated works are THE THREEPENNY OPERA, MAN IS MAN, LIFE OF GALILEO, MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN, and THE GOOD PERSON OF SETZUAN.</span></div>
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<a class="gold-12px" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: #fce5cd; color: blue;">Bertolt Brecht on Wikipedia</span></a></div>
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">Brecht was mainly known for being a theatre practitioner however, he was also both a playwright and producer/director of his own, and others', plays. </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">He also wrote extensively on dramatic theory. </span></i></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><br /></i></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: blue;"><i>You should explain his theory in terms of his practice in writing and production. You may be confused if you assume that the theory matches the reality of the plays in production. </i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><br /></i></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: blue;"><i>The theory, arising from a Marxist notion of drama as a vehicle for rational didacticism, describes theatre as Brecht, in a sense, wished it to become. This theory is only partly realised in his own work. </i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><br /></i></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: blue;"><i>Brecht would say that this is the result of the theatre's (and society's) not being ready yet for the final, perfected version of epic theatre. Modern theatre critics might say that Brecht's practical sense of what works in the theatre has (happily) overruled the more extreme applications of his theory.</i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span><span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><b><u><a href="http://www.teachit.co.uk/armoore/drama/brecht.htm">http://www.teachit.co.uk/armoore/drama/brecht.htm</a></u></b></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">Epic Theatre began in the early 20</span><sup style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;"> century from the theories of a number of Russian and German theatre practitioners: Erwin Piscator, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold and, most famously, </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">Bertolt Brecht</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">, who is credited for unifying and popularizing the concepts and practices that now make Epic Theatre. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; text-align: justify;"><br style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;" /><u style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">Background</u><br style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">Brecht (1898 -- 1956) was both playwright and director of plays. His most important works are 'The Life of Galileo' and 'Mother Courage and Her Children' which were written between 1937 and 1945 whilst he was in exile from Nazi Germany. Brecht returned after the war to establish the Berliner Ensemble. </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">It was only after the production of his plays that he received wide recognition. </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">The 20</span><sup style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;"> century was an age that saw the political extremes of Nazism and Communism compete for dominance worldwide. Brecht himself had Marxist influences and avoided any support of capitalist values in his plays. Instead, many of his plays demonstrate examples of social injustice, and use these to promote socialist ideals. He believed theatre should be capable of making social change, while still providing </span><a class="itxtrst itxtrsta itxthook" href="http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_background_of_Epic_theatre_and_its_characteristics#" id="itxthook0" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; bottom: auto; color: #003399; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; float: none !important; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; left: auto; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px; position: static !important; right: auto; text-align: left; text-decoration: initial; top: auto;"><span class="itxtrst itxtrstspan itxtnowrap" id="itxthook0w" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 100, 0); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 0.1em; bottom: auto; color: darkgreen; display: inline; float: none; font-family: inherit; height: auto; left: auto; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static; right: auto; text-decoration: underline; top: auto;">entertainment</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;"><br /><br />Read more: <a href="http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_background_of_Epic_theatre_and_its_characteristics#ixzz2C8Mb9Ib5" style="color: #003399; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: initial;">http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_background_of_Epic_theatre_and_its_characteristics#ixzz2C8Mb9Ib5</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535732000370344231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2451963779807246809.post-17012346383881868012012-11-10T14:11:00.002-08:002012-11-19T01:33:44.045-08:00An Introduction To Brecht<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div style="background: #D9D2E9;">
<span style="background: #EAD1DC; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">My initial response to reading about the works and
life of Bertolt Brecht was that I believe that Brecht’s' methods do have merit
to them in the order of developing the skills of a training actor, however I do
believe that his method of theatre essentially takes the fun out of acting. It
can make the work too intellectual in my opinion and in some situations can
really make the exploration of his methods dull and boring. I do however hope
that as i continue to study his works and the methods of epic theatre that I
can find more joy and excitement in it.</span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"></span></div>
<div style="background: #D9D2E9;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: #D9D2E9;">
<span style="background: #D9D2E9; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Bertolt Brecht was born on the 10th February 1898, and died
on the 14 August 1956. He is mostly well known for being a theatre practitioner
however he was also a playwright, a director, and a producer of his own
works. </span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"></span></div>
<div style="background: #D9D2E9;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: #D9D2E9;">
<span style="background: #D9D2E9; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Essentially Bertolt Brecht is held in such high esteem
because he believes that through theatre you could create social change whilst
still entertaining an audience. He didn’t like to think of his audience as an
actual audience who were passive and played no part in the theatre - he wanted
the people who witnessed his works to be spectators whom expel some kind of a
reaction to the theatre that Brecht created. </span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"></span></div>
<div style="background: #D9D2E9;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: #D9D2E9;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: #D9D2E9;">
<span style="background: #D9D2E9; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">In the early 1900's a man named Konstantin Stanislavsky
developed a type of theatre called 'Naturalism' which </span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">replicates real
life and shows the realistic version of it. Stanislavski developed naturalistic
acting, as he wanted his actors to become emotionally and psychologically
involved with their roles, in order to create a convincing, realistic
performance. Bertolt Brecht agreed with the idea that naturalism can evoke emotion
within an audience however he tried to avoid it in his own work. </span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"></span></div>
<span style="background: #EAD1DC; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
Bertolt Brecht and epic theatre: The major characteristics are that the
audience weren't actually audiences. They were more like spectators as they
were not spoon fed, therefore majority of the epic theatre plays didn't give
away everything. It let the audience think. They were permitted to eat, drink
and smoke. The actors had to portray the character and not get into the
"skin of the character".</span><br />
<span style="background: #EAD1DC; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
Epic theatre was proposed as an alternative to the Naturalism developed by
Stanislavski. Brecht was not trying to pretend that what he put on stage was
real life. He was not concerned, for example that a scene in 'Galileo', in a
renaissance palace, had to take place in a believable imitation of such a
palace. He wanted his audience to be aware of what was really happening -- that
they were watching a play. Epic Theatre is supposed to keep an audience calm,
reflective and detached from any emotion on stage. Brecht objected to theatre
that relieved its audiences of stored emotions and desires, and did not want
them to identify with characters. He believed such plays left audiences
complacent and did not inspire them to effect change. Rather than passively sit
through plays, Brecht's audiences are expected to give intellectual reflection
to performances and even initiate social change after seeing examples of
exploitation and inequality. The audience is invited not to feel, but to think.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_background_of_Epic_theatre_and_its_characteristics#ixzz2C8M3VEFH"><span style="color: #003399;">http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_background_of_Epic_theatre_and_its_characteristics#ixzz2C8M3VEFH</span></a></span><br />
<span style="background: #EAD1DC; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
<b><u>Elements typical to an Epic Theatre production: </u></b></span><br />
<span style="background: #EAD1DC; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
· Loudspeakers announcing political events of the time.<br />
· Flooding the stage with harsh white light, regardless of areas of action.<br />
· Leaving stage lights in full view of the audience.<br />
· Minimal use of props.<br />
· No elaborate scenery.<br />
· Musicians playing in view of audience.<br />
· Intentionally interrupting the action with songs, for example, to make a
point.<br />
· Episodic narrative theatre where each scene begins with a caption, displayed
or read aloud, that tells the audience what is about to happen.<br />
· Using the voices of the Chorus for a main <a href="http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_background_of_Epic_theatre_and_its_characteristics" id="itxthook1" rel="nofollow" style="bottom: auto; cursor: pointer; float: none; right: auto;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: darkgreen; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">actor's</span></a> speech,
while the actor mimes.<br />
· Anti-climactic lines after emotive speeches, such as "I must eat
now." - A mundane observation made inappropriately by the protagonist in
'Galileo' after an impressive speech, to show the weakness of the <a href="http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_background_of_Epic_theatre_and_its_characteristics" id="itxthook2" rel="nofollow" style="bottom: auto; cursor: pointer; float: none; right: auto;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: darkgreen; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">man</span></a> against the
inventor.<br />
· Language is clear and often informative, as Brecht intended Epic Theatre to
be educational.<br />
· Actors stepping out of role to comment on their <a href="http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_background_of_Epic_theatre_and_its_characteristics" id="itxthook3" rel="nofollow" style="bottom: auto; cursor: pointer; float: none; right: auto;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: darkgreen; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">character's</span></a> actions.<br />
· Actors making their choices explicit in speech e.g. "I could have helped
the beggar, but I kept walking."<br />
· <a href="http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_background_of_Epic_theatre_and_its_characteristics" id="itxthook4" rel="nofollow" style="bottom: auto; cursor: pointer; float: none; right: auto;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: darkgreen; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Actors</span></a> speaking
directly to audience.<br />
· Actors not supposed completely being their characters.<br />
· Highly stylised, exaggerated movements.<br />
<br />
All these techniques and elements aim to discourage an audience from suspending
their disbelief and to keep them aware that they are watching a play, by making
it harder for them to identify with characters and to keep the action alien and
remote. Brecht called this the alienation effect, or 'V-Effekt'. These
techniques remind the audience that the action is merely an enactment of
reality and give Epic plays a constructed <a href="http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_background_of_Epic_theatre_and_its_characteristics" id="itxthook5" rel="nofollow" style="bottom: auto; cursor: pointer; float: none; right: auto;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: darkgreen; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">appearance</span></a>, in the
hope of communicating that our reality is also constructed by people, and so
changeable.<br />
The use of "quotable gesture," (using stances, mannerisms, or
repeated action to sum up a character), and sudden shifts from one behaviour to
another to put the audience off-balance, and suggesting "roads not
taken" in moments of a character's decision-making, encourage audiences to
criticize the society we see onstage in Epic Theatre.<br />
<br />
Read more: <a href="http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_background_of_Epic_theatre_and_its_characteristics#ixzz2C8MHERb8" style="cursor: pointer;"><span style="color: #003399;">http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_background_of_Epic_theatre_and_its_characteristics#ixzz2C8MHERb8</span></a></span><br />
Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535732000370344231noreply@blogger.com1