Brecht In Lessons

This term as previously mentioned we are studying the practitioner Brecht and in lesson we have done a lot of work with a lot of his different techniques and comparing him to the last practitioner we studies which was Stanislavsky.

Some of the differences we looked at in class concerning the two practitioners are very interesting for example we looked at how Brecht was committed to didactic theatre. He wanted his plays to teach. And he feared that if audiences were deeply scared, turned on, having a fit of giggles, or in any other emotional state, they would be distracted from thinking about the play's didactic message or argument. So his goal was to always remind the audience that they were watching a play. (This idea is often called "alienation," meaning that you're supposed to be standing apart from the story, thinking about it more coolly, rather than getting so emotionally wrapped up in it you confuse the protagonist with yourself. However unlike Brecht Stanislavsky's methods were not based on an interest in didacticism. Rather, Stanislavsky believed that, for instance, trying to act sad was too generalized. It would lead an actor towards cartoonish behavior that wasn't convincing. His focus was on goals. (Some actors call goals "intentions.") At each moment in a play, he believed an actor should be trying to achieve some goal in the most naturalistic way possible.

One technique that Brecht used was the use of Gestus which we also practiced throughout the term. This is described as a clear character gesture or movement used by the actor that captures a moment or attitude rather than delving into emotion. Gestus is also gesture with social comment. For example, a soldier saluting as he marches across a stage is a gesture. But if he was saluting as he marched over a stage strewn with dead bodies, it would be Gestus as a social comment about the type of person he represents. In class we did a demonstration to prove this where we had a 'general' saluting his soldiers and they salute back, then we repeated it so that when the general saluted the soldiers saluted back and then lied down on the floor dead. The second was more effective.

We also talked about 'the v effect' in lesson which was another brechtian techniques commonly used in his theatre. This is what i previously mentioned about alienating or distancing the audience however it still works to  fourth wall, the imaginary wall between the actors and audience which keeps them as observers. They are active members of the theatrical experience as they are kept thinking throughout, not switching off. The different types of methods when using 'the v effect' is also something that we discussed in class and some of them are as follows:

• Narration                                                                                                                                      Narration is used to remind the audience that what they’re watching is a presentation of a story. Sometimes the narrator will tell us what happens in the story before it has happened.
• Direct address                                                                                                                                Speaking directly to the audience breaks the fourth wall and destroys any illusion of reality.
• Using placards                                                                                                                                 A placard is a sign or additional piece of written information presented onstage. Using placards might be as simple as holding up. What’s important is that the information doesn’t just comment upon the action but deepens our understanding of it.a card or banner. Multimedia or a PowerPoint slideshow can also be used for this effect. 
• Singing and dancing is a good way to ensure that the audience sees the theatre and are reminded of the fact they are watching a play. Often in Brechtian theatre the style of the music and the lyrics jar, they don’t seem to fit together in style. This distances the audience further.
• Montage                                                                                                                                             A montage is a series of short self-contained scenes grouped immediately after each other whose juxtaposition or contrast highlights the important issues with absolute clarity. This idea of separate scenes also allows for a focus on minute details if the situation of the play demands it.

Political Theatre Performance Evaluation

After all of our devising lessons that i have previously spoken about we finally performed our piece in the space to an audience. Overall i think that our performance went extremely well and i am very proud of it as we put a lot of work in and it paid off in the end. One of the things that went well in our performance was that we kept the energy up throughout, this was important as our piece is very audience inclusive and because of that if the energy drops then the audience will lose focus and that means the performance quality overall will drop and as we kept the energy up it means that the performance was more effective. Furthermore another thing that was extremely effective was the use of props in our piece as their was a lot of different props for all the different parts of the play and everyone always remembered when to bring and to not bring the props on stage and that confidence of always knowing when something should and should not being happening on stage meant that the play flowed even more and this gave the play a more professional vibe to it and made it even more enjoyable to perform, also further provide confidence we had the plays running order in terms of scenes and who was on stage at what times on a sheet of paper where the actors were sitting so that if we were confused at anytime we were able to just refer to it which was extremely useful. I think that we were also able to work as an ensemble extremely well in the parts that required us to, for example when we were doing our individual '7 deadly sins' in one of them all actors had to come on stage and laugh whilst slightly tilting their body the was very over the top and it was probably funny to watch as the staging was effective i gather this from the audience reaction and how they laughed a long with us even if they weren't certain what was actually going on in that particular scene.  I think that by including the audience in the play and also by being over the top and extremely unrealistic we were able to prove our political point about cuts more effectively and remind that even though this is a play it is also going on today.
Even though overall the play went very well there are a few thing that i would do differently if i were to re perform the piece. One thing that i think we could have made clearer was the actual structure of the play. This is because as we were doing two separate plays as well as our own devised pieces it may have been hard for the audience to distinguish which parts were which therefore i think that to make it easier we could have had a more simpler structure that did not jump from one piece to another e.g. the game show to indulgence to seven deadly sins, as it would have made it more clear to the performance members what was going on at what points in the play. Another way that i would have changed the performance to improve it is to be a bit more cleaner with our transitions because at some points it seemed as though they were not fluid and to the audience it may have looked like we weren't aware as to what was going on at the different moments. However overall the play was extremely effective and went well and i look forward to working with more political texts in the future.

Police Brutality Goes Hand In Hand With Sexual Assault For Some Black Women

The decision was reached on his 29th birthday.

After four full days of deliberation, former Oklahoma cop Daniel Holtzclaw was found guilty of rape and sexual battery Thursday. Holtzclaw sobbed relentlessly after an all-white jury convicted him on 18 of the 36 charges he faced, which included six first-degree rape counts and a slew of sexual battery charges.

The verdict came after weeks of harrowing witness testimonies, egregious tactics by defense attorneys and pleas from prosecutors who said Holtzclaw preyed on black women with criminal records and substance abuse problems because he thought they wouldn’t speak up.

Holtzclaw was wrong. They did. 

Picture of Holtzclaw pleading and begging at court, looking for sympathy that the good do not have.

Holtzclaw carried out calculated attacks of sexual violence against one of America’s most marginalized and mistreated groups: black women. Yet his lewd acts are just one example of brutality and sexual assault cases against black women by police that too often go ignored.

"What kind of police do you call on the police?" A quote from a 17-year-old victim who testified about her rape by Holtzclaw

For seven months, Holtzclaw patrolled one of the state’s poorest black neighborhoods and individually sought out black women with criminal records and/or a history of drug use.

Prosecutors said Holtzclaw specifically targeted these victims because he believed them to be too vulnerable or fearful to do or say anything against a criminal cop acting under the color of authority. Ultimately, he believed that his gender, race and policeman status would intimidate his victims enough to protect his purported innocence. Again, he was wrong.

The youngest victim was a 17-year-old girl who said Holtzclaw raped her on her mother’s porch and whose DNA was found in the crotch area of his uniform pants, one expert testified. "What kind of police do you call on the police?" the victim asked in court. A 57-year-old grandmother sparked an investigation after she reported her assault by Holtzclaw to authorities last year. She told them Holtzclaw forced her to perform oral sex during a traffic stop.

In court, Holtzclaw’s defense attorney Scott Adams used the background of these women as ammunition to paint victims as violators of the law who “want to work forward their own agenda” and “don’t care about the truth.” 

But the real truth is:

THIS is what rape culture looks like;

THIS is what police brutality can look like against black women. 

..Racism..

Why is my skin color different?
Did God make me this way?
When he made me, did he have
intentions on me being a slave?

And I thought we were all brothers,
including all the ones of different colors.

But why are they beating and hurting the others.
Someone save me, I didn't choose this life.
These scars, they've carved me with the sharpest
knives.

All I have is my faith.
Because if I'd held on to anything else
it'd be theres to take.

What is it that I ask for?
Equality, I preach.
Something small to you, 
but makes a difference
for me.

Whipping, spitting, hitting on me.
Raping our women in your wife's sheets.
Taking our children and turning them into workers.
No sense of empathy, grief or composer.

For the brotha' on my left and my sista' on the right,
with the courage that I hold I will continue to fight.
You have taken away my freedom, and most of my life.
But what you have failed to obtain is my state of mind.

Go ahead work my body, and do all that you please.
This is just a shell anyway, it's not coming with me.
You spit, you laugh, thinking you gained the world.
You think you have power because you've raped a young girl.

Stand tall sir with all of that pride.
And go ahead and hold it until the day that you die.
But your day will come when you'll fall to your knees.
Feeling the burn on your body from the whips you've given me.

As a young black female in the 21st century where racism is still very much present i feel very strongly towards the topic of it and i found a poem that i believe hold a lot of political meaning and is extremely effective in giving some insight into the problem racism still is today:

Why do you give me a hard look from your face?
that you don't like what you see?
that I'm from a different race?

Why can't we see eye to eye?
why do I disgust you,
like you don't wanna be near me
would you please tell me?
tell me why you hate me?

Do you hate me because of the color of my skin?
like I'm a disease?
you don't think I have desires?
that I have needs?

We aren't from the same race,
but by soul,
we live in the same world.
You may think I'm nothing,
just push me into the mud,
knowing we both have the same colored blood.
You can't judge me by my appearance,
or by my race,
or even the color on my face.
Say what you want to say,
you can't judge me,
for I didn't choose to exist in the first place.

Racism: prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior.