Brecht Vs. Stanislavski.
To move away from naturalism Brecht methods differs from Stanislavski's in many ways. In order to achieve a un-natiuralistic performance and create an audience that are critical on the play rather than be emotionally attached to the play. Some of these differences between the two practitioner's methods that create these two opposite effects are; Events being episodic, Where the actors go and having a 4th wall.
The two practitioners play about with the order of the events during the play, whether they are episodic or linear. Brecht chose to order his events episodically, meaning that the book may not follow on from the previous scene, but jump about in time. This could be done through flashbacks, snippets of
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The audience would be spoken to by someone, and they would watch the scene and then they would see the actors become someone else and so that image of that poor girl, quickly goes away because there is nothing to remind you of her. It's quite simple how Brecht works. His costumes are usually all black with loads of layers and just a few things that will differentiate each of the actor's characters, maybe a different coloured scarf. Brecht's plays have a purpose, which is to educate the audience, and it normally revolved around political issues at the time. Which of course was the world war II. Brecht was being vocal in his plays because he wanted to give people the chance to decide for themselves about the current situations. His plays would tell both sides of the arguments, while stripping it of it's biased opinions and emotional value. Leaving the raw performance to shock the audience into leaving the theatre with their own opinions.
Now even though all the political values of the play makes it sound very serious and realistic they actually weren't. Brecht transformed the political decisions at the time into a different scenario, often mimicking the upper class status people. And having morals in the story. Where as on the other hand you have Stanislaski, who wanted to create a
Graphic depictions develop a strong clarification, which enables the audience to illustrate illusions of reality. Misto illuminates social realism through the use of props such as the motel room; fridge, bed, table and suitcases, creating a realistic scene which also develops stage direction and setting. This intrigues the audience into a “real life” re-enactment developing the feeling of being a part of the play and the reality of war. Misto manipulates our emotions through the use of stage directions exposing a certain mood, mastering characterisation throughout the playwright. This creates an instant connection to the past which adds immediacy to the actions occurring, providing the audience with a profound understanding of Bridie and Sheila. Misto’s clique use of costumes for the women express individuality of Bridie and Sheila, insisting the audience that the two women have respect for themselves and always appear presentable, such as Sheila with her gloves, illuminating the women’s age and era the play was set in. The composer illustrates vivid images to support the theme and context of war. Distinctively visual images represent and secure the audience’s mind and emotions.
The play is episodic. Tension builds throughout each scene so that the audience can see the deeper mystery and bigger
this play thought differently from one and other. That is why this book had a
However, the experience of the spectators was different at this play. The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui was written to produce an experience known as the alienation effect. The alienation effect, in the words of Brecht himself, is “to make the spectator adopt an attitude of inquiry and criticism in his approach to the incident” (Brecht, 136). In other words, Brecht aimed to “separate” the viewer from the plot and sensation of the play in order to allow them to truly understand and analyze the message. In Arturo Ui, Brecht instigated the alienation effect in multiple ways, the first of which was introducing the play. An announcer at the beginning makes it clear to the audience what they are about to see and what the ending will be. The use of an actor within the play teaching Arturo Ui how to act and the theatricality of the words was meant to further alienate the audience. The cast and crew of the SMTD also
To portray these characters and make them real to the audience, as a group we had to use various theatrical techniques, including the Stanislavskian realistic acting methods and we explored and used a variety of different Brechtian techniques. Our chosen form of "Tragedy" was “War Stories", and
Brecht’s political theatre stems from his political views towards communism and the upper class society. Theatre that comments on political issues within society. Brecht began to have a dislike for the capitalist society he was brought up in and wanted more of an equal approach to the world and the people around him. With epic theatre, Brecht wanted it to be both didactic (able to teach others) and dialectic (able to create discussions and ideas). The audience at no time during an epic play can be seen to be in a trance or take what they see on stage for granted. Our performance is reflective of Brecht and his Epic and Political theatre as we address many political topics such as Marxism and the divides between classes and the corruption of the government. We have props such as protest signs and banners to communicate Brecht’s political theatre to the audience. In the first episode, Brown’s Boys, there is a scene where MPs choke and die after ignoring the recession and protesters emerge into the audience chanting that ‘politics is dead’ and ‘they don’t really care about us’ while holding banners saying, ‘politics is dead’ and ‘Gordon Clown’. This was done as it represented politics and the fact the seriousness of the situation was ignored; showing how quickly the issues with the recession spiralled out of control and became something that even the higher up in society were unable
The play has been contemporised. Modern day language is used this makes it easier to understand. Colloquialism of ?sod? and ?bollocks? are used these are words that are often spoken today. Being rewritten to modern day language has really helped me to understand the play more. In my opinion if I was to read the play before it was adapted I don?t think I would of understood it.
In Summary, with these three examples it is shown that the play and the movie contrast quite a bit. Most of the story line and the dialogue were very similar to the original story in the movie but some things were changed, possibly to shorten the story to be able to make
If Arthur Miller had left these scene on the act it would have exposed too much information about what would be coming up next and the readers would not be surprised then with the things that happened in the play. The reader shouldn’t be given the whole information of a play in one act there should be more suspense and exciting things happening on the future acts for the readers to enjoy the play. If the reader already knows how the play is going to end and as they are reading it they realize that it is all being repetitive they would just stop reading the play because there would be no “cliff hanger” for them to get excited about in the continuation of the reading.
How Brecht achieves producing this state of consciousness is more subtle and elegant than the previous technique of having actors walk out with blatant placards to remind the audience that they are watching a play. One of the marks of Brecht’s epic theater is his alienation effect, or “a representation which allows [the audience] to recognize its subject, but at the same time makes it seem unfamiliar” (Brecht 1948, 8).
Brecht was not the sort of writer or director that wanted an exact portrayal from his actors of how he saw his characters. Nor did he expect the audience to take an exact interpretation from he actors. He wanted the audience to draw some sort of moral from the story that would arouse their sense of reason to affect their own
as the story unfolded I couldn't help but compare the situation seen in Berlin during this period to what we are seeing here in U.S. now. As I left the theater I heard a few people muttering my exact sentiments to one another... Even now, the day after I keep thinking back on the play and
my opinion Shakespeare uses the play to show the hypocrisy of the status quo that
The themes of Man’s ability to take action, as well as Destiny and Death in Hamlet, are maintained in Stoppard’s play, but he brings into the text an awareness and understanding of his society, and through these themes, explores different values that were inherent in the 1960s. Man’s ability to take action is an individual’s willingness to accept responsibility for his actions and take control of his life. In Hamlet, Shakespeare uses his characters to show the power a man has when he accepts his purpose, which was preordained by God. Stoppard revises this Elizabethan value through the portrayal of his characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who refuse to take an active role in the running of their life. He reflects on the differences between the societies, and demonstrates the confusion and conflicting beliefs and attitudes of the 1960s as shown in Stoppard’s characters that, out of complete
The Life and Works of Bertolt Brecht In this essay I will consider the life and works of Bertolt Brecht, the famous theatre practitioner who has had such a dramatic impact on our understanding of the theatre and acting. First of all I will give a biography of Brecht because it is important to know the background of his life in order to understand the motives he had for writing and producing plays in the way he did. We will see a direct correlation between events in his life and the plays and techniques that he propagated. I will then move to explore the methods and techniques that Brecht developed, looking at how they came about and who influenced his work.