Comparing and Contrasting Brecht and Stanislavski Essays

The triviality of melodrama is so often the theatrical scapegoat that boils the blood of the modern-day critic: the sentimental monologues, the martyred young lovers, the triumphant hero, and the self-indulgent imagery. Melodrama would seem the ultimate taboo; another failed Shakespearean staging or even worse, an opera minus the pretty music. Ironically, Bertolt Brecht, dramatic revolutionary and cynic of all things contrived found promise in the melodramatic presentation. Brecht examined and manipulated the various superficial and spectacular aspects of theatre, establishing a synthesis of entertainment and social criticism as his fundamental goal. Bertolt Brecht employs various facets of melodramatic technique in The Jewish Wife,

I’ll start with Constantin Stanislavski. Stankislavski draws on a point that he liked to see what was going on within the actor, rather than what he was seeing on the outside. He believed that this is what gave the play its life. “To me as a spectator, what was going on inside of you was of much greater interest. Those feelings, drawn from our actual experience, and transferred to our part, are what give life to the play” (Stanislavski 155). Stanislavski also said “…The inner experience came first and was then embodied in an external form” (Stanislavski 155). I believe that internal life does play a big part in acting, as I do also find myself enjoying what is happening to an actor internally. For example, I think it’s extraordinary to see what words do to an

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

Although the history of theatre has been characterized by many great directors, none should be considered as influential as Constantin Stanislavski. At a time when society frowned upon members of a high social class pursuing careers in theatre, Stanislavski maintained the courage to follow his dreams. This paper will begin with a discussion of the early years of Stanislavski’s life, followed by a review of Stanislavski’s career in theatre. Finally, the paper will discuss Stanislavski’s impact on modern theatre direction and why he is viewed as one of the most influential directors in the history of theatrical performance.

Bertolt explored theatre as a forum for political theatre. His perspectives for epic theatre were Marxist and his intention was to present moral problems and reflecting on the social realities. He wanted to do this by hiding the emotions of the character and instead empathizing with the characters and become caught up

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).

The actors started setting up the world before the play officially started. A couple minutes prior to 7:30 pm, the cast started appearing from the entrances and walking around embodying their characters. They were all committed to their parts and interacted with each other and sometimes the audience members as well. There were beggars asking for money, whores complaining about beggars, and fights breaking out in the isles. It was an interesting concept to have them interact with us and it was definitely a Brechtian technique. The actors continued using the idea of Brechtian theatre within the rest of the production as well. Several times, an actor would talk to the audience and acknowledge their presence as if they were also part of the world. Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum even asked the audience to clap and waited for them to do so. The production became interactive and invited the audience to be its own character. The commitment from all of the characters to really go for it and not hold back was another pleasing feature of the production. An example of this, is when Polly Peachum is lying on the floor in her wedding dress and is violent moving her body and arms. It was strange to see, but also an interesting technique to convey

The second part of this essay looks at how the set affects the actor. Something that is very prevalent in almost all of the pictures we see of Stanislavski on stage is his almost cluttered looking stage. Being a fan and believer of Naturalism his goal would be to bring the audience and even the actors into this world he’d created. Having a fully immersive set yields positive and negative effects for the actors.

Stanislavsky regarded theater-production as a genuine attempt obliging devotion, order and respectability. For the duration of his life, he subjected his own particular acting to a procedure of thorough masterful self-examination and reflection. His improvement of an estimated praxis—in which practice is utilized as a method of request and hypothesis as an impetus for imaginative advancement—recognizes him as one of the colossal cutting edge theater professionals.

While we may study drama by reading its text, it is often easy to lose sight of the fact that the playwrights intend for their work to be performed on stage and not simply read in a classroom. In this light, the performance of actors and indeed the production

I really like that Stanislavski understands the interconnectivity between the different arts. He doesn’t just think that theater must follow its very own methods because it is a different type of art than singing or playing an instrument; rather, he uses the fact that they are interconnected under fine arts and uses that within his methods. For example, the notion of muscle tension impeding the creative process is used very much in singing techniques though muscle tension is more directed towards actual physical impairment of the voice rather than mental impairment of one’s creativity.

Emotional Memory: Stanislavsky didn't want his actors to simply duplicate an emotion. He wanted his

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.

Bertolt Brecht was a director and playwright, born on February 10th 1898 in Augsburg Germany. Throughout his life he disagreed strongly with his father’s bourgeois lifestyle, this may have changed his writing technique and powered his political views portrayed in his work. Brecht studied medicine in 1918 at Munich University where he was then appointed a medical orderly during the First World War. Influenced by the monstrosities war brought to his attention, Brecht wrote many poems reflecting his experiences as well as producing his first play titled “Baal” in 1919. Escaping the grip of war, Brecht followed his passion into Bohemian theatre and literature beginning in Munich where he then travelled to Berlin after. Working alongside Erwin Piscator, they cemented the epic theatre theory. Epic Theatre, is a theory that Brecht believed in encouraging the idea that theatre should conform to the reasoning behind it, instead of focussing on the audience’s feelings towards it. Bertolt Brecht’s work conformed to his theory of epic theatre. He wanted his work to be a platform for change and stated how people should “hang up their brains with their hats in the cloakroom”. Naturalistic theatre focused on entertainment to captivate the audience to the extent of forgetting themselves and being involved with the characters they are watching. Emotions felt and released during theatre such as crying, is recognised as catharsis. Brecht was completely against cathartic theatre and believed

‘Gestus’ the core to every Brechtian performance and is a term worldly recognized as the most refined application of semiotic principles to character development. ‘The actor in Brechts theatre does not focus on an individuals inner life but on their Gestus’ (Mumford 1997:156). However, the term is often controversial due to its complexities regarding its numerous interpretations and meanings.