Sunday, 16 December 2012
Final Performance Evaluation
On the 11th December we performed 'Blondie' to two separate
audiences. The first audience was to our peers at school. I believe that the
performance went well; the comical devices used in the play were spotted by the
audience as they laughed at the appropriate times. However, I believe that the
message behind the play was not seen by the audience. I think this occurred
because we are familiar with them and their main focus was to judge our acting
skills rather than actually watch the play. The second audience we performed
'Blondie' to was the friends and family of the actors taking part. I believe
that their reaction was very different to the first audience as they did not
find the comical devices in the piece as humorous. This may have been because
there were many different age groups in the audience therefore; their idea of
comedy may be different to the younger generations. On the other hand, the
second audience reacted to the message of the play a lot better than the first
audience. At the end of the performance, the audience made no sound and just
looked at the screen displaying the question left with them; I took this as a
success as they were too busy thinking about the performance and its meaning to
applaud the actual performance.
In our performance, we used many Brechtian techniques
successfully. One technique we used was using stereotypical characters from
society and exaggerating their posture and movement even further. An example of
this was when I played a cockney man going for a drink at the pub. To portray
this character clearly to the audience I had slightly lean backwards when
walking and also swing my arms a lot more. I also made my voice sound croaky
(imitating a smokers voice) to show the stereotype. I believe that this was
effective as this technique assisted in disconnecting the audience from the
characters as it is so obviously exaggerated it is almost comical.
Another technique we successfully used which was Brechtian was the
use of narrators. An example of this is the political leaders’ scene (Hitler in
particular). Throughout the Hitler scene a narrator tells the whole story whist
it is being acted out. I believe this was effective as it took away the
seriousness of the topic and allowed the audience to focus on the events taking
place. The also spoke with a storytelling voice as if they were speaking to
children; this put the audience in an uncomfortable situation as they were not
use to seeing history being re told in that way. I believe that this aided in
making the audience focus on the message behind the play as they were
interested in the relevance of this scene and why it is being told in such a
way.
A Brechtian technique we took advantage of in our performance was
the use of multiple actors playing one character at different times. When
taking part in the 'Blondie' scenes, we were assigned tags of what characters
were in the scene. There were 4 characters always on stage and for each
character, roughly 4 actors played them at different times. The tags we were
assigned signified when we were those characters and when the scene was
finished you would remove the tag and leave it where it was found. This was
another Brechtian technique which disconnected the audience from the characters
and the emotions behind them. As the actor playing the character is constantly
changing, it makes it more difficult for the audience to connect with the
characters story as it is made very clear it is not real and they are watching
a performance.
Personally, I feel that the final performance went rather well,
apart from the technical difficulties at the beginning. As an actor I believe
that I did we'll when working together in the ensemble scenes. I believe I took
part very well and the transition from scene to scene was very slick due to my
contribution of improvised dialect before the scene began. I was able to use
this time period and dialect to show the audience what the scene was changing
into which made the piece a lot more clear to them. I believe my scene as boy 1
went according to plan. However, I believe that I could have pushed my
character even further towards the stereotype through movement and body
language. As character A In the 'Blondie' scenes I think that I delivered my
lines effectively although I feel like I could have done more communicating
with my body movement. As a cop, I could have leaned forward to show I was
interrogating them. After this scene I take part in the Bin Laden political
leader scene. I believe that this scene went very well as the audience reacted
in a shocked way which is what we were intending. On the other hand, I believe
I could have put more effort into my acting. When playing a child I could have
pushed the stereotype a lot further to add Gestus technique to the scene.
Although I had many flaws in the performance, they were not big enough to
jeopardise the positive outcome of the performance.
One of my peers, Parris had a very successful performance in the
piece. When taking part in the ensemble scene, his transitions and the use of
his body to create the setting assisted in the piece being slick and
professional. Also, when playing B in the ‘Blondie’ scenes, Parris exaggerated his
movements and changed the way he spoke to almost make a mockery of a woman;
this added Brechtian techniques to our play which disconnected the audience
from the characters and the storyline. Although Parris performed well in the
piece I believe that there were some areas which could have been developed further.
For example, when Parris was playing Bin Laden, I believe that he could have
pushed the character even further. This would of effected the piece in a way
which would have made the audience think about the play in a deeper way; if the
character was extremely exaggerated then the audience would ask why this was
done and possibly make links with the overall message the performance is
attempting to send.
In creating this piece and researching about political theatre, I have
learnt many things. Personally, I believe that political theatre is a place
where you are able to express your views on society regardless whether they are
right or wrong. Political theatre contradicts stereotypical theatre and
challenges the audience, allowing them to react with the actors giving them an
experience that only political theatre can provide. I also feel that political theatre
gives practitioners the opportunity to question humanity and the habits we are surrounded
by. I have seriously enjoyed working on this genre as it is different to
anything I have ever experienced and made me think about theatre in a
completely different aspect.
At the beginning of the term, I was asked the question ‘is all
theatre political?’ my response to this was no they are not as each genre of
theatre tackles ideas and issues in a very different way, whereas political
theatre challenges the ideas and issues. Now that the term is over and I have
been given more information on political theatre, my opinion has changed. I personally
believe that almost every piece of theatre is political. No matter what genre
you are working with, the practitioner has embedded a moral to be learnt or an implicit
meaning behind the piece. The theatre does not have to be political for the
piece to question certain aspects of our lives as most performances do. After
this term I will look at all theatre differently and look deeper into the
performance to try and understand what the piece is really trying to tell the
audience.
Saturday, 15 December 2012
Rehearsal Notes
As our ‘Blondie’ piece is finally put
together fully I believe it shows a clear message to the audience. I believe it
implies to the audience that we constantly judge people from what they look
like and not who they actually but also, that we are ungrateful for all that we
have. After the performance, I believe the audience may discuss why they think
everyone does this including themselves. I also feel that they may reflect on
the positive events which have happened in their life and wonder if they
appreciated the life they have enough.
I believe that the most powerful moment in
the performance is the last monologue said by Blondie. In this monologue she is
explaining why she carried out the genocide of innocent people. At the end of
this monologue she asks a rhetorical question which ends the play. I believe
that this is the most powerful moment as it shows a different side to Blondie
which the audience has never seen before in the play; the end scene leaves the
audience in shock as Blondie justifies her actions and makes the audience
believe and think about what she is saying deeply. My favourite part of the
performance however is the political leader section. This is my favourite
section because it shows a completely inappropriate and opposite side to some
major political leaders. It also highlights certain events in history which are
so difficult to talk about in a childish way. I like this bit because it makes
the audience react in an awkward way as they want to laugh at the comical
elements of the scene however they hold their tongue due to the events the
scene is retelling.
Our performance uses many different Brechtian
techniques to keep the audience disconnected from the characters emotions. For example,
when working in ensembles the change in location is shown on stage and is made
in front of the audience. Also, when Blondie is reciting a speech, we used
GESTUS and the Verfremdungseffekt to disconnect the audience; this consisted of
using exaggerated movement and describing the movements which Blondie was
using. Personally, for the performance I need to develop my characterisation a
lot more during my ensemble scene. I believe I need to exaggerate my character
a lot more and become a lot more stereotypical to ensure the audience are
disconnected.
Protest Evaluation
In small groups,
we took part in a political protest performance. My group focused on the issue
concerning the stereotypes of black youth in modern day society. To challenge
this issue, we created characters for each person in the group who were the complete
opposite of these stereotypes. For example, my character was a gang member who
was actually homosexual. The idea of our protest was to make pour audience
think about the situations black youth are in before they judge them on their
looks or dialect. To do this, each person in the group created a monologue as
their character. Next, we printed out tags which had words which are used to
describe the youth on them. We stuck these tags on our bodies and when
performing the monologue we ripped them off one by one. The audience would approach
us and we would not start our monologue until the audience members came close
enough or tapped the play button we had strapped to our chests. Once our
monologue was finished we would stand in neutral until another audience member
approaches us.
I believe that we
picked this protest idea as every member of our group had African-Caribbean
routes. We were able to relate to this issue as it had meaning to our lives and
we were passionate about this topic; this gave us motivated us to create an
effective protest performance. We did research individually; each person in the
group was given a certain issue concerning about the black youth and we found
certain statistics through the internet and books. We then came back together,
shared our ideas and included each members research in our protest. I believe
that this was successful as our audience consisted of a lot of black youth
which allowed them to relate to the protest and made the performance more
engaging. Also, the surprising situations are characters found themselves in
really made the audience think about what we were saying which made our protest
successful.
I believe that the
tags stuck to our bodies were an effective element of our protest. I believe
this because it was the first thing that the audience noticed and drew them
into our protest. It also included colloquial language which was used a lot by
the majority of our audience which also made them interested in our protest. Another
effective element of our protest was the interaction between us and the
audience. The audience had to come into contact for us to begin our monologues
and when this occurred, we were face to face with them whilst performing them. I
believe this was effective as it really stuck the emotions and issues of our
protest in their mind as it was a lot more interactive than regular theatre. After
our protest the audience reacted in a shocked kind of way. They were unsure
whether to clap or think about what was being said in the protest. Majority of
the audience walked away talking about the separate monologues which shows are
message got across to them.
If I was able to
take part in a political protest again there are certain aspects I would
change. The first element I would change is the location we chose to do our
performance. Personally, I believe there were not enough audience members
around our area so the amount of people watching was limited. Next time, I would
choose a more populated location and also one which is inside so if it is cold
or raining it will not restrict people from seeing our protest. Furthermore, I would
the amount of interaction taking place between my group and the audience. In some
cases, the audience would not know what to do and walk past us causing us to
lose audience members. Next time, I would influence my group to walk around in
a certain perimeter and drag the audience in physically; that way they know we
have begun the protest and they have no choice but to watch it and understand
the meanings behind our protest.
Sunday, 2 December 2012
Short Conversations - Blondie Scenes
The opening scene to our performance consists of a
selection of short social scenes combined together. All of these scenes talk
about why the characters are voting for ‘Blondie’ to be the new prime minister.
We brought these sections to life by creating the different locations using an ensemble
of people. For example, in the first seen I was acting like a rug on the floor
and in the next scene I was a boy talking with his friend. We used slick
transitions in which everyone is moving to create the next location quickly. We
directed this way as Brecht used ensembles in a lot of his pieces to ensure the
audience does not focus on one specific storyline but on the true issues and
meaning behind the piece. It is not possible to focus in an ensemble as many
people are doing different things. In these short scenes we are trying to show
the audience that people voting for Blondie are only doing so because of her
beauty and not her political views. To do so we need to use a lot of sexual
innuendos and mention looks in the scenes which I believe my character has.
Script – I am playing Boy 1
Boy
1 I’m getting to vote
for the first time.
Boy 2 Waste of time.
Boy
1 I just want to
experience it.
Boy 2 You want to experience putting a tick in
a box?
They laugh.
So who you voting for anyway?
Boy
1 The one with the
bangers.
Boy 2 Of course! I suppose we get to see more
of her on the box if she gets in. Yeah vote for her.
They mimic her talking.
When playing
boy 1, I have chosen to speak in a cockney accent and slouch slightly when I move.
I have done this because I have gathered from the language used (‘bangers’)
that this is the way he has been brought up and also, it is a stereotype of
people who are brought up in this way. I have also decided to play my character
as a drunkard as the scene sounds as if he is celebrating voting for the first
time and the stereotypical way which cockneys would celebrate is with a drink
of alcohol.
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