Brecht, V effect, Making a Gesture Strange and Basic Charcterization

In today's lesson we looked at numerous exercises that our chosen practitioner, Brecht used when he was creating his pieces of theatre.

Today I learned a lot about Brecht and realised as to why he created so many political pieces. He lived in an era where Hitler and Nazism was prominent in Germany, his place of birth and he hated it. Knowing this I understood why he decided to make many political plays because he understood that theatre and performance were perfect ways to portray a serious message to an audience. I feel as if this was really helpful to my understanding of political theatre and its power because it made me realise that it is in fact easier to convey your message to a group of people through entertainment.

We used an exercise called the distancing effect or the "V effect", which allows the actor to distance their character from the audience. Brecht first used the term in an essay on "Alienation Effects in Chinese Acting" published in 1936, in which he described it as "playing in such a way that the audience was hindered from simply identifying itself with the characters in the play. Acceptance or rejection of their actions and utterances was meant to take place on a conscious plane, instead of, as hitherto, in the audience's subconscious" I feel after using this exercise, it helped me understand how political theatre was truly effective because I realised that once an audience member is distant from the characters and scenarios in a piece, then it gives them an outside view of the situation and allows them to see what truly is going on. This is good because maybe the audience isn't distant from the character or situation at all but instead in the exact scenario as well but may not have been able to see the true problem from their perspective. I feel that this is what makes political theatre so important because it can actually open the eyes of the oppressed. This means a lot to me as a person because I believe that society as a whole is oppressing the lower classes and it isn't being seen. Therefore the 'V effect' is important for me as a theatre creator so I can actually show my beliefs and what I feel is going on in society.

Secondly, we looked at basic characterization.Firstly, we began with 'moody objects'. This exercise was really good for an actor's physicality and how you can portray something using just your body. I feel that this exercise was good for me personally, because I feel, as an actor I need to work on my physicality a bit more then anything else. Then we did actual characters. This could have been done by doing the most basic of movements and changing your body shape slightly and you would have created a character. Many characters made were archetypal. I believe that if the characters were clear to us then they would be clear to the audience because the characters created were universally recognised. I think that the creation of familiar characters in a play is important because the audience needs to know who is who, obviously. It is important as a theatre maker to establish a character from the offset so the audience isn't confused. In my opinion if the characters aren't established early on then the whole political concept is lost because the audience members will not be able to truly understand what is going on what the message is. Also, I think this exercise benefited me because it helped me focus on body language and how to keep a constant in my character.