Rehearsing "The Most Horrific"

Tuesday 3rd December 

Today we rehearsed The Most Horrific. We divided into two groups one playing the roles A and B , and the other playing the roles C and D. The two groups allocated their own lines from the charcters amongst their group. 

The idea behind our production is that C and D are pitching ideas for TV/entertainment projects to A and B who are disinterested media executives who have a superficial interest in contemporary news stories which they discuss languidly and with no detail or genuine engagement or understanding.

In the afternoon we developed short scenes that highlighted four of the stories referred to in The Most Horrific:

·         Force feeding in Guantanamo

·         Yarlswood detention centre

·         Refugees on Christmas Island

·         Treatment of gay Ugandans   

Using a variety of articles related to these issues scenes were devleoped which were shared and critiqued by the the group and developed further.
These scenes are all going to be performed as an 'opener' to the whole show and this may happen outside of the performance space itself.

Questions to help with your own blog

·         Evaluate the overall strengths and weaknesses of the rehearsal and your contribution to it

·         What elements of Brechtian theatre are/can be contained in the piece?

·         What do you want to do/achieve in the next rehearsal? Including any ideas to include Brechtian techniques or highlight the politics of the piece further

THE MOST HORRIFIC RESEARCH ARTICLES

Female refugees - Christmas Island

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/asylum-seeker-mothers-on-christmas-island-attempt-suicide-in-bid-to-help-children-20140708-3bl0j.html

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-says-government-will-not-give-in-to-moral-blackmail-over-asylum-seeker-suicide-attempts-20140709-3blh3.html

Guantanamo Force Feeding

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/article1961235.html

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/08/us-legal-challenge-guantanamo-force-feeding



Female Refugees/Yarlswood detention centre

http://refugeewomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/WRWDetained.pdf

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27906730 

http://www.yarlswood.co.uk/

http://www.yarlswood.co.uk/first-days

Homosexuality in Uganda

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/10668168/Being-gay-in-Uganda-they-could-come-and-kill-me-at-any-time.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/u-s-debates-gay-marriage-uganda-considers-death-penalty-homosexuals-prison-families-article-1.433354

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/may/23/ugandan-lesbian-deported-uk-aidah-asaba

Session 3

Fixing the ‘Not…But’ (Exposing the contradictions)

Staging a Brechtian Scene

The ‘Not…But’ technique furthers Brecht’s notion of Gestus in highlighting the essential contradiction within his characters that is ultimately making a greater comment upon the contradictions and injustices within society.

I’m NOT going to do this… BUT I am going to do this…

Exercise 1 - exploring a 'not... but' moment from The Caucasion Chalk Circle

A scene from the play is improvised - the Governors wife receives a message that the palace has been overthrown and revolutionaries are on their way. 

In the play her action is to flee, leaving her son 'Michael'.

What are the other choices she COULD make?

Suggestions included: Stay and fight, take Michael, accept her fate, kill herself, negotiate - there are a number of possibilities and the 'not... but' moment allows us to communicate the choices to an audience.


The actors run the scene again exactly as before but this time including a 'not... but' moment.

The moment might be; a direct address to the audience like an 'aside' to break the 4th wall and describe what they are thinking, it could be a series of gestures acting out the choice. It shows to the audience what the character is NOT going to do, the play tells us BUT I am going to do this. 


It's a technique that exposing contradictions and shows characters are multi-sided not to be taken for granted and demands the audience to look critically at characters and their choices, not to take them got granted.

STAGE A SCENE FROM MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN

Scene 12

Working in groups of 4 or 5.

This is the final scene of the play.  Mother Courage has returned from making her final deal from her war-profiteering, to find that Katrin, whom she has left alone for the first time, is dead.  Katrin was warning the village that the soldiers were coming and so she was killed. 

1)  What attitudes do Mother Courage and the Peasants display? Look for the contradictions of attitude within the scene how can you communicate this?

2)  Create a ‘not…but’ moment where an alternative choice is being considered by the characters – what are the attitudes of all the characters within this moment.

3)  Find the gestic moment within the scene – it should be the moment where attitudes are clearly on display. The moment of gestus will reveal your interpretation of their attitude even though there may be more than one demonstrated. 

4)  How are you going to deliver the title?

Evaluate how successfully you stage the scene - the challenges, what worked, what didn't.

Evaluate any of the scenes the group watched and the way they used Brecht's ideas. 

Session 2

More Brecht .....

• Gestus
• Spass
• Montage

Warm Up - Snobs and Servants

How does this reveal "Gestus"?

Gestus - A gesture, expression, word or phrase that reveals a characters attitude.

Examination of this idea by revisiting a moment from snobs and servants - which recreates a moment from Brecht's play The Caucasian Chalk Circle with the Governor's wife.

Playing snobs and servants during a performance also helps create "spass" - fun on stage - Why might this be important?

Montage

An idea borrowed from film.

The Mother

The Killer

The Mad Woman

create these images, put them in relation to each other what story do they tell? When re-ordering those images how might it change perception or understanding of that story?

What is political theatre?

What Political issues are important to you?

Session 1

Introduction to Bertolt Brecht and some key terms

Verfrmdungseffekt – Strange making, distancing, defamiliarisation

Warm up - "Moody Objects"
Participants create inanimate objects physically then give these an attitude:

Angry - motorbike 
Happy - bed
Depressed - chest of draws
Sad - chair
Proud - chair

When viewed by an audience why are these objects strange? 
What is the effect on the audience?

Making a gesture strange

Simple Character creation

Building a character "outside in". Using opposing points of tension create simple characters.

The old man
The pregnant woman
The 'fat cat'

By using the clues of what we can 'see' of the character what can we tell about them and their social context.
What job might they have/had?
Have they have had and easy or hard life? Why?