A Greater Purpose “The theatre was created to tell people the truth about life and the social situation,” says Stella Adler. Theater is unique and intriguing because it blends literary and visual arts to tell a story. Throughout the course, I have learned that understanding aesthetics and sociopolitical history is essential for appreciating and applying theater in the real world. Brechtian and musical theatre styles, such as applying musical theatre in RENT, are effective methods to convey crucial historical and social messages, utilizing theater as a platform outside of the arts and for a greater purpose of positive social change. Brechtian theatre, also known as epic theatre, strives to keep the audience objective and prevents them from …show more content…
A-effect is when “the actor use[s] a somewhat complex technique to detach himself from the character portrayed, encouraging the spectator to look at the play’s situation from such an angle that they became subject to his criticism” (Brecht 125). Gestus is a clear character gesture or movement used by the actor that captures a moment or attitude rather than actually delving into an emotion (Brecht 128). An example of gestus is Mother Courage’s silent scream in the face of her son’s dead body. Her silent scream is perceived to be unrealistic, deeming Mother Courage as a fictional character. The intention to avoid emotional connection leaves the audience judging the characters and their situation, instead of empathizing with …show more content…
I’ve learned to appreciate the beauty of how theater is more than a performance, but rather an art form with nuance and depth. I’ve been introduced to the Brechtian theater style, and I’ve learned more about the musical theatre style. After studying RENT, I am inspired by the various possibilities for theater beyond acting, singing, and dancing. Theater can be used as a form of activism or commemoration. Theater is so much more than a dramatic presentation. Theater can relay a greater purposeful message about society amidst the theatricals on stage. Brechtian and musical theatre styles are two efficient and ideal methods for raising awareness about social phenomenons and issues because Brecht’s style makes the audience think and analyze the purposes and themes, while musical theatre is a medium that communicates those matters to reach large
Musicals are usually known for their upbeat songs, dances, and the lighthearted stories that they tell through the art form known as theatre. What many people don’t know, is that since the beginning of theatre, musicals have dealt with serious social issues that have taken place within our society. Musicals have taken unique approaches in projecting impactful social movements and issues. In the past, musicals have made certain ideals, values, and perspectives easier for the people in society to understand and accept. One of the most prominent theatre production companies to deal with major social issues and that has had influence through their musicals is Rodgers and Hammerstein.
In Dialogue: Theatre of America, Harold Clurman said, “we make theatre out of life” (27), and it was precisely this view that motivated him to help create a uniquely American theatre. Clurman, considered one of the most influential directors of the modern American theatre, had a unique vision of what the American theatre could become. One of the founders of the quintessentially American troupe, the Group Theatre, Clurman was a contemporary of Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg, and even married to Stella Adler for twenty years. At a ceremony honoring Clurman, Elia Kazan stated that Clurman’s “greatest achievement [was] himself” (Harold Clurman: A Life of Theatre). An important figure in our theatrical past, Clurman’s theories on theatre and directing require close attention. In this paper, I will first provide a brief biography of Clurman, second, examine his theories of theatre and directing, and lastly, I will explore his criticisms of the then-contemporary theatre, and draw conclusions to the current state of the Broadway theatre.
When Jonathan Larson and his friend were talking, Larson was given the idea to create a musical based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème. La bohéme is an opera about people in 1800s Paris struggling to find success and suffering from tuberculosis. Each character in Rent is loosely based on characters in Puccini’s La bohème. After structural editings, numerous readings, and focus group previews, the musical Rent opened on February 13, 1996 at the New York Theatre Workshop with a six-week sold out run. Rent follows a year in the lives of Mark Cohen, a struggling Jewish filmmaker, Roger Davis, the hopeful struggling musician with HIV, Mimi Márquez, the club dancer and a drug addict who has HIV, Tom Collins, a gay anarchist and college professor who suffers from AIDS, Angel, a transvestite who suffers from AIDS, Maureen Johnson, a lesbian performance artist, and Joanne Jefferson, the Ivy League lesbian lawyer who is in a relationship with Maureen, in East Village, New York City from Christmas Eve 1989 to Christmas Eve 1990. The protagonists in this musical are the six friends Mark, Roger, Tom, Angel, Maureen, and Joanne and their antagonist is the struggle to survive the hardships of AIDS, HIV, an...
Over the course of his career, Brecht developed the criteria for and conditions needed to create Epic Theatre. The role of the audience can be likened to that of a group of college aged students or intellectuals. Brecht believed in the intelligence of his audience, and their capacity for critical analysis. He detested the trance-like state that an Aristotelian performance can lure the audience into. Plays that idealize life and humanity are appealing to an audience, and this makes it easy for them to identify with the hero, they reach a state of self oblivion. The spectator becomes one with the actor, and experiences the same fantastical climax that is unattainable in real life.
The Brechtian style of performance is a style of theater in which the audience is balanced between two modes of viewership. On the one hand the Brechtian style requires that the audience watch the show engaged emotionally, but not in the classic Aristotelian cathartic way. On the other hand it requires that the audience stay critically active in dealing with the performance, thus, achieving an alienated political and educational response among the members of the audience. Naturally this style of theater produces a conflict of interests in the direction of a show. Should the performance focus on garnering political influence and sway, or should the production be emotionally compelling and relatable, or perhaps a combination of both? In order
Epic plays often relate back to a fable or a historical event (McDonald). This helps the audience relate to the play because they are aware of that subject matter. Brecht wanted his theatrical form to not be sensational by taking away anything that can attract attention. Therefore, he removed the classical view of dramatic theatre and made epic theatre more simple and straight to the point. This is why epic theatre is written in an episodic style-a style where the scenes are detached with one another and end in musical interludes, gestures, or captions (McDonald). It was presented this way to allow the audience to reflect on what is happening and to think critically and to prevent the illusion of reality.The objective was to break all ties with what was being seen. Generally this form of theatre has one character who represents humankind as a whole, someone who also breaks all empathetical connections the audience may have with the actors (McDonald).
Willet, J (1964). Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic. 2nd ed. Methuen: the University of Michigan. p14.
My work proposes a broader view of the theatre-film interface, one that relies on intertextuality as its interpretive method. I believe it is valuable-both pedagogically and theoretically-to ask broad questions about the aesthetic, narrative, and ideological exchanges between the history of theatre and contemporary film and television. For example, this paper will study how the "Chinese Restaurant" episode of the sitcom, Seinfeld, intertextually reworks Samuel Beckett's modernist play, Waiting for Godot. In each text, characters encounter an existential plight as they are forced to wait interminably, and thus confront their powerlessness at the hands of larger social forces. As a pedagogical matter, this connection encourages the students to see academic culture in the guise of having to read Beckett's play for my course, not as foreign and alienating, but instead as continuous with their understanding of leisure activities like watching sitcoms. As a theoretical matter, this intertextual connection allows important ideological matters to come into bold relie...
The 2000s/ 2010s brought in a wave of movie musicals- adapted from the stage shows. These brought new audiences into the theatre world, and for the first time in 20 years, brought a love to some of the timeless musicals. With slightly altered songs to appeal to a newer audience, these films brought in much needed money into the industry, with films including: Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera, Rent, Hairspray, Mamma Mia, Fame- and many more. Together with this, musicals began to push the concept of the songs in them, with a wave of new styles being written. Rap musicals such as ‘Hamilton’ and ‘In The Heights’, Pop musicals including ‘Waitress’ and ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ and Rock musicals of ‘American Idiot’ and ‘Spring Awakening’. Together they pushed boundaries of a ‘traditional’ musical theatre sound, and brought in something never before seen. Due to the influence of ‘Rent’, controversial issues and themes began to be explored more, such as Teen suicide, Murder, Ethnic barriers and everything else, which brought with them, a world of opportunities. It was clear that musical theatre was once again showing for a promising
Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht, (b.1898-d.1956), known commonly as Bertolt Brecht, was a German poet and playwright. One of his major contributions to theatre history was the “alienation effect” (From the German, “Verfremdungseffekt”). Brechtian alienation requires the removal of the “fourth wall.” This is a term that describes the “suspension of disbelief” by the audience that takes place during a performance. It is often thought that the audience looks in on the play’s action through an invisible wall, just as the audience during a performance is focused upon a procenium stage. This is a literal and figurative term. The audience pretends that the characters in the story are actually alive, living in their own world instead of actors performing on a stage. In order for the fourth wall to remain intact, the actors must also, in effect, pretend that the audience does not exist, by staying in character at all times and by not addressing the audience members directly.
In this paper, I will be focusing briefly on my knowledge and understanding of the concept of Applied theatre and one of its theatre form, which is Theatre in Education. The term Applied Theatre is a broad range of dramatic activity carried out by a crowd of diverse bodies and groups.
Willett, John, trans. and ed. Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic. New York: Hill and Wang, 1986.
As a playwright, Brecht is famous for his revolutionary ideas about theatre. Throughout his earlier plays, he experimented with dada and expressionism. However, as his work progressed he developed his own theatrical style and techniques. He schooled actors to alienate themselves from their roles. He created epic theatre in which narrative, montage, self-contained scenes and rational argument were used to create a shock of realisation in the spectator. In order to give the audience a more objective perspective on the action, Brecht promoted a style of acting and staging that created a distancing effect.
The survival of theatre lies in the very nature of humankind: its inner voyeuristic drive. The desire to watch other people dealing with their conflicts and fates challenges as well as reinforces values and the morality of society. The theatre provides an exciting opportunity to watch stories and situations as if they were real life, showing us the truth of our nature.
For thousands of years, people have been arguing that theatre is a dying art form. Many people think theatre is all just cheesy singing and dancing or just boring old Shakespeare, but there is much more to theatre than those two extremes. Theatre is important to our society because it teaches us more about real life than recorded media. Theatre has been around for thousands of years and began as a religious ceremony that evolved into an art form that teaches about the true essence of life. Theatre can incorporate profound, and provocative, observations of the human condition that can transcend time; lessons found in Greek plays can still be relevant to the modern world. People argue that the very essence of theatre is being snuffed out by modern