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 …show more content…
The audience was actively engaged and never allowed to critically take a backseat unless it was to physically take a break. However, for as long as one could endure the four-hour, no intermission opera, one was not allowed to be without an opinion on what one was being presented. One particular way in which the show alienated its audience is in its manipulation of time and action. Most directors tell their actors and their production team to make sure that the action of a scene is always being played on and to sometimes be more efficient in getting to that objective. In Einstein on the Beach, the show purposefully plays action in the slowest possible way or even sometimes without any purposeful action at all. For example, in the scene titled “I Feel the Earth Move”, an enormous, flat, bar of light shone across the stage brightly lit while a woman sang from within the pit. For the next fifteen to twenty minutes all that happened were the one song being sang and the giant bar of light moving from a horizontal position to a vertical position. Once the horizontal bar had reached its vertical position it was flown out of the stage up into the rafters for another fifteen to twenty …show more content…
In a recent performance of the two-man murder mystery at the Geffen playhouse entitled, Murder For Two, the show actively breaks the illusion of the fourth wall by addressing the audience throughout the performance. For example, one of the two actors, who plays multiple characters, breaks character and the fourth wall in order to address the audience when sound effects for a ringing phone are played. In the plays world, its simply the phone of the second actor’s character who is trying to receive a phone call to advance the plot, but in the audience’s world for a split second it seems like the noise is embarrassingly coming from a member of the house. This created some of the funniest moments of the show because of how separate the moment was from the play’s reality. It had such an effective response from the audience simply put, because it was more poignant about the world’s infatuation with cell phone usage than the content of the play, which was purposefully implausible and unbelievable. A choice like this could not be made without directly addressing the audience’s world politically; otherwise it simply would not get a laugh. Whether or not the audience continues to use their phone in public places, the audience, in that moment, took a critical look at their societal state and laughed at it. True Brechtian Theater encapsulates all genres and emotions with the political and
Throughout the piece, we see the use of audience as active participants to amplify the didactic message of the play. In the literature we see many instances where the author uses this cognitive distancing as a way to disrupt the stage illusion and make the audience active members of the play. Forcing the audience into an analytical standpoint as opposed to passively accepting whats happening in their conscious minds. This occurs time and time again in the fourth act of the play. The characters repeatedly break down the fourth wall and engage the audience with open participation. We see this in the quotation from the end of the fourth Act of the play:
Pause for a second and think about a play or musical that you have seen. Consider the plot, whether you liked it or not and if the experience was positive or negative. Think about the characters, the costumes, and the emotions that were emitted. The discourse community of theatre is unique in the way that it is so complex and there are many different parts that ultimately come together to create a dynamic whole. The term discourse community is rather broad, but John Swales in his article “The Concept of Discourse Community” gives six characteristics that define it. Swales lists them saying,
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.
Prior to the beginning of the performance, the audience was reminded to turn off their cell phones. The audience was also expected to remain quiet and seated throughout the entirety of the play. During the performance, although the audience was never formally addressed, I felt as though I was a part of the drama that was unraveling. What I found interesting was that while watching Disgraced I had to constantly remind myself that it was a performance. That was not the case when I was watching Chicago. While viewing Chicago, I was in the comfort of my own home and was watching it on my laptop with the headphones plugged in. At no point during the film did I feel like the actors were addressing me, however the facial expressions of the screen actors were much more elaborate and vivid. Although there were differences between the stage and screen productions, Director Anderson was able to slightly blur the boundary between stage and screen. The use of longer takes that followed the movements of his actors allows for a stage presence in the
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, ultimately reconfiguring the genre and conveying his central theme; a society rendered immobile at the will of a totalitarian regime.
Elizabethan times in the 1600s was a progression for the world of the theater. A period named after Queen Elizabeth I of England, it is from this period that modern day society has its foundation for the entertainment industry. From the violence that was prevalent because of the Black Death, people turned to the theater for its poetry and romance. During this time period, there were two types of theatrical performances that were available for the people’s viewing, comedies or tragedies. These two genres were never really intertwined until the time of William Shakespeare. His play, Romeo and Juliet, is an example of both a comedy and a tragedy. It starts off as a comedy with Romeo weeping like a baby because of his love Rosaline, who did not love him back and ends as a tragedy when Romeo and Juliet, a pair of star crossed lovers, commit suicide because the lost of each other. It was also during Shakespeare’s time that writer were finally acknowledged by the people. Before this time, writers were not considered upper classman. Another group of people that began to rise into a higher social class were the actors. Actresses were not present back then because women were not allowed on stage. It was considered unladylike to have a female actor. Men played all the parts. Theater owners were dependent on actors to make them a profit. Rehearsals for the plays were fairly short, only lasting for about a week. The performances themselves would only show for three to four days.
Plays are a unique form of entertainment and literature, for they typically include scenes in which characters acknowledge and address the audience directly through various monologues and soliloquies. This adds an extra interactive layer of involvement where the audience can influence a character’s decisions. For instance, in Shakespeare’s Othello, the main character, a wily young man ironically dubbed “honest” Iago stops to tell the audience about his true intentions just as often as he tries to undermine other characters. Naturally, Iago would need some release from his deceitful planning. Therefore, the audience, by silently abiding through Iago’s speeches, must be his sidekicks – albeit unwillingly – the only people Iago trusts and feels
Hamlet makes use of the idea of theatrical performance through characters presenting themselves falsely to others – from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern spying on Hamlet to gain favor with the King, to Hamlet himself playing the part of a madman – and through the play within the play, The Mousetrap. This essay will discuss the ways in which Hamlet explores the idea of theatrical performance, ‘acting’, through analysis of the characters and the ‘roles’ they adopt, specifically that of Hamlet and Claudius. The idea, or the theme of theatrical performance is not an uncommon literary element of Shakespearean works, the most famous of which to encompass this idea being As You Like It. This essay will also briefly explore the ways in which Hamlet reminds its audience of the stark difference between daily life and dramatization of life in the theatre.
Looking at the first question, a viewer might suggest that the performance was easier to watch than reading the text was, because the in a performance a viewer could see what was happening than just trying to imagine what was happening as they read the text. For example, at the beginning of the text the “I wish” scene for a reader it might have been easier to watch that seen play out in front of them than to just read it as the text keeps jumping from one character to the next. Looking at the next question of whether the characters are aware of the audience or not, the view would have to look closely at the play itself. They would have to decide the actions of the characters shows that they know they are being
“History exists only when it is “made” by the historian.” (Vince, 65). According to R.W. Vince, it is very easy for researchers to get lost between “fact” and “interpretation” when documenting theatre history. Even when scholars uncover identical pieces of information, they may each have their own personal explanations as to why these facts exist. In turn, readers must exercise critical analysis when studying scholar’s research and not fall into the trap of viewing history from the author’s perspective. Personally, I believe Leslie Read’s chapter on the “Beginnings of Theatre in Africa and the Americas” is both fact-oriented and assumption-oriented, and must be scrutinized from many angles.
The difference between appearances and reality is also explored through the play-within-a-play, to particularly comic effect. The "rude mechanicals" completely fail to understand the magic of the theatre,
Theatre will always survive in our changing society. It provides us with a mirror of the society within which we live, and where conflicts we experience are acted out on stage before us. It provides us with characters with which we identify with. The audience observes the emotions and actions as they happen and share the experience with the characters in real time.
Into the Woods held the same storyline and morals as Hansel and Gretel, but instead of keeping the story exactly the same, our group changed it to modern times. By adding characters such as Jeffrey Dahmer and games like pokemon go, we were able to show that our play took place in today’s world. Making a play and performing it in front of the class was something that I have never done before, and it came with a lot of challenges. With this in mind, the challenges made me understand and appreciate the art of theatre in a new way.
Guthrie (1995), a renowned personality in the field of theater arts in Europe, wrote in an article that, whatever the author writes as a script, should be enacted by the actor and by that the context of the piece made by the writer will be passed through the audience. Therefore, it is the audience’s responsibility to absorb the message aimed to propagate by the play; and it is seen through their reactions—may be a sentiment of satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
My experience watching a live theatre performance on stage was a fascinating one, most especially since it was my first time. I attended a staged performance of “The History Boys” in a small theatre called “The Little Theatre of Alexandria” at 8:00 pm on Wednesday June 8, 2016 in Alexandria, Virginia. The overall production of the play was a resounding experience for me particularly the performance of the actors and the design of the scene made the play seem real.