Brecht evaluation

When we first got the scene from the script of the Caucasian circle, we decided that we would each just take a random character each and just do a complete read through of the whole script. Once we had discussed what we thought the scene was about, we set roles for everyone in the group.

I was given the roles of first woman, guest and old woman. I decided that each voice would have to be different because with Brecht everything is over the top meaning that if I was multi-rolling, it would have to be made obvious to the audience through my voice that it would be a different voice.

I decided to have my plaque taped to my front as the audience only really sees the front of me. My original idea was to cover up with my hand the roles I wasn't playing so the audience could see who I was playing by looking at the plaque. Although, this idea was good, I should of tried it out before the day of the show as when I was playing the person who's name was in the middle, I had to use both hands to cover-up the other roles. This meant I couldn't actually act at all because I was in a really awkward position and I was also reading off my script in this awkward position making it impossible for the audience to understand what my characters was doing. So instead the names of my characters were just wrote down on the plaque leaving the audience to guess the role I was playing.

I'm glad that we tried Brecht out because it is a different style of theatre that I haven't studied before. Although I do like over the top type of theatre sometimes, I don't want to do Brecht again because I didn't actually really like the scene that we did and I felt like the minimal props make the show look cheap and boring. I'm not saying a show needs a bug set for it to be important, I just at least expect some props. Also, I like it when the audience becomes emotionally attached to the characters so if anything does go wrong, the audience feels sorry for them. I also think that a character should wear a proper costume, even if it's scaled down to what it's actually meant to represent. I personally hope that I never have to do Brecht again. I can see why some would like him but I personally think that he goes too far with going the opposite to naturalistic theatre.

Brecht Workshop

Brecht was born in 1898 and was a medic. He then studied drama at  Munich University (where he studied to become a medic). He moved to Germany in 1925 to start a career in theatre  In 1933, with the rise of Hitler, he fled Germany to go to the USA and lost his German citizenship.

He got his American citizenship in 1941 where he decided to be a communist. He got sent to non-American house which led him to flee back to Germany in 1947. Here, he started a theatre company where he voiced what he thought through theatre.

He created something that is now known as epic theatre. At this point in time, naturalistic theatre was very popular but he decided to go completely against it. He wanted to cheer people up from the depressing war and make people think while watching his productions. He also didn't want his audience to connect or care for his characters. He didn't want his audience to feel emotional, he actually wanted the audience to be an emotional distance. He also, decided to break the fourth wall a lot.

Brecht died on 14 August 1956 of a heart attack at the age of 58.

Brecht's Techniques:

• Narration
• Coming out of role
• Speak in stage directions
• Directly address the audience
• Uses plaques/signs
• Multi-rolling
• Minimal costumes, props and sets
• Symbolic props
• Symbolic lighting
• Song and dance
• Montage
• Non-linear narrative
• Gesture representation

Evaluation

What went well: 

Movement

I think that the movement pieces went really well because I thought that not only did they break up the scenes so it wasn't dialogue all the way through, they told part of the story really effectively. I also thought that the cannon effect with the dance went really well as it showed that the groups split up during the mission and it made there be variation during the movement sequences.
Ending

I think the plot twist at the end was really effective as the audience wasn't expecting Jamie to be the leader of the rebel group. This made the audience be surprised and kept them engaged with the story and made the story more interesting.
Team Work

I think that most of the time the group always listened to each other and never spoke over each other. We pretty much made sure that everybody got a day to make sure that everybody's input gets to be into the piece.
Brain Storm

We were really good at brainstorming new ideas when we needed to get a new idea for the plot of a scene. This helped us to create new ideas for the scenes to help with the storyline and develop our characters and plot further.
Experimental with ideas

We were never worried about trying out a new idea and not thinking if we looked stupid or whether it worked or not. We tried it into the scene and if it didn't work, we just decided to cut it out or re-work the idea.
Costumes and props

I feel like that we really thought about the costumes and the props for our piece. We rally thought about what the rebel group would actually wear and then show our individuality through each of our costumes. With the props, we made sure that each person would get a certain type of gun (or tablet for me) it shows what type of person they are. Like Ruby was a sharpshooters meaning that she had two guns. Another example was that I had a tablet as I was the person who was good with computers.

Even Better if:

Used performance space

We could have definitely used the whole performance space next time. We always seem to have gaps at the sides of the stage or in other areas. I think that this is because we didn’t get to rehearse in the rehearsal space many times. I think that next time we could use the performance space more often. Also, I think it would help if we did a full dress and tech rehearsal to make sure that we use all of this space.

Pointless combat

I think that in our piece, we should have put less stage combat in as because sometimes it seemed like we would just start an argument and turn it into a fight just so we could move the story forward. This could sometimes make the audience feel bored as the fighting has been overused. I think that next time we could have drew more of an outline to the scene before trying to devise it.

More to the date scenes

I think that more actual meaning could go into the date scenes because they seemed like they were just fillers to make sure that our piece was long enough. They weren’t really any chemistry or shown any affection to each other in both couples and then they suddenly go on a date. I think that hints would need to be dropped that they like each other before they decided to go on a date.

Fewer distractions

I think that the group could have concentrated much more during rehearsals because we would always be going off topic and talking about other things and not getting through a whole scene and only being able to odd bits and pieces. I think that next time, we could do a rehearsal schedule so we would pre-plan what had to be done that lesson and we wouldn’t be able to go back to that till we ran the show.

Transitions

I think that the transitions during the scene could of have been much smoother and could have been less awkward. I think that we could have used just some transitions of lights rather than it become a blackout and then move onto the next scene. Next time we should spend more time on lighting.

Development of characters

I think that if the characters were more developed, people would actually rather care about them dying rather than just dying and because the audience never actually had a chance to be connected with the characters. I think that next time we should outline the purpose of every character before we start the piece.

Take more risks

I think that we could have taken more risks with our performance. I think we were too worried about making it look cheesy and a bit stupid rather than focusing on the initial ideas that we had at the beginning to make our piece much better than it could have done.

I think that overall, we needed more time and also needed to focus more in rehearsal so that we could have much more done. I think we did well with what we did have on the day and we somehow blagged through it as I think that we all felt under-prepared.

I did feel that with what I contributed to the piece, could have been better but I think what put me off was the fact that at the beginning of our piece I went home and wrote up a whole plan on how we could end the whole devising piece with Jamie killing us all off one by one. When I told the rest of the group my idea, nobody listened and they all talked over me. After that, I didn’t contribute as much as I thought that my ideas weren’t interesting.

Monday 9th February

Today, we attempted to do a full run-through of the performance and I think that we are not ready to perform yet and we need more time. At the end of every scene, we had to redo the scene due to it either not running smoothly or people asking questions so that everything could be clarified and they knew what they were doing. This lead to it not being a proper run-through. This will now mean that the actual performance will be the first full run-through of the show we will have. This means that the scene changes will be harder as we won't know what will come next. Luckily I took a picture of the plot so I can run-through the plot tonight so I remember the order of the scenes.

One advantage of today was that we got to rehearse with our costumes and props for the first time today. This will let us have a general feel for the whole show with props and costumes helping us with the performance as we now know when to pick things up and put them down and where the costume changes will take place.

Costume

For our drama performance, we have decided to go for dark colours for our rebel clothes because they are meant to be a disguise. We also chose this because rebels typically wear dark colours because they are meant to look like outcasts and be able to identify themselves to the general population. The general population will be wearing bright clothes to show a complete contrast to the rebels which so it matches personality wise as there is a complete contrast in personality.

I have decided to go for a black jumper with black jeans and black boots because I don't think that the character would have a hat or a hoody because as he is more of a nerdy character, he doesn't go on the missions. He assists on the missions from the base by telling them what to do. He still wears black though because he is a rebel.

I also play a civilian in the movement mission scene where Jeremy kills me. I have decided to wear a lab coat for this as a lab coat is white which would easily represent a civilian. Also, this will just go over what i'm wearing making it easier to put it on and off as i'm in the scene back as Tim after the movement sequence.

Character Backstory/Description

The Name: Timothy Wood
Nickname: Tim
Age: 28

Job: Tecnology specialist for the revke group

Description:
Tim is the youngest in the group and the smartest when it comes to anything to do with technology but is very under appreciated by the rest of the group and feels really upset on the inside but doesn't let anybody find out about it. He doesn't want to complain because when he complained to Jamie, Jamie killed his family. He is the one at the end of the piece who confronts Jamie and is the first to be killed.

This is the back story of my character which a slightly shortened version will be used for a monologue for the show:
Back story:
I used to be the Head of Technology for Jamie but I got a promotion to Jamie's deputy. I was second in command but I still didn't get to see his face. I may have been the smartest but I was also the wimpiest. They called me a "Bum lick" because of my job. They told me that they shoved the last guy out through bullying and I was next on their list. I went home one day to find out that they'd gone even further, they'd attacked my family. I complained to Jamie and he said that he'd deal with it. It turns out that he ordered them to be tortured and that I should have no weaknesses. He then told me about the rebel group and I was ordered to take them out with a team or I would be next. I couldn't trust him anymore. I made an oath that day that I would one day I would avenge my family. I joined the rebels so I could achieve that but I'm no closer to my goal.

Plot for the show

This is the finalized plot for the show:

I think that the plot for the show looks really good and I think that it's clear to the audience. I think that this devising performance is really good.