Lesson Notes Session 1

Moody Objects 

We created objects onstage with emotions linked to them such as shy or angry. This exercise could be used as a way of making an object onstage without using props. It incorporated Brecht's aim to make the audience question what they see in front of them. This is because it creates something strange and out of the ordinary for an audience member to look at. As people when we see unusual things or things we do not know or understand we automatically question them.

In this exercise we had to create objects such as a happy toilet or an angry motor bike. In a naturalistic play all objects would be inanimate. By adding an emotion or personality trait to it you are showing the audience that it is not real. This is a vital part of Brecht's theatre genre 'epic' theatre. The idea of this was to have the audience constantly aware that what they were seeing was a play and not to immerse themselves so much in the story and the characters and what was happening but why it was happening too.

While doing this exercise we had to move around the space and get into groups of different numbers each time to form a new object. This added element could help to develop our ability to create work fast and begin to form functioning working relationships with everyone in our group. I found this exercise to be a useful way of understanding how to create something strange onstage. It allowed me to begin to understand Brecht's aims with his style of theatre as opposed to just hearing what it was about. This exercise was challenging in that we didn't have much time to form the objects which made it hard to make them believable. However, when I reflect this was probably a good thing because Brecht didn't want to create believable things onstage he wanted to audience to be aware that they weren’t real. Another part of this which I found difficult was that we didn't as actors have an intention behind the emotion we were showing on the object. We could all improvise the feeling and push in a fake emotion however we couldn't do that in an actual performance. Brecht wanted the audience to think about why things were happening onstage and not why and they can't begin to question it if the actors and director don't know themselves. Of course this was not an issue in the small exercise we did today but I thought it was something I should develop as we progress with our political theatre work.

Daily Tasks

We all got into a space in the room. We had to choose an activity that we did every day. We had to go through it and mime it all out in detail. Then we did it again but we had to speak out everything we did in detail. Explaining every movement and every object, not why we were doing it but what we were doing.

When people spoke through their task it made it so the audience didn’t have to think about what was going on onstage or think about the character. When they mimed it you had to wonder about what they were doing and what objects they were using. The version where we mimed the exercise was closer to naturalism than to epic theatre. As it required to audience to use their mind to think about what was going on onstage not why. Whereas when they spoke through the task we could stop thinking about what they were doing and begin to think why and about how it was happening. This mean as an audience we were becoming more active thinkers as opposed to passively sitting and watching a story or situation unfold.  In a naturalistic play the actors wouldn’t be speaking through their every movement. By having an actor do this you are adding to this unrealistic effect that epic theatre is supposed to have.

The task I chose was putting on my make-up. I had to picture very clearly my bed and my mirror where I do my make-up every day. When I mimed the make-up I found it harder to memorize every single step I would do normally. I would forget to add in every detail. However, when I spoke out loud through everything I was doing I found it easier to be more precise with the movements.

An example of the work we watched was Stuart in our class talked and went through his process of making coffee in the morning, and how the hot water wasn’t on in his flat. He went through every step with extreme detail, right down to the particular type of milk he was using. This meant as an audience member I could picture easily what he was saying because everything he said he was seeing for himself and sharing that with us. This meant I could analyse his situation more. The reason Brecht wants us to do this is because he was a political practitioner and wanted us to question our society. If I incorporate this into when I watched Stuarts piece I could begin to question why he didn’t have hot water on and why he was living in a small flat with a small kitchen that he described, by didn’t he have one of those fancy coffee machines which does all the work for you. This can allow you to gain a deeper understanding or have a more interesting interpretation of the work as opposed to if you had to spend that whole time just trying to work out what was going on.