Evaluation of Performance
In the performance I only have one line; "6 million Jews wasn't enough he should have killed more". I didn't have much of a character to try and embody, I was just a girl on Take Me Out hoping to get a hot date. This made me frustrated as to how to go about performing and in the end I admit that I feel like I lacked a lot of the energy required for our performance. I was very much out of my comfort zone as our piece was improvised and required some dancing, both of which are not my strong points and I have a great lack of confidence in which I am trying to overcome, and therefore felt very self-conscious which I think added to my lack of energy. What I was surprised at was, although marginally, my performance in front of my peers was better I felt than the final performance. I think it surprised me because I was worried about looking stupid in front of them and when I saw my friends in the audience encouraging me I realized I didn't actually care how stupid I looked. Due to my lack of character though I felt like I didn't have much character work to do, again this was frustrating. I felt I could have done much better but I lacked the confidence to put forward my ideas or partake in a role that involved more characterization. This is something I know I need to work on and will try my hardest to break through in the future. My performance in the final performance was not as good because my confidence sunk again and I felt very self-conscious. I know this is a problem and hopefully as the year goes on and I feel more comfortable in the school and in front of my peers I will gradually start to loosen up and allow myself to look as stupid as I want to.
Altogether I feel my group's performance was good. I think it was quite eccentric and out there which is what we were aiming for. It certainly was shocking. For instance one of the lines was:
Adolf Hitler: (to Esme playing a potential date) I have some industrial sized ovens, what would you put in them?
Esme: I would put the homosexuals in them, I can't stand them.
Hitler: Yes good choice good choice.
This shocked our audiences both times round as it was so out there.
I think I was surprised that our performance went as well as it did because I had no idea what the reaction would be like. My personal favourite performance was given by Safia. I felt she stayed true to the Brechtian techniques as she played a character that was very eccentric and stereotypical and she interacted with the audience. My favourite piece was the one with Jacky, Devon, Maya (who filled in for Hana) and Shyanne. I felt they embraced the Brechtian techniques and it was shocking as well as funny.
Thursday, 12 December 2013
Wednesday, 11 December 2013
Performance
We felt that we wanted to provoke our audience and to be true to the Brechtain ideals we know to be of importance to us. In order to do this we needed to play with the audiences specific reaction to certain characters that invoke extreme reactions. In Brechtain terms context is all - in other words the importance lies not just in the characters that you place but also the situation in which you place them. Following the idea of Gestus, if you place a strong character in a completely unexpected situation the effect on an audience can be alienating, but also incredibly powerful and provoking as well. One of our characters was Hitler. Now if Hitler is placed in an environment that you expect to see him in, ie surrounded by members of The Third Reich or giving a speech to the Hitler Youth, the impact is strong but not unexpected. However if a powerful character like Hitler is placed in a totally different situation, like for instance in a dating game like take me out the effect can hopefully be at once disorientating, funny and provocative. If you take another character like Anne Frank whose context one would expect to be with her Jewish family hiding in the family loft hiding from the Nazis and place her in a dating game too, this effect would also be intriguing. Yet if then you put the characters of Hitler and Anne Frank together, as we did at the end of our piece this would dramatically create the contradictory and powerful feelings that Brecht created so successfully with his audiences.
The other huge advantage of using characters such as Hitler and Anne Frank, is that you create a political dialogue within the piece that you can use to deliberately provoke an audience. We attempted to play with the audiences universal attitude towards one character, in this case being the character of Hitler. The context in which we placed him, that of a dating game also provokes a specific response in the audience. Finally the character of Anne Frank can be seen to provoke a universal response from an audience. So, we have a character everyone despises (Hitler), a character everyone sympathies with (Anne Frank), two characters who are also from history, and we placed them in a modern context in a situation everyone recognizes. The audience would naturally expect the hated character to behave in a certain way and to receive his comeuppance. The audience would also expect the heroine to be seen in an entirely positive light. The fact that at the end of the piece the two characters go off together to enjoy their "date" hopefully provokes a plethora of responses. For instance the situation could be seen as funny yet at the same time the audience could almost feel angry that Anne Frank behaved sympathetically towards her historical tormentor. Equally Hitler's behavior could be seen to be surprising and frustrating - we want our villains to behave villainous and not to gain the sympathy of an audience. Or do we? Whatever the response the situation can be seen to be truly dramatic, and the variety of emotions invoked by the action is what drama is all about.
We felt that we wanted to provoke our audience and to be true to the Brechtain ideals we know to be of importance to us. In order to do this we needed to play with the audiences specific reaction to certain characters that invoke extreme reactions. In Brechtain terms context is all - in other words the importance lies not just in the characters that you place but also the situation in which you place them. Following the idea of Gestus, if you place a strong character in a completely unexpected situation the effect on an audience can be alienating, but also incredibly powerful and provoking as well. One of our characters was Hitler. Now if Hitler is placed in an environment that you expect to see him in, ie surrounded by members of The Third Reich or giving a speech to the Hitler Youth, the impact is strong but not unexpected. However if a powerful character like Hitler is placed in a totally different situation, like for instance in a dating game like take me out the effect can hopefully be at once disorientating, funny and provocative. If you take another character like Anne Frank whose context one would expect to be with her Jewish family hiding in the family loft hiding from the Nazis and place her in a dating game too, this effect would also be intriguing. Yet if then you put the characters of Hitler and Anne Frank together, as we did at the end of our piece this would dramatically create the contradictory and powerful feelings that Brecht created so successfully with his audiences.
The other huge advantage of using characters such as Hitler and Anne Frank, is that you create a political dialogue within the piece that you can use to deliberately provoke an audience. We attempted to play with the audiences universal attitude towards one character, in this case being the character of Hitler. The context in which we placed him, that of a dating game also provokes a specific response in the audience. Finally the character of Anne Frank can be seen to provoke a universal response from an audience. So, we have a character everyone despises (Hitler), a character everyone sympathies with (Anne Frank), two characters who are also from history, and we placed them in a modern context in a situation everyone recognizes. The audience would naturally expect the hated character to behave in a certain way and to receive his comeuppance. The audience would also expect the heroine to be seen in an entirely positive light. The fact that at the end of the piece the two characters go off together to enjoy their "date" hopefully provokes a plethora of responses. For instance the situation could be seen as funny yet at the same time the audience could almost feel angry that Anne Frank behaved sympathetically towards her historical tormentor. Equally Hitler's behavior could be seen to be surprising and frustrating - we want our villains to behave villainous and not to gain the sympathy of an audience. Or do we? Whatever the response the situation can be seen to be truly dramatic, and the variety of emotions invoked by the action is what drama is all about.
Tuesday, 3 December 2013
Racist British English Lady with Baby on Tram in Croydon South London
We also performed this in our Protest. Hana played the racist woman in the clip and the rest of us were the public. We performed this to show, however shocking it is, that there are people like this in Britain who agree with the policies of the BNP.
Political Protest
What we had to do: Give a theatrical political protest on something we feel strongly about.
What we chose: Protest against the BNP having two seats in the European Parliament, one in the regional constituency of Yorkshire and the Humber region, and the other in the North West region.
What we did: We (Lucy, Esme, Hana, Khai, Ben and myself) tied ourselves to the railings outside of the main entrance to the school. We held up signs such as 'DO YOU BELIEVE IN AN ALL WHITE BRITAIN?' and 'THE BNP'S VIEWS ARE VERY SIMILAR TO NAZI BELIEFS'.
The BNP is an extreme right-wing political party that centers its policies against immigration. It also believes that Capital Punishment should be re-introduced and it also opposes same-sex marriage. John Tyndall, the man who founded the BNP once proclaimed that "Mein Kampf is my bible." So, if there is any doubt that the BNP is a racist, homophobic and dangerously fascist organisation it can be dispelled by this clear statement of intent. I fundamentally and passionately disagree and oppose every aspect of the BNP and its beliefs. This is the reason behind the need to perform our piece in the way we did.
What we had to do: Give a theatrical political protest on something we feel strongly about.
What we chose: Protest against the BNP having two seats in the European Parliament, one in the regional constituency of Yorkshire and the Humber region, and the other in the North West region.
What we did: We (Lucy, Esme, Hana, Khai, Ben and myself) tied ourselves to the railings outside of the main entrance to the school. We held up signs such as 'DO YOU BELIEVE IN AN ALL WHITE BRITAIN?' and 'THE BNP'S VIEWS ARE VERY SIMILAR TO NAZI BELIEFS'.
The BNP is an extreme right-wing political party that centers its policies against immigration. It also believes that Capital Punishment should be re-introduced and it also opposes same-sex marriage. John Tyndall, the man who founded the BNP once proclaimed that "Mein Kampf is my bible." So, if there is any doubt that the BNP is a racist, homophobic and dangerously fascist organisation it can be dispelled by this clear statement of intent. I fundamentally and passionately disagree and oppose every aspect of the BNP and its beliefs. This is the reason behind the need to perform our piece in the way we did.
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