Final performance evaluation 'The Most Horrific'

I think our final performance was carried out successfully and was definitely our best performance. Luckily we all took on board the fact that we needed to work on being heard and accidentally talking over each other. The two groups had to keep in tune with each other which proved quite a challenge in the first couple rehearsals, however during the performance we were able to do this.
I feel like my characterisation had improved a lot over the course of a couple of weeks. I really had to get across the idea of a pretentious, snobby media person. I feel like my final performance I definatly kicked my character up a few numbers whereas I may have been at a 5/6 during rehearsals.
The one thing I found slightly difficult was trying to look like I was tuning out as character while being in tune and aware of what was going on as an actor.
We got a good reaction from the audience,  however I think that the other performance groups understood the play more than the friends and parents because obviously they've been working on it as well.

One thing I really liked with Will's group was how they decided to characterise A/B and C/D. The idea of having one person as the higher power feeding all this celebrity gossip,sex and terrorist stories to the public with the subjects that matter being pushed aside I felt really worked,the point of the play was shown very clearly.

The use of music in Sarah's group was done excellently, this really captivated the audience and made them listen to the points the characters were putting across.

Political Protest Evaluation

The research me and my group did on the subject of victim blaming was extremely interesting. I wasn’t fully aware on some of the opinions of others when it came to circumstances of women being raped. Some of the opinions were truly shocking as they blamed women for being raped in the first place. Which put a whole new look on how I felt as a women. This made me feel so much anger towards the people who thought that it was women’s fault when victimized. I turned this anger to passion and used that energy to give a good, believable performance.
My role in the protest was a drunken girl who was wearing revealing clothing. The most popular excuse for rape is “she was too drunk to tell me she didn’t want it” and “she was dressed provocatively so she obviously wanted it” I also had to shout out quotes we had found from our research and I feel this was very effective because it showed the contrast. For most of the performance I was staggering about drunkenly and shouting out the quotes, there were moments were we would all come out of character and repeated the phrase “women are not guilty for the violence committed by men in their body mind and spirit” this took all the acting out for a few seconds and just made people aware that when people are raped it effects them physically mentally and spiritually.
I felt that our performance really got people to listen and question their view on victimizing rape victims. I overheard a conversation being had by onlookers saying they do jump to conclusion when seeing women wearing revealing clothing they automatically assume they are going to get themselves into trouble and they are asking for it. There were a lot of people looking and having their own opinions, one person actually wanted to have a debate on the subject with me, I had to choose between staying in character and getting the message through in performance or breaking character and informing him in more detail in the subject. I decided it would affect the performance and make it look shabby if I suddenly broke character unsynchronized with the other members so I stayed in character but the person found someone else to debate with.
I think we executed our ideas very professionally; we were organized in our preparation and rehearsal. And we considered the audience and all the health and safety hazards that could be in our performance. We were in quite a risky place to perform, on the stairs. We had to be extremely careful when walking up and down and take the audience into consideration by not interfering with their journey too much.
One of the weaknesses I think we had in our performance was that the music was a big part of our performance but it wasn’t quite loud enough. The song was a very popular song that was extremely controversial because it suggested sexual assault as an okay thing. With lyrics such as “what you don’t’ like works”, “let me liberate you”, “do it like it hurts”.  It was one of the things that set the atmosphere for our piece but luckily we managed to pull it off without it.

Not...but

The 'Not..but' technique lets the audience know that the character has many difference choices during the performance, they may differ from what the text is telling them to do and going with what the actor feels is right. It shows the audience that life is much more complicated and layered than what it's usually made out to be, Brecht uses this in his approach to theatre to get the audience questioning how and why thubgs end up the way they are.

During a group exercise we performed a scene from 'the Caucasian chalk circle' and each time we had to make a different decision. Tj one time decided to protect his child, however the next time he decided to save his possessions.

Gestus

In today's lesson we looked into gestus, which is taking a physical gesture and adding an attitude to it. Brecht used this to show the audience simply and quickly what the character was about and what they were like. During the exercise we watched Rhianne walk around with her pelvis pushed out and walking with her feet slightly turned out, like waddling. We all came to the conclusion she was a lazy, tired, sluggish sort of character. Then Simon asked her to put a hand just in front of her stomach, then in a split second it was clear to all of us that she was a pregnant character.

I really love this technique because it is so simple but it shows the audience so much. It gives you a way to communicate with the audience using your body language instead of vocals, this is extremely useful in Brecht's plays politically because it can show difference in social status. It allows characters to get across their idea's to the audience without the actor's having to connect emotionally with their character's situation and just using gestures.

Giving inanimate objects attitudes

A exercise we did today was working on giving inanimate objects personalities and attitudes. By using this we give the audience a idea of the atmosphere and mood on stage. By having a 'sad chair' it could suggest that the chair is old, mistreated and beaten up. By having a 'happy bed' it could suggest that the bed is brand new, treated well and maybe even the attitude of it's owners.
By doing this exercise i developed and understood my physicality much more, i understood how a simple droop of the head or heaviness of the arms can give a whole different picture to the audience. I thought becoming a inanimate object was challenge, let alone one with a mood. But it became much clearer how much easier I thought it would be to portray a 'sad chair'.

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht 

Brecht as born 10th February 1898 in Germany. he was 16 when world war 2 broke out and he enrolled in a medical course in Munich in 1917. Having witnessed the war upfront Brecht was horrified and went to Berlin to pursue and acting career.

Brecht lived in Germany when Hitler was becoming chancellor, Brecht was a pacifist who didn't believe in war so the day after Hitler became chancellor he fled Nazi Germany.
Because Brecht had lived through many experiences that would make a person become very politically opinionated he showed many of his views in his work.

His style of theatre was so influential that it changed how some people approached theatre making forever. They felt that they would need a political message to relate to or teach the audience.
The intention behind the making of Brecht's plays was the complete opposite of naturalism completely. He wanted the audience to know that they are watching a play because he didn't want them to lose the ability to have a opinion on the political views he was trying to get across.