Wednesday, 9 December 2015

Evaluation of political theatre plays 8th December 2015. And process.

Our process began on our first lesson when we explored practitioner brect. This allowed us to transition from naturalism to epic theatre.  We looked at techniques such as the v effect and narration; this was useful as we could start thinking early about ways to portray ideas. We then began to develop our play.  Rehearsals wee I my opinion unfocused as people were not paying attention. This made it difficult to devise scenes in groups and as well made the piece harder to pull together.

Making the piece from scratch was very difficult. Everybody had different ideas and ways to show things. There were some members of the class that didn't let others get a word in and it became frustrating to put ideas out. The week before the performance and everything still felt much disorganised. Nobody had learnt there lines and nobody knew the running order or their cues.  This made things more difficult.

On the day of the performance we began with a warm up to connect everybody and focus everybody. I felt that this was extremely helpful and people became more focused. I however needed to leave at 10 as i had an orthodontist appointment. This was difficult for me as it meant I had less rehearsal time however it was something unavoidable. I came back at around 12 and joined back into the group. In the rehearsal I spent my time focusing n the running order. Were props were on stage and lines. This was useful as it meant when it came to the performance I knew when i was on and my cues. 

The piece started to come together after several rehearsals and then it was time for or performance. I felt that everyone had a better energy towards the play and was ready to perform well. We all sat neatly and the game show host were energetic and lively as the audience came in. this set the mood for audience and involved them straight away so they were aware this isn’t a naturalistic play. The iudulge scenes ran well.  I felt like we could have made it more obvious at the start that it was an episodic play however I think the audience eventually understood.  The rice scenes aso ran well. I feel like incorporating lots of different ideas threw the audience slightly. We could have focused in more onto one topic rather than doing everything but in general I was a good focus on everything and we gave everything an equal standpoint and therefore challenged lots of views in the audicene and I feel like even among ourselves we became more educated during the process which s whati feel theatre should encourage and we achieved the aims of making it a political piece.

I felt that my performance was ok in the performance but could have been better. I feel as though I could have developed the character further and done some more characterisation to further the message towards the audience. I remembered m lines along with the other people in my group however I felt our transition comin of stage after laughing was weak.

My lust scene was good however I felt like we were too far forward on the stage so the ‘bosses’  couldn't see the details and if I were to d it again I would consider more the staging before devising the piece. 

brecht and his techniques


Why is Brecht so important?

German playwright Bertolt Brecht playing chess, 1948
Bertolt Brecht was a theatre practitioner .He wanted to make his audience think and famously said that theatre audiences at that time “hang up their brains with their hats in the cloakroom”.Brecht was against cathartic theatre.He wanted his audiences to remain objective and distant from emotional involvement so that they could make considered and rational judgements about any social comment or issues in his work which is why his technique useful for portraying political theatre.  this was referred to as epic theatre.

The ‘v’ effect

verfremdungseffekt. (the v effect) is a technique of alienating the audience whilst keeping their attention. it breaks the fourth wall ( the imaginary wall that keeps the audience spectators ) and makes they participants and engaged.

Narration

narration is used to remind audience they are watching a presentation of a story and not to become invested in the characters emotions but rather the message.

placards

placards are used to give extra information to the audience. they can give information about the characters or story and is again a way of breaking the forth wall

Song and dance

this is another way of reminding the audience they are watching  a play 

Montage

montage is a collection of short contained scence to tell a story in a quick and effective way


Gestus

is a clear character gesture or movement used by the actor that captures a moment or attitude rather than delving into emotion.Gestus is also gesture with social comment.








Tuesday, 1 December 2015

education/ the price of education

our devised scene was about eduaction. we looked at how the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor through the education system. children who go to private schools because they come from wealthy famiys get more attention, more resources and therefore better grades then people who dont have the money to attend private school and go to public schools with less resources and less contact time with teachers. the priavte school children are more likey to get bgetter gbrades and achive more as they will get into better universitys and then better jobs perpetuating the cycle of rich staying rich and poor staying poor and they strong devide created.

our scene looks at both the schools in a very contasting way. the narator sybil looks at the priavte school where there are only two students in a class and a teacher giving us i pads and tutoring us individually. we then transition into a public shcool where there is an overcrowed classroom out of control. there is a nhew book in the class and it the only one the class has. the teacher can no keep control of the class. sybil is commenting on how sad it is and that the audience should send their children to private schools. she then calls us animals at which point we all turn into gorrillas and carry sybil away as this si how the poor are seen form the riches perpective.

The scene shows and exaggerated version of the current system but contines to portray the message to the audience of capitalism and consumerism even within the education system

Lust = sexual extravagance

Our deadly sin is lust = sexual extraegance. we looked at how products are advertised to people and how mundane things that arent in any way sexual is sexualised, such as socks, body lotion ect. we decided to excentuate this and take weetabix which is a very dull breakfast that is a browny colour and advertise it using the teqniques media do in order to show the audience how ridiculous it is. 
we4 start of our advert by talking in seductive voice and telling the audience they need weetabix and then having 3 girls swoon around me eating a bowl of weetabix sexually and saying hurry were almost out suggesting that this cereal will somehow make you more attractive which the advert from lynx does. i also wink and te audience making them feel uncomferble about how sexualised this mundane thing therefore making them consider why things are sexualised in the media, we lust over things that have been advertised to us to make us feel more wantewd and sexual which is a very unhealthy mindset.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqD5SecdNbs - lynx advert

what is our play about?


  • over the top- exaggerated to show ideas.
  • eposidic
  • austerity- diffren cuts 
  • the way the media portrays people
  • how people sell thigns (capitalism)
  • austerity&capitalsism linked
  • consumerism
  • buinsess for profit
  • desire for equality
  • poor people= consumers 
  • freedom of speech and censorship
  • control
  • how much people take and keep-what the point?
  • rich =richer and poor = poorer
  • commentry on the situation of the state 
  • human worth is equal to numbers
  • what we could turn into if we continue in this consumer based society
  • loosing humanity to consumerism
  • humanity
  • its the human that matters no the numbers

Monday, 30 November 2015

politcal protest researcrch

https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/mediarace/mass.htm

http://www.statehornet.com/culture/the-skewed-representation-of-minorities-in-news-media/article_0650be34-6935-11e4-94b3-739ed082ed89.html
http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/long-way-go-minorities-and-media

Ideas for performance

cheesy game show
monoloply
boss and plebs
auction house
capitalism
socialism
focus groups
nhs
7 deadly sin
2 plays- the price and induldence
cuts
austeity
uni fees
the price of education
lust
spin the weel

labels

LABELS_worklight_image4.jpg
labels was a solo performance about a boy raised and born in the uk but from a mixed heritage and background and his experience as an interracial child growing up in the 90s in the uk and the racism he faces on a day to day basis. The piece was not only enlightening but very creative in the way it was performed. The actor kept the audience captivated and involved using brechtian techniques and interesting concepts to portray his story






Political protest evaluation/what went well/what could have been better

our topic: misrepresentation of minority's in the media.

my group for  our protest was sybil, adjei, Daniel, tatenda and myself. When first given the task we had lots of contrasting ideas including police brutality, the tampon tax and the one we finally settled on, misrepresentation of minorities in the media. We chose this topic as it was very topical and controversial and would make people think. We chose several different groups to focus on, white females, black males, Muslim/ Asian ect. Some of our choices we especially topical for the time we did the protest down to the Paris attacks.

We chose to stage our protest in the foyer; this was because we knew it would be a busy area at break time so we would come into contact with the most people. Whilst this was effective it was also difficult because there were lots of different groups in the same area so people were distracted by all the chaos. If we were to do it again i would say we could have done it somewhere not quite as busy such as the small canteen to make more of an impact.

We created posters with facts on them so people could also understand the concept and become more well informed rather then the piece becoming a interactive performance. I felt that this worked well and we could have gone further with this and found more statistics and facts and been shouting them out to people passing who weren’t reading the signs.

For our protest we created the ‘brit school documentary’ where we pulled people aside and interview them asking stereotypical questions for their gender or race and if they didn’t give the correct answers we would scold them and make them look stupid. We also took inspiration from the piece of theatre we saw ‘ labels’ and used labels to label people to their stereo types. This was effective as if offended people so they asked questions and thought about the topic more carefully.

We each took on a different role , Daniel was the plant so if the people we pulled to the side to ‘interview’ for the brit school documentary weren’t understanding the concept we could pull Daniel in and he could play along well and portray the message. Sybil was the makeup artist, she was writing labels for people and ‘white washing’ black people for the camera and also giving them beards and wigs ect to create their stereo types. Tatenda was the interviewer asking the question. I was the camera women and would ask them to act more of a certain stereo type. Adjei also did a similar thing as the sound man asking them to change their voices to sound more like there stereo type.


To improve upon our protest i would say put more research in and make sure the people read and understood what we were protesting before they left. 

270 words about my existance as a human

My name is katie elaine brenson. i was born at the princess royal hospital on the 27th of may 1999. i was raised on  crystal palace park road in south east London with my mum, my dad, my sister Amy and my brother jack. my mum fell  ill with a brain tumour when i was 8 and my dad had an affair when i was 10. my life has been one with ups and downs, i have felt everything and nothing. Education systems made me feel more alone then i ever did and my family isn’t a perfect one. I may be only 16 but i have felt the weight of the world on my shoulders. I am not naive. I am not the ideal child, student or friend. I find it difficult to concentrate in classes and i become frustrated easily. I often get handed the worst set of card i can have but i always try my best with the situation given to me. I am in a happy relationship currently however i have experienced my fair share of arseholes. I have trust issues and prefer solitude most times, and although i like being alone i do not like being lonely. i am a black belt in karate and grade 5 ballet. My favriote food is a chicken korma with pilau rice, i have two cats, honey and Rosie and they keep me company when i am sad, I’m also a total secret nerd.  i found writing about myself difficult because it means i have to look at my life and see if I am truly happy.

What is a protest?

a statement or action expressing disapproval of or objection to something

capitalism

capitalism
ˈkapɪt(ə)lɪz(ə)m/
noun
  1. an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.
    "an era of free-market capitalism"

Austerity

austerity
ɒˈstɛrɪti,ɔːˈstɛrɪti/
noun
  1. 1.
    sternness or severity of manner or attitude.
    "he was noted for his austerity and his authoritarianism"
  2. 2.
    difficult economic conditions created by government measures to reduce public expenditure.
    "the country was subjected to acute economic austerity"