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BRECHT

DESTROYING THE ILLUSION. BRECHT. Do we show real life on stage?. Learning objectives over two lessons Pupils: Must learn Brecht’s basic ideas about theatre Should be able to apply his theories to practical work Could be creative in using these theories. WHAT IS NATURALISM?.

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BRECHT

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  1. DESTROYING THE ILLUSION BRECHT

  2. Do we show real life on stage? • Learning objectives over two lessons • Pupils: • Must learn Brecht’s basic ideas about theatre • Should be able to apply his theories to practical work • Could be creative in using these theories

  3. WHAT IS NATURALISM? • Do soaps show us true life? How?

  4. What are the problems of trying to recreate real life on stage? • You will now improvise a short scene trying to be as naturalistic as possible. • Groups of around 4/5 • Here is the scene…

  5. Feedback • What are the problems? • Now repeat the scene but this time self narrate what is going on. • How did this alter the scene?

  6. WHO IS BRECHT? • Brecht believed that theatre should make people think – not merely for entertainment. • To do this, the audience and actors must not get emotionally involved in what is going on. • Therefore, we must not try to show real life. • Things have to REPRESENT not BECOME

  7. AVOIDING GETTING ATTACHED

  8. It’s all about the story • Brecht believed that an actor must not feel the emotions of the character. You don’t need to in order to tell their story • It is the story that is important not the characters.

  9. Stepping out • Choose a partner. • A teenager asks his parent/parents if he can stay out for the night. It’s near exam time and his parents refuse. The teenager becomes defiant and angry. • Tempted by the goods on offer in a shop a youngster shoplifts a number of them. He is suspected by the shopkeeper, but manages to pass the goods into the bag of an innocent bystander. • An old person makes a bit of trouble and causes embarrassment to the couple who he lives with, one of which is his son or daughter. The old person’s future becomes the subject of a heated discussion. • Use thought-tracking at least two times each.

  10. Is thought-tracking what Brecht would have wanted? • No, thought-tracking is getting you emotionally attached. • You must tell the audience your character’s thoughts by telling them in the third person i.e. • “She thinks he is an idiot. She cannot believe her friend has set her up with him” • When this happens you may take off the costume. • Repeat the exercise again but this narrating on what you are doing in the third person.

  11. WHAT’S THE POINT? • Why is trying to show real life not appropriate on stage? • What techniques can we do to represent a scene? • What do you think Brecht thought the purpose of theatre was?

  12. Why? HE WANTED YOU TO THINK ABOUT WHY SOMETHING WAS HAPPENING NOT WHAT WAS HAPPENING.

  13. Remember these four things Brecht was non-naturalistic He invites a different relationship between actor and audience Both actor and audience are part of an ongoing critical and objective process. He wanted you to think about WHY something was happening. Not what was happening.

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