Stanislavski

The first practitioner we investigated was Konstantin Stanislavski. Konstantin

Sergeyevich Alekseyev (later changed to Stanislavski) was born in January 1863 and
later died in August 1938 at age 75, throughout his life he created The Moscow Art
Theatre to help actors engage with their inner actor and force out the ‘stiffness’ of
everyday life. Stanislavski investigated Naturalism and how to incorporate it into theatre,
it is incorporated such as: The fourth wall, Use of everyday language, Ordinary people
(that do not fall under the ‘stereotype’ list), realistic views of reality, detailed setting.
The devices that we used in our performances were awkward as it was our first time
showing each other our monologues and researching on each other why we chose each
piece.
(Video 1)
After presenting my DNA research I performed my Leah monologue from the scene
where she is attempting to convince Phil and Cathy not to kill Adam, during the play we
see Leah and Phil’s relationship decay throughout the events.
During the performance, there were unnoticeable mistakes such as messing up lines
and stuttering throughout. During the performance I felt anxious as I was further behind
than my peers, I enjoyed researching into Leah and refreshing my memory on who her
character was. If I could redo the performance, I'd study Leah’s past lines and think
about what she was feeling in the moment and what lead up to her outburst, work on
projection and engaging with the audience.
Brecht
The second practitioner we investigated was Bertolt Brecht. Brecht was born in
Augsburg, Germany in 1898. After serving as a medic in World War I and being
mentally affected by the events of the war he went to Munich and Berlin to study
theatre. Brecht was assumed to be against communism which caused him to be
targeted by intellectuals. How to use the ‘v’ effect (verfremdungseffekt): Breaking the
Fourth Wall, Narration, 3rd person narrating, speaking stage directions, direct address,
placards.
Brechtian devices: multi-roling, split-role, minimal set, props and costume, symbolism,
lighting, song and dance.

Brecht Duologue Final Performance

The play ‘Shopping and Fucking’ written by Mark Ravenhill is a form of in-yer-face
theatre created by Aleks Sierz, in the Brechtian style we used the breaking of the fourth
wall, it is a confrontational style. The play was written in 1996 and conveys strong and
controversial topics such as assault, rape, drug abuse, abuse and sadistic fantasies.
Shopping and Fucking is about a group of ‘messed up’ and ‘deranged’ Individuals. Our
main characters are Mark, a narcissistic drug addict, Lulu and Robbie, Lovers of Mark
and are attempting Mark to not leave and to not get clean, Brian, a sinister TV
advertiser who convinces Lulu to work for him and Gary a 14-year-old boy with sadistic
fantasies.
When preparing for the role of Lulu/Robbie my partner and I looked at different ways to
approach the script as there were 3 characters and only 2 actors, we decided to
combine some of Lulu and Robbie’s lines and change them slightly so that they made
sense we chose to combine these 2 characters lines together as they appeared one
after the other and they both had fewer lines compared to Mark.
When developing characteristics of Lulu/Robbie I investigated my personal life and how
the scene before mine brought out emotional and real emotions that I had to control
before my scene these emotions were triggering and if not controlled in the correct way
could overwhelm me delaying the performance. Running through the performance
brought key factors to the surface, the relationship between Lulu and Robbie is toxic but
with Mark, the relationship is manipulative and is in hopes of guilt-tripping him.

(Video 2)]
This is the close-up of our scratch performance, this helped us show our emotions and
how to change them, even though it was strange to see our every reaction it helped us
as an actor to have the camera there as it reminded us that no matter if we are not
speaking a line we must always act and react to the scene like it’s the first time hearing
it. To improve on this video, I'd focus on always reacting to the situation rather than
whenever I'm not talking.
(Video 3)
In the final performance, I followed my feedback from what to improve on my facial
expressions had improved, after watching the close-up multiple times I wanted to
portray two key emotions, hurt and selfishness. I tried emotional recall to bring up these
emotions and the result was nearly perfect enough. If I could redo the performance, I'd
say use more movement to show I was a drug addict, move around more, think more
into costume and how a drug addict would think and live. To prepare for the role I
watched 'Soft White Underbelly' to help me further my character and see how they
acted and what they sounded like.
(Video 4)
In our Brecht workshops, we investigated gestures and how to change characters when
multi-roling or split-roling, we started at the feet to the top of the head. This was
challenging as we were going off stereotypes and had to be completely still. if I could
redo the workshop again, I would be more confident and try different poses and
positions and try to be less uncomfortable and realise that performing arts is about
trying something new without feeling judged.
(Video 5)
In other Brecht workshops we investigated the messages of Brechtian pieces, these
would usually be political to make a change in the audiences' lives. In our group, we
chose racism as it's a modern and continuous event. The message was about a group
of teenagers in a classroom talking about the weekend and how a boy in the class was
mocking a coloured boy who had been stabbed that weekend, the teenagers then divide
themselves and we see each sides feelings towards the situation. Using placards and
freezes. To further this, I would have investigated each character's connection towards
the boy who was killed and how it took a toll on the characters.

Artaud
The third and my personal favourite practitioner we looked at was Antion Artaud
(Antoine-Marie-Joseph Artaud) born on September 4th, 1896, In Marseille, France. He
was a part of the surrealist movement and replace the classical French theatre with ‘The
Theatre of Cruelty’ he intended to make people ‘set free’ the human subconscious and
reveal the ‘man’ to themselves. Artaud wanted to ‘awaken the double’ within oneself.
Putting actors through (imaginary) extreme situations like being in a fire, tsunami, gusts
of wind. He believed this would show one’s true self by being so scared that they would
be forced to bring out their true self. Artaud wanted to push the actors to their limits, to
the point where it wasn’t acting anymore it was an exhausted and desperate fight for the
end goal.
Artaud’s practise was all about engaging the five senses. Lighting, gestures, sounds,
unusual scenery. He thought that what the audience saw was more important than what
they heard, lighting and scenery were more important than lines. He wanted to shock
the audience and leave then expecting the unexpected.
Throughout his life he dealt with addiction his whole life of opium and heroin. It is
thought that what Artaud saw was reflected in his work, being sensory driven.
His techniques were: sensory driven, visual poetry, creating a ‘dream like world’, high
level of audience interaction, stimulating the five senses, encourage cruelty, don’t be
afraid to scare the audience.
(Video 6)
We were asked to turn our Brechtian piece into an Artaud style piece. We investigated
lighting and how to display each character's emotion on stage. We thought about colour
theory and what each colour would symbolize, we ended up deciding on the colour red
to portray the blood and severity of the event. To save triggering the audience we
decided to put sounds of agony and hurt. And each freezer would have a spotlight to
show the freezes are happening at the same time as each other. We decided to do the
freezes as the audience couldn’t hear what each conversation was about and were both
equally important. Over Deandre’s character would be a blue hued spotlight to show
sorrow and loss. If I could bring up this idea again, I think id work on turning the idea
into Brechtian / Artaudian with the dream like setting but also with the political event.