Gestus / Gestic Acting

This acting technique, developed by Berthold Brecht, is used by the actor to reveal aspects of a
characters attitude and their role in the story, or the contents of the scene.

Gestus involves movements/gestures that can be used to tell a story, or define the relationship
between two or more characters.

Brecht, during his teaching days, would have his actors study photographs of their own rehearsal of
a play. It was important for the audience to have a clear judgment of a character - Brecht posed the
question: can the audience figure out what was going on in each scene, just by the gestures in the
photographs.

Having researched the premises and point of this exercise, I can practice it myself, in the hopes of
reaching my target of: use gesture to define my intentions at different points throughout the play.
Applying this photograph teaching to my development of Tybalt’s character, I decided to show
people videos (without sound), of the rehearsals, to find out if they know what my intentions are as
Tybalt. The point of this is to find out if my use of body language and gesture are effective at
portraying attitude or what is going on in the scene.

During this scene (Act 1, Scene 5) Tybalt’s intention is to attack Romeo, but his plan back fires when
Capulet stops him and embarrasses him in front of the other party guests. To reveal the shift in
attitude from assertive and aggressive, to embarrassed, I decided that frantic grabbing of my T-shirt
conveys a high level of awkwardness. The scene takes place at a party, so the room is full of guests -
everyone can see Tybalt being belittled by his superior, Capulet. From studying Tybalt’s character,
Tybalt enjoys being the big guy that eveyone is scared of. So when he is made small, in front of an
audience, he would be embarrassed.

This is a huge contrast to Tybalt’s attitude before his confrontation with Capulet. Before hand, I am
waving my knife around as if I am proud of its existence. I use it to point and to cheer as if it is part of
my hand. Brecht would often have his actors using solely one prop to define their character. In this
instance, my one prop is my knife which I believe rather suits Tybalt.

Reflecting on peoples interpretation of Tybalt’s attitude from a soundless video: my excessive use of
gesture, effectively displays both aggression and awkwardness - at different times. At this point, I
have met my target of: use gesture to define my intentions at different points throughout the play. I
believe this, because I went through this Brecht exercise with peers and received their feedback.
However, moving forward, I am modifying this target so that it is: use gesture, as well as posture to
define my intentions at different points throughout the play.