Theater Log Book Term 2- December 10th 2013

Going through dress rehearsals today really helped me get fully into my character, as I chose clothing that would suit my type of character 'Anne Frank', and I could respond and react to other characters more truthfully, as it was more believable. The full run through allowed me to understand cues when to come on stage and where to stand. From doing this, the advice my group and I were given was to stand between the gaps in the audience, considering our performance would be performed in a round, this way the audience would be able to see each one of us. Furthermore, I was also advised that during the part where 'Anne Frank' (me) and 'Adolf Hitler' (Danny) went as a pair, there should be dialogue between the two of us rather than me saying straight away 'Oh by the way, I'm Anne Frank', but instead it should be something like- 'A': 'Hello, what is your name?' 'B': 'I'm Anne!' 'A': 'Lovely first name, and what about your last name?' 'B': 'Anne Frank...'. This way made the conversation flow organically rather than just giving away the main part straight away. Additionally, as a class we were advised to really exaggerate everything and not play characters as ourselves, it was important that we could portray this to the audience, so they get the full 'V' effect.

Also, we watched the other classes performances, which allowed me to see how they have interpreted the Brechtian idea, and what techniques they may have used that maybe another group didn't.
The response from the audience during our performance was excellent, they understood the themes of our play because in my opinion as a class we highlighted those themes so the audience could identify it for themselves. I noticed that people said they enjoyed the light humorous tone towards our performance, which made it enjoyable for them to watch. As we wanted to include Bertolt Brecht's techniques in our performance, we included plenty of audience interaction and direct address. And from observing the audience's reactions during our performance, I noticed that some people felt slightly 'weird-ed' out by it, however this technique was strongly liked by the other classmates because they understood and enjoyed the 'verfremdungseffekt' and they pointed out that this technique of breaking the fourth wall was extremely successful in our performance, for example the part where one member from our class went round interviewing the audience whilst they were live on camera on the big screen. Overall, people enjoyed our performance so it was important that as a class we kept the energy up as we did during that run through for the actual performance in front of other people who may not understand the techniques we have been learning about.
The things I enjoyed and noticed during the other two performances was that one of them included a lot of singing which almost made it seem quite like a musical. Brecht included some sort of music in all of his performances, and in this performance it was clearly obvious that they had thought of how they can include that specific technique in an effective way. In addition, I noticed that all of our performances were staged and seated in a different way, but what we all did well was acknowledge the audience at all times, therefore the audience could see us at all times. This is somewhat like the Brechtian 'harsh' theater technique, because everything is created on stage and nothing is hidden. For example, I noticed that in one of the performances, there was a radio which was being controlled by one of the actors.
The class performance that I believe got the question 'Do we become more right wing in hard times' across to the audience was probably the second group which focused more on the media side of politics. I thought this because in their performance it showed how the owners of media companies can create a biased story in order to keep the income rising, and to keep the money for themselves without share. 
Overall, each class interpreted the political theater theme in a different way, as our class focused more on the racial side of politics, whereas the other class focused more on the media side to politics, and the other class focused on the internal life of the public and politicians.

Evaluation:

The overall performance went well because, as a group we all worked together and we knew all of the cues and the structure of the performance which allowed it to flow smoothly without awkward pauses. Furthermore, at all times we acknowledged where our audience was sitting, therefore we all made sure that they could see us at all times. This helped us get our point across to everyone, as nothing was hidden but it was all portrayed on stage, which should have helped them to understand the themes of our production.
One thing that I think was quite challenging was always exaggerating everything and being extremely over the top, however I made sure that during the actual thing I exaggerated my character so that it was in contrast to my actual personality, which explored the Brechtian technique. Also, this was important that the group and I did that, otherwise it wouldn't have been so clear to the audience if we were being serious or not (which probably wouldn't have ended so well)! Another thing that went well in our performance was the use of different transitions between each sketch, this kept the motions between each piece versatile, which was a good way of engaging the audience. Also, at first during our dress rehearsals, as a class we found it hard to believe in the piece that we had devised, therefore the whole performance was at one level, however, we changed this for the actual performance and we believed in our performance, and this way the energy was kept high at all times which kept it interesting for not only the audience but for us, the actors. Each different sketch included different characters which had exaggerated hyperbolic physicality, which worked well in the performance because as actors we really emphasized our choice of actions.   
One thing that could have been improved or introduced to our performance was maybe a slight introduction to what we have been learning in college to give the audience an idea of Brechtian theater, this could have been done in a creative way which maybe included 'Brechtian' ideas, such as audience interaction or maybe being part of the audience or even questioning the audiences knowledge about what 'Brechtian theater' is. I noticed that sometimes the audience were quite shocked at some of the jokes made during our performances which they probably weren't expecting which is what Bertolt Brecht aimed to do, therefore we clearly did this well, however if they maybe got offended during these times maybe it would have helped if there was some sort of Brecht-styled introduction as to what we have been learning.
In conclusion, our performance was successful because as a company of actors we worked well together as a team, and individually we all knew what we had to do to make the performance run well. We all knew what we were trying to get across to the audience and we did this by believing in our production and keeping the overall energy high. We made sure the audience were part of the performance at all times, and alienated from our performance by including several Brechtian techniques, and I believe that we included all of these effectively to get across the themes of our play this term. 

Theatre Log Book Term 2

Today we rehearsed our group sketch several times. However, we came to the decision that we would sing any music that was included in our piece. This is a Brechtian technique, as he preferred diagetic music that was within the scene. He didn't agree with the idea of actors singing and then suddenly talking in role without recognising the change (similar to musical theatre). Therefore, we acknowledged this and decided to sing the theme tune ourselves, however at the beginning we would start off singing it in a really discouraging tone, but then gradually we would get into it and eventually really exaggerate. This helps our characters to keep in the uplifting spirit which relates to the whole sketch, and the gradual rise of the singing eventually builds up to this whole hyperbolic Brechtian styled performance.

In addition, today we watched each of our separate sketches to be analytic and identify how it can be improved. We had an option of which task we wanted to be given during the beginning of our performance. The role I chose was to be one of three people who walk around the performance space holding up large signs for the audience to see.

Here is the difference between 'Epic' Theater and Dramatic Theater. It is important that as a class we can identify the differences, and act out according to what we are focusing on.

Theatre Log Book Term 2

As I'm playing a character born in the 1930's who lived up to the mid 1940's, I did my own research about what type of clothing teenagers would wear during those times. And this helped my to come to with similar ideas as to what costume my character should wear.
These similar styles of clothing made me come to the conclusion that for my role I should wear possibly a patterned dress, which should represent what era my character is from, and who I'm playing before I give it away in the end. 

Theater Log Book Term 2

Our sketch consists of many Brechtian techniques, as we have included audience interaction, switching roles, exaggeration, and using objects throughout our performance.

As a class we spoke about our main ideas that are going to be included in our whole performance, which can later be adapted.

Our whole class performance is going to be performed in a round, therefore as actors we have to acknowledge the audience, and make sure that they can see us at all times, as one of Brecht's ideas was that Theatre should be exposed at all times and there should be no hidden scenes in it. In relation to this, our performance is also going to have as much light as possible when needed, to give the Brechtian theme of being harsh in theatre and that everything on stage is created all by the actors.

At the beginning of the play, three people will come on stage marching with signs in their hands, then Danny has to dress as a Nazi and collect the audience's coats which are later going to be piled up like how Hitler did with the Jewish people. As actors, we are going to watch the audience go to their seats as if they were the ones performing, reversing roles. This is a typical Brecht technique, including the audience as part of a performance.

Afterwards, someone is then going to come in with a bird or angel winds, with a left wing and right wing, which relates to the theme of politics. During this whole entrance/introduction of our performance, there will also be another actor with a microphone commentating subtly on what the audience are doing.

In addition, there will also be someone with a clipboard taking names of audience members. This is a reference to immigration as their person identity is being taken from them, and the names of the audience members can also be mentioned in our sketch, when we refer to the 'single ladies'. This technique distances the audience from the traditional theatre style, because they aren't just sitting back watching a play but they are being mentioned and included in it. As Brechtian style is very over the top and exaggerated, we are going to include a stereotypical foreigner with an exaggerated strong accent selling peanuts. This will alienate the audience as they will probably be confused as to why this is happening in a performance. Then, a group of people get annoyed at the 'peanut man' and he drops the peanuts everywhere.

In contrary, everything that 'fat', 'thin', and 'slim' (the 3 men played by Khai, Ben and Michael) need, will be prepared on stage. This Brechtian technique will show the audience that everything that is about to be shown has no special requirements and has all been prepared by the actors, and the audience will see everything. After all this is done, we will then applaud the audience which is almost reversing the roles of the performers and the audience.

There is then going to be an audience intervention where at the end another person (not part of the actual performance) will then say his opinions of the performance, opposing everything we would have just shown. Then we will grab him and tie him with the 3 boys on the chairs in the middle of the stage in which we will then begin singing our chosen song, as we gradually leave the performance space in darkness with the actors and audience.