Blondie Evaluation

Evaluation 

On the day of our performance I believe everyone had 100% energy and commitment to the piece. From the beginning you could feel the excitement in the air and that level of anticipation stayed with us through the whole day.

We done numerous performances throughout the day and we changed some things for example the election process, the timing had to be sharp to keep with the music and add to the effectiveness to the peace.

We also sharpened up our transitions into the different social scenes to allow them to flow easier. It was these little things that made a huge difference to our piece, working as an ensemble to deliver to the best of everyone ability.

I believe our rehearsal performance to the rest of our year went exceptionally well, we found that we as actors saw that the piece was becoming quite mundane and dull due to the amount of times we had rehearsed it but once we got an audience into the space we felt ourselves being enraged with energy and liveliness, we found that there were parts that were comical which we had forgotten about adding to our excitement and wanting to deliver a captivating piece of theatre.

Once the time came to perform in front of our parents we were all very nervous but were also confident as we knew we were capable, we had to remember that when we put on a plaquard we become those characters meaning we embodied the physicality of an old person or a "young lad", pushing our stereotypes with gestus, yet still alienating the audience with our plaquards so they weren't seeing us as a character rather a representation. The point of Brecht is never to become a character only to represent.

I think the pace of the piece went really well, nothing was rushed taking away from it but nothing dragged on either, our timing as a company went really well, we all read eachother's body language and thrived of off one another.

At the beginning of the play we had trouble with the sound but there were only two audience members in the room at this stage, the technical difficulties then manifested through the course of the play but we went on anyway because nothing should stop you from performing even if sound is a major part of your piece which it was.

One thing I think we could have improved on was the tightness of some of our ensemble work, if we made it more synchronised then we as a company would have looked more unified.

Overall i  believe our piece of theatre was a success, it left the audience questioning what they saw and asking themselves if they prejudge people the same way that people did with "Blondie".

"When was the last time you held someone, and registered how precious they truly are?"

Brechtian Methods

Narration and Songs

Using popular songs that other people know but changing the lyrics is a massive Brechtian technique. Song is a major part of our production and includes a lot of this. Learning this was hard for me as I don't enjoy dancing and singing but I know it comes with being an actor so I tried my best to learn it and engage with the performance.

Epic theatre relates and rely's largely on song that "interrupts"at key junctions to get the message across to the audience in a more influential manner, one that will relate to the audience.  

The point of Brecht's narration technique was not to add more emotion to what the audience were watching, but just as another means of narration, it can also be used to juxtapose certain situations. For example in our piece we had a scene about Hitler and his evil ways being narrated in a voice like it was a children's book. Those two forms do not go together yet we put them together to distance the audience from any characters and emotion they might begin feeling. 


Alienation Technique 

Alienation technique can be most astutely translated to "making strange effect" and it's goal is to make the familiar become unfamiliar, to strip something back to it's bare minimum to the point where it is barely recognisable. The aim is to make every day casual events, become "Epic". This technique was steadily poduced by Brecht in the 1920s/30s, it forces the audience to defamiliarise themself with the situation they are presented with and see deeper into the social and political context of it. It, "estranges" us.

We used this a lot in our piece, by using human bodies as props and furniture, the audience weren't allowed to feel comfortable and get into the scene, they were forced to realise this is a person pretending to be something else. 

Brecht didn't appreciate the realm of escapism produced by most theatre makers, it's heightened sense of emotion was seen by Brecht of a way to hide from reality and not face up to the truths of society. Brecht dismantled the illusion of conventional plays by making an emotional disconnect between the actors, characters and audience. Brecht believed that only once you took emotion out of it, you could then truly judge a performance on what you have seen and question society's morals. 

Didactism 

di-dac-tic; 
adjective 

1. Intended for instruction; instructive teaching. 
2. The art or science of teaching. 

Brechts plays are didactic, he intends to teach a moral lesson in his pieces whether it be about politics, society or the economy. Bertolt Brecht's desire to educate the audience and performer is said to have stemmed from his Marxist beliefs. In a lot of his theatre, the dictism lies in a lot of the characters and him being a Marxist, he often seems to portray the "bourgeois" society as wrong. 

Breaking the Fourth Wall

A fourth wall is used in most conventional theatre, It is an imaginary wall that the performers use to block out the audience and pretend as though they are not there.

The audience never acknowledge this wall or the fact that they are being watched, in naturalistic theatre that is, the whole point of it is a suspension of disbelief. Brehct wanted to detract this notion of a fourth wall, he believed in interaction with the audience, asking them into the world of the play as it is made obvious that these characters are not real, hey are merely representations of social characters.

In my opinion, by taking away the fourth way and pushing those boundaries, all it does is open up another route for the audience to be enticed by the action taking place and not to cower away from asking questions about what they are watching, as the actor invites you in the audience should feel obliged to use their brains and not just accept everything shown to them. 

Our piece used the fourth wall most in the closing scene, where Laura began talking to the officers but then went to talk to the audience, yet that was the part of our performance which was naturalistic therefore the two forms of acting juxtaposed itself to create a really effective moment on stage. The audience were allowed to become emotional during the scenes of "A", "B", "C" and "D" but they were still reminded that this was a Brechtian piece of theatre when all four actors removed their plaquards and with it removed the physicality of those characters. 

Isn't all theatre political ?

Get Political 

It could be argued that theatre is political as all theatre should leave you with some new knowledge that subconsciously make you question what you have just seen but as conventional theatre is made to entertain and not to inform the height of its morals gets lost in the action. 

Childrens theatre is not seen as political yet they have hidden morals in them that teach the children right from wrong, could that noto be seen as political. 

Brecht referred to himself as a marxist until 1956 where he died, but he returned to Germany after World War II. After this him and his wife Helene Weigel who was an actress, decided to out their own theatre group, the world famous "Berlin Ensemble" and were eventually given a state theatre to run.

The Berliner Ensemble is a German Theatre company established by playwright Bertolt Brecht  and his wife, in 1949 in East Berlin. The theatre is constantly influenced and encouraged by various ideas formed over time.

Poverty makes you sad as well as wise. - Brecht 

Brecht: Epic Theatre Video

Spoof Electoral Campaign

 Spoof Electoral Campaign

A part of our performance was to create a spoof electoral campaign, the point of our play was over-exaggerate and almost mock the idea of social media and the way it represents people as well as asking people to ask themselves how they feel about their prejudice ways. 

Blondie's sexuality was exploited and over-exposed in this video as it consisted of several close ups of her lips, thighs and constant hair flicking. It was created to appeal to both men and women by using her feminine qualities to entice us and ask us to vote for her. 

The way the video was edited meant it was very comical and had a light-hearted element to it although it had a deeper message behind it.

Do not fear death so much but rather the inadequate life. - Brecht 

Does Beauty mean Power ?

"Economists have recently confirmed something most of us have known since the third grade, the power of beauty to influence our judgement. Not a real surprise. But it is interesting how easily we seem to forget how our third-grade minds persist into adulthood, and how much they still control our reactions."

The whole basis of our play was about the conception of prejudice minds judging people by what they see at first.  It derived from the stimulus of the killings in Syria and tackles challenging ideas very openly and explicitly. 

If both of these people were both running for 

president in your country, who would you be more likely to chose based on their appearance. You are more inclined to choose the woman as she has a greater sex appeal. She doesn't look to be an "Under-sexed over paid smug middle aged man" which for the majority  of us would mean she's more ratable as a person. She has more in common with us due to her looks. In society we are more inclined to choose looks over personality. So, does beauty = power ?

He who laughs has not yet heard the bad news. - Brecht