Today we actually started blocking our play as well as doing more work on the style of Brecht/epic theatre. We managed to get the basic blocking for act 1 done in the session we had although there will still be adjustments.
Tableau work:
We had a little workshop about slogan tableaus. We had to create a propaganda frame and a reality frame. I was going to suggest the phrase we should use for our reality frame but Katrina got there before me and said the same thing. The phrase "This planet can sustain 1 billion people and there are currently 6 billion people" The propaganda frame was all of us standing in a triangle with proud triumphant faces and stances making it seem as if the amount of people in the world isn't a problem and that it will have no effect, everyone is just fine. The reality frame was everyone being a lot more cramped in and even having some of us much lower and grabbing onto Georgia (who was in the centre) to show how crowded society really is and the difference in status, position, and dependability of everyone in it. After this we were given a word to do the same thing with. "Refugees" was our word and the propaganda frame showed of us standing facing away from the refugees but at the same time they are ALL stealing from us. The reality frame showed people struggling and needing help and begging for it. People turning away and not helping and even people that do help them to show the divisive opinion and that they're still human and need help even though some of them still may have bad motives or want to exploit the help some are offering. This was interesting and showed the contrast between the two. It showed what we could do when portraying a situation with conflicting opinions which fits into "Earthquakes in London" as it has a divisive subject matter, environmental issues. It helps us decide whether the play is judging the issue from one perspective or another. In my opinion the play seems fairly balanced with some characters saying we can't beat nature and others saying we can even though the play write was inspired to write this play after reading a theory about the world being doomed by a climatologist called James Lovelock which I found out from reading an interview from Mike Bartlett himself.
Brecht work:
We went through a sheet with the names of devises used by epic theatre and dramatic theatre. The sheet lists the differences between the two for example dramatic theatre uses plot and epic theatre uses narrative. I initially thought there was no difference between the 2 but I looked into it and found that a plot is a series of events connected to each other where as a narrative is more how those events can be shown or at the very least variations on it. It means that a Brecht play doesn't have to follow a three act structure or even really have plot threads resolved conventionally, they may get cut off at certain points to focus on other things. Earthquakes does this to an extent.
Some of the examples listed are that the audience member should like a spectator/observer rather than feeling like they are involved in the characters journey's or drama. It wants to present an argument rather than making a suggestion which the more passive dramatic theatre would do. Each scene can stand on it's own rather than just setting up another which is generally the case with dramatic theatre. Epic theatre aims more to give a balanced view of the real world rather than give the audience an experience to escape reality.
Earthquakes fits into these by giving the characters opposing or concerning views such as Robert and Steve disagreeing about the fate of the planet and whether we can beat nature. Since each scene is very broken up and intersperse with other it means those individual segments or "Episodes" can be viewed on their own and still most likely get their message across and in my opinion that applies the most to any scene with Robert and Steve.
Blocking:
We managed to block all of act 1 today which was surprising in how fast we did it. Although it's not all the final and complete blocking since some moments such as Jasmines strip tease will need to be done another time and the opening scene with Grace and young Robert. Our staging is catwalks joined by one at the back with section of the catwalks varying in height. I'm not sure whether the height variation was intentional but I really think it works to our advantage since it does give a few more opportunities for staging such as people can us the higher stages as chairs or tables or just stand on them if something like exaggerated status of character will be implemented. If we are in the act then it seems as if we will have to stand there and stay still until it's time for our scene to start. Unless it's changed I have to do this for a while with Daniella. While I know that doping that is difficult from when I had to do it in "Teechers" I know that it looks very impressive from an audience members perspective which is why I'm actually somewhat looking forward to this, it may be hard but the end result will hopefully be worth it. I love when a performer has the ability to lock in and out of place and it's a skill I'd love to have. It fits with the style because it keeps the stage non-naturalistic. It keeps it feeling theatrical and artificial but still being visually appealing if done correctly otherwise it will look sloppy.
19/4/16:
Today since I was not with my class and helping on another college acting project I thought I'd make up for that by doing some research in the time I had. I wanted to link the Brechtian approach we're going with to a play I had done before. During a devising physical theatre project a few months back my group created a play called "Welcome to Roy's", a play about a man's life after he moves to America and opens up his own diner, it follows him throughout his life as he encounters things such as racism and other turmoil that goes on in his diner. Now the feedback given was that our piece was very reminiscent of a Brecht play. We did use some devises of epic theatre such as:
- We used narration. We would have Max playing Roy for all the modern day reflection moments where he looks back on the pat events through out his life. Similar to "Earthquakes", if we took these moments out the play would be linear but since they are they make the play more non linear and disjointed but in a good way.
- We used a projector. W used it to project the dates and pictures of the scene context in the back ground such as for a new years eve party, we put a picture of a bunch of people celebrating and holding up new years eve signs. Also we had a couple of quotes thrown in. For example when all of us were attacking a black man in the 1960's racism scene we have a Martin Luther King Jr quote projected in the background. The scene itself was quite surreal and to have to quote in the background was trying to get the message across in a way that a Brecht play would. We didn't use it enough unfortunately but we still did have a few moments of this.
- We had a non linear time line. Each time period such as either "February 3rd 1976" or "September 11th 2001" seemed very distinctive and were generally separated to focus on a different issue so you could call the "Episodes" like Brecht would. Most of the episodes were broken up by going back to the present with the main character dying and reflecting on these episodes in his life. While we weren't entirely consistent with this as it was abandoned half way through the piece but still used in the first so the time line jumps and weaves in and out of itself.
- We had simple characters. The main character Roy was and most of the characters in it were basically archetypes for the average man or woman as they go through these situations. In the final version of the play they really didn't have any actual traits that stood out too much about their actual characteristics. The fact they can represent the average person going through these events keeps it simple and doesn't mean you can get too invested since there isn't much of them to get invested to so you've just got the drama and themes left.
- We broke the forth wall. There was a scene in which we just broke character and started arguing about the quality of the performance we were doing. I walked out into the audience and even spoke to them while being noticeably unhappy and asking them if they like the show but telling them that I REALLY do not. We used it to also help explain some things in the play encase they were unclear but we still wanted them to be taken out of it. Also the moments where Roy is reflecting on his life are done by Max talking directly to the audience and explaining context for the given moment so still keeping them aware they are an audience.
I will say that after doing the research over this project and style I can easily see why our play was considered to be Brechtian because we did use a fair few of the elements from the style without really knowing it or at least I didn't really know at the time. We were criticised at the time for not utilising some of these devises to there full effect such as inconsistent use of narration and lack of use of the projector. At first I couldn't really see why this was the case but now I definitely can and I feel it would've actually been beneficial to our piece to have known more about epic theatre at the time although I am still proud of the final version of the play we came out with.
21/4/16:
Today I decided to do some research into the themes, more specifically the environmental issues. A major theme is climate change and whether or not it is man made. So I found some arguments that were for and against it's existence. Also I looked into the background of the play itself, what inspired why it adopted the style
For man made:
- Rise in sea level. The sea level in certain areas of the world is rising and is generally believed to be caused by the polar ice caps melting but it's actually more attributed to the change in the levels of gases in the sea. The fact it has gone up in the time man has been polluting more it's a strong correlation.
- Rise in the earth temperature. The temperature has allegedly been steadily rising since the 1800's although does fluctuate with it dipping after the 1970's but then coming back up during the 2000's.
- Rise in the ocean temperature. Since we have been polluting more and the heat and gases are having a harder time to get out of the atmosphere it's absorbed by the ocean so this means that the ocean is getting hotter.
- Shrinking glaciers and ice caps. The polar ice caps are apparently melting very fast and the amount of see ice in general is believed to be decreasing rapidly.
Against Man-made:
- No major changes in earth's temperature since 1997 it has only been a couple of degrees if that and people say that due to the fluctuation in the decades and how there hasn't been much change lately the idea of it being us us unlikely
- Predictions about whether have been proven wrong and were previously used with outdated methods which were less accurate.
Background info research:
According to an interview with Mike Bartlett himself he was inspired to do the play after hearing the theories of a climatologist called James Lovelock who has a very pessimistic view of the future. He believed that we are all doomed and that saving the planet is now "Beyond our ability" and that we should just stop trying since it's just delaying the inevitable. The damage is done. Also the fact that he thought that most plays with environmental issues were a bit on the preachy side and didn't really connect with how it would affect real and generally grounded people so he wanted to do just that and that was what got him started. The Weimar republic being a period a period where Germany tried to ignore there financial troubles and began printing their own money they made excess of it and the money became practically worthless very quickly. So we are all trying to say things will get better but really whatever we do won't really help at this point.
Mike Bartlett thinks that the company he is with had quite an epic theatre style to start with but this time thought the Brecthian approach would have a greater impact and he said that he wanted to challenge the audience and make them think about it. In contrast to his play "Cock" which had no set according to the scripts stage directions, this play had the directions to fill the stage with as much set as possible for two reasons, one was to hammer in the theme of excess and consumerism that is an an underline throughout but also he used it as a tool to help create the sense of scope that fits with the epic style. It may have been distracting to the point where it enforced the message while not keeping so it does enforce the V effect of the Brechtian nature and he liked to call it that because he thought it was a more suitable and academic term for it. He also felt that going with a non linear time line and sticking with having almost every scene be self contained and referred to as "Episodes" as Brecht did gave him more freedom since he wasn't bound by a three act structure which can have some limitations. The style also makes it clear that the play is presenting a problem that it wants you to resolve yourself and not so that the characters will do it for you and this was a very important part of deciding to make it Brechtian since that is what he wanted. For them to think about it.
Earthquakes has a huge cast and a significant step up from his others such as "Game" that only had 15 characters and "Contractions" only had 2. Earthquakes all of a sudden had a jump up to 32 so this means that if you do a full cast with one actor per character which is possible and has possibly been done in that production before. Although the fact that the play has so many character to the point where they have to be double cast also goes along with excess theme since there's way too much too cope with.
Also I wanted to mention a play I love that uses projections and how it uses them differently to a different effect. The play is called "Lovesong" and it's by the physical theatre company Frantic Assembly. It has several screen in the background and it projects things such as the sky, birds flying or even just being plain black or any colour really. They use this to set a mood or atmosphere because they want you to be invested in the story and get emotionally involved with the characters and the feel a way to help the audience do that is to help the world feel as real as possible. They do not project information on there or anything to make the themes extremely apparent or blatant. It is very different to how epic theatre presents itself due to their different aims. One is to get you invested and the other wants to stop you getting invested.
This weeks links for research:
http://community.dur.ac.uk/m.p.thompson/brecht.htm
https://headlong.co.uk/media/media/downloads/Earthquakes_in_London_-_Education_Pack.pdf
http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/is-global-warming-real.php
http://www.drroyspencer.com/global-warming-natural-or-manmade/
https://www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/plays-to-perform/Book/1526/13.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/germany/weimarstrengthweakrev1.shtml
No comments:
Post a Comment