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Saturday, 22 March 2014
Workshop with Steve Lewis
Thursday 13/03/14
- Musical
Entertainment
- Commedia
dell'arte
- Ballad Opera
- Vaudeville
- Documentary
Theatre
- Musical Play
- Agit Prop
Theatre
- Total Theatre
- Musicals
Steve then ran through certain Brechtian Techniques which
come from epic theatre:
Epic Theatre:
Brecht was against naturalistic
theatre where the audience “hang up their brains
With their hats in the cloakroom.”
The V-effect is to make the spectator
adopt an attitude of inquiry and criticism
in his approach to the incident.
No attempt is made to put the stage (and the audience) in a trance.
Everyday Examples of the V-Effect:
“Witnesses of an accident demonstrating to newcomers how the
victim behaved, a facetious person
imitating a friend's walk”….. Stage Example: “Chinese Theatre”
Aids to achieve this technique:
1. Transposition into the third
person.
2. Transposition into the past.
3. Speaking the stage directions out
loud.”
- “Addressing
the audience direct” as both actor and character.
- Stage “purged
from anything magical”
- Use of half
curtains
- “Making
visible the sources of light”
- Using signs at
the start of scenes
Exercise 1:
1. Instructed to get into a circle and start walking anti clockwise
2. Told to look at someone who
was opposite you
3.
Notice certain
things about their walk such as heel toe, arm swing, eye etc
4. Start slowly mimicking their walk so its
just like theres
Exercise 2:
1. Instructed to walk around the room, half sit down
while the others go first
2. those that go first have to walk around but you
give yourself a purpose for walking such as walking to the bus stop. The people
sitting watch them and have to choose one person they'd like
to mimic their walk.
3. next those who were sitting then stand and start
copying their chosen persons walk. if they copied your walk correctly
you should be able to tell whose mimicking your walk; Siou copied
mine and i guessed it straight away.
4.
repeat it with the
opposite groups.
Exercise 3 - Use of 'Grammelot'
grammelot is speaking gibberish but with meaning its a and sources from Commedia dell'arte, it shows people can communicate without using words. Best way I can discribe it is how they talk in the game Sims, big gestures, different tones and speed in their voice but its not words that come out their mouth.
This exercise was explained to us
after we had gotten into pairs, and labelled yourselves A and B. Alien A
had to try and convince alien B to put on their coat, using nothing but sounds,
alien B had the choice to cooperate or ignore what they
are trying to say, I was parented with Dene (A).
This exercise was strange to do
as i noticed with in everyones partners it did become comical, me and my
partner noticed that and continued with the comicalness. Also i had done
something like this in my first year in level 2, i remember it still being
comical then too.
Exercise 4:
This exercise gave us the a chance to look and try out a scene from Oh What A Lovely War, a scene where the Pierrots are met by the Drill Sergeant. This scene relates to Grammelot as Steve said the Drill Sergeant spoke with such aggression the pierrots couldn't understand, it would be the last word they might catch him saying.
What did I learn?
during this session i learnt a lot
about Epic Theatre which will help me when we come to finally start devising
this play out. I also learnt a lot about Joan Littlewood, Agitprop and Total
Theatre. i learnt about Joan Littlewoods approach to other actors and her attitude
in the way she spoke. Joan didn't want well
train professionals in her shows, she would quite simply tell
them to f off. Which was another important part to joan as she
was so feisty i now understand why she got into trouble with
BBC and MI5.
These things will help me in
my presentation with Balazs as ours is based on Joan, total theatre
and Agitprop.
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