Saturday, 22 March 2014

Workshop with Steve Lewis


Thursday 13/03/14



Today we took part in a Workshop, led by Steve Lewis who wrote the edited version of Oh What A Lovely War the Methuen edition. Steve talked us through his own take on Oh What A Lovely War, then gave us some information on theatre Workshop and Joan Littlewood. His take on the genre of the play falls into nine categories;   
  •   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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