Lesson 3

Rehearsal process

I found ‘The Price’ very interesting to work on, and even more fascinating to try and apply Brechtian techniques to.  This is because the play has very blatant subplots, and this by itself breaks the 4^th wall, which makes it even easier to use Brechts own techniques. 

One idea that came into practise that lesson was the reading out of stage directions, we thought that this would help to alienate the audience.  We also had the whole cast visible at all times which helped to reinforce the alienation technique.  We also briefly discussed Lighting techniques and decided that a useful way to perform it would be without any specific lighting.

In this lesson I was placed in a group that would be researching child benefit laws, we read through some articles to gain a greater understanding of the topic, before attempting to write a short scene with dialogue, illustrating the difficulties with the laws at the moment.  Other groups were completing different tasks, one of the groups were finding songs that had anything to do with money, and changing the lyrics so they could be used in the play.  Songs would also be used to alienate the audience.

In this lesson we were also placed into groups for casting, I was placed with four other males, and it was decided that we would become a Baby boy band.

Epic Theatre

http://www.usq.edu.au/artsworx/schoolresources/mothercourage/Brechtian%20Techniques#Epic_Theatre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_theatre

Both these links effectively helped my understanding of 'Epic Theatre' as a whole, the first one even outlines the difference between 'Dramatic Theatre' and 'Epic Theatre'.