Lesson 3- Political Protest Evaluation

We performed our political protest in the foyer and set up our space so that we had a board of posters, with statistics and facts, on the wall behind the tory tuck shop. The tory tuck shop was a table with medicines, bandages and blood donors on it, with signs and offers such as ' tory cut special offer' on them. I was the conservative representative who was in charge of the tuck shop, trying to persuade people to buy medicine at extortionately high prices, to make up for the cuts that have been made. I gave people the excuse for the cuts as 'David Cameron needing his holiday this year!' Whilst I tried to con people into buying the medicine, the other people in my group acted as beggars, who were actually supposed to be doctors and nurses, but because of redundancy, salary cuts and budgets being slashed, they had resorted to begging from members of the public. When Sidonie came, having a fit and needing urgent medical attention, the beggars tried to help her by coming to me and trying to get me to give them things with the small amount of money they had raised. I refused saying that the NHS budget wouldn't allow for things to be given away, even if it was an emergency and I tried to clear Sidonie out the way because it would be 'bad press' for the conservatives.

The strengths were that people gave us money because the doctors, who were begging, argued the case strongly enough that the audience felt they should donate. Many members of the audience were intrigued by the tory tuck shop and stopped to listen. They also questioned and argued with the points I was making from a conservative point of view, which is good because the purpose of Brechtian theatre is to get people to question. When we rehearsed we made sure that we had lots of material that lasted about five minutes and that we could repeat. We worked out a smooth way to reset, which was subtle and didn't ruin the piece. I felt confident with the statistics and facts, because I had done my research and I could give proof to back up my answers if anyone questioned me. There was always a crowd and we never had a dead moment, when no one was watching us. The large crowd  gave me energy and motivated me to get my argument across.

I felt that there were a lot of elements that we could have improved on if we had rehearsed for longer and had more time to try out different ideas. There were also things that we hadn't accounted for, such as there being a huge crowd, constantly streaming through the foyer. this meant that it was very noisy and even when I projected my voice, it was very hard to be heard.  I ended up shouting to be heard above the crowd, which meant that I was damaging my voice and it was very painful for the rest of the day. At some points the doctors, who were walking around in the crowd, were very far away from the tuck shop, which meant it was unclear that they were part of the same performance. We didn't get the space we originally wanted, which was to have it in front of the window on the right side of the doors. We wanted this space because we could put posters up in the window and they would have been the main focus, however we got a space with a wall that already had lots of the school's posters on it, which meant our's weren't the main focus. We were doing the same material over and over again in half an hour, so towards the end it was hard to keep the momentum up. 

 

 

 

 

 

Political Protest Final Plan

We are going to have a tory tuck shop, which will have various medicines in it, for ridiculously high prices. I will standing at the tuck shop, representing the Tories, trying to sell people all these drugs, that the NHS can't afford because of cuts that have been made. I'll give reasons for why people should buy the medicines, by using statistics that I've found. I'll dress in a blazer, to give the impression of a politician.
Meanwhile Olivia, Ellie and Gemma will be going around the crowd, in front of the tuck shop, begging for money for the NHS. They will hold cups with 'NHS' labels on them and, although they will look like beggars, they will actually be struggling doctors and nurses, who have had too many cuts made to their departments. I will be trying to move them, because they are bad publicity for the Tories.
About half way through, Sidonie will come in and fall in front of the tuck shop. She will have a fit and the doctors and nurses will rush to help her. they don't have any medicine to give her, so will come to me with the few coins they have in their cups and beg me to give them the drugs for less then I am selling them for. I will refuse, saying that they should have handled their budget more carefully. We will argue, the doctors will be telling me that too much has been cut and I will tell them that the cuts are necessary.
As a consequence of me refusing to help them, Sidonie will die and have to be taken off. I will carry on as if nothing has happened, the doctors will continue to beg, then we will reset.

Behind the tuck shop we will create posters, that give clear statistics of what has been cut and what there is not enough of in the NHS. The posters will have been made for the doctors, in a protest against the conservatives. I will be trying to cover them up, because I don't want the truth to be revealed about how many cuts the conservatives have made.

Props list:

• cups
• coins
• medicine boxes and bottles
• bandages
• fake blood
• aprons for the doctors
• a table for the tuck shop
• posters
• a blazer
• hoddies for the doctors to wear over their aprons when they are begging

Brecht Research

"Art is not a mirror with which to reflect reality but a hammer with which to shape it."

Bertolt Brecht was born in 1898 in Germany. He served in the first world war as a medical orderly and when he returned, disgusted by what he had seen during the war, he went on to pursue a career in theatre. He wrote many plays before the Nazis came to power and formally removed his citizenship. In 1941 Brecht became resident in the USA, whilst back in Germany his plays were being burnt and he was cut off from German theatre. Whilst in exile, Brecht wrote some of his most famous plays, such as The Caucasian Chalk Circle and The Good Woman Of Setzuan. Brecht left the United States in 1947 after having had to give evidence before the House Un-American Activities Committee and returned to Europe. During this time he wrote his most important theoretical work.  By the time of his death in 1956, Brecht had established the Berliner Ensemble and was regarded as one of the greatest theatrical practitioners.

Lesson 2

Gestus -a combination of gesture and gist

Gestus exercises 

We created three freeze frames, the first and last one was seeing a group of soldiers at the end of a war. The middle one was when they saw a dead body and we could decide how they reacted. The freeze frames revealed the soldiers attitude to the end of the war and to the dead body. They allowed the audience to think 'Did the soldiers win or loose?' and 'what was the relationship they had with the dead man, was he a friend or enemy?'  The exercise made me understand why gestus is used, which is because they are an expression of social attitudes, mostly highlighted through a freeze frame, slow motion or highlighted in a different way, like music or lighting. The change of pace during this this expression of attitude is important, because it make the audience re examine what they are looking at. 

Spas- fun
Spas is the fun element of gestus. Brecht has a sense of play in his performance to make them more interesting and engaging. By having a sense of play, he is saying that within all the serious stuff, he wants there to be comedy. He wanted the actors and audience to enjoy themselves, otherwise it would become really dull, covering such serous subject matters. 

The snobs exercise 
The snob exercise was used to demonstrate how and why Brecht uses play in his performances. In the exercise we got into groups of about five, with one person being the  high status character, and the others being their loyal servants. The character of high status would walk around the room, making it clear what the wanted from their servants through gestus, not words. This exercise was fun because the servants had to do things for the other person that they wouldn't normally do and they were being asked to do amusing things, like fan their master or give them a massage. The person in charge could play with what they wanted. In this exercise we were still able to make a political comment, but we used spas to add entertainment.  
This  helped me understand how a comment on society or an individual, can still be translated to the audience, but with the actors having a sense of play, it will add another dimension to the performance and make sure that they don't turn their attention away because of the serious theme. 

Signs to alienate the audience 
In Bercht's plays, there is usually a sign at the beginning of the scene telling the audience what is about to happen.  This takes away the suspense, making sure the audience don't get involved in the unfolding drama. Once they find out what is about to happen, they will look more closely at HOW it happens. The signs are another reminder that all the audience are watching is a made up piece of performance and the main reason they are watching it, is to find out the consequences of the actions and question those actions.  

Political Protest Research

Our political protest is about cuts to the NHS being made by the conservatives. I looked on the internet to do research on our topic and found articles on the subject...

Last year's survey found that social care budgets had been cut by 12% in cash terms under the coalition government, while demand for services had grown by 14%, largely because of the ageing population. Councils are forecasting a £4.3bn black hole in social care funding in England by 2020 (The Guardian, June 2nd 2015)

A cut of £200 million in Local Authority public health budgets which fund many services such as school nursing, screening programmes, and smoking cessation programmes – despite recognition by the boss of NHS England of the need for “a radical upgrade in prevention and public health”.  It is feared that this cut will not only affect preventative and public health services but will also have a serious knock on effect on NHS healthcare services (www.patients4nhs.org.uk )

With mental health beds reduced by 8% since 2010, Winstanley warns there is no time to lose and that without action more people will have to travel miles for a appropriate care. “Even worse, thousands of people, including children, end up in police cells each year because they can’t get the treatment they need,” (The Guardian Wednesday 13th may 2015)

26 different treatments for breast, bowel, prostate and other cancers will cease to be funded from November this year. (The Independent, Friday 4 September 2015)

“If you get rid of support staff, their work does not disappear. Instead, it will mean frontline staff picking up extra paperwork and spending less time with patients." (The Telegraph, 04 Aug 2015)

According to senior health officials; the NHS England are looking at a funding gap in the next financial year of an astonishing £2bn. (www.trisofthealth.co.uk) 

Labour said that health service finances have "deteriorated on the Government's watch"

Stanislavsky and Brecht comparison

Lesson 1

The Verfremdungeffect (The V effect)
The V effect was the technique that Brecht used to alienate and defamiliarise the audience, to make the audience sit up and listen. The aim is to get the audience to see something strange and question it. The V effect reminds the audience that they are watching a play and are watching real life. It makes something that would usually be normal, into something very strange, so that the audience look again and question it. The audience will ask why the thing that is normal,  has been changed into something that it shouldn't be. 


The Moody Objects Exercise 
This exercise involved the cast walking around the space , then getting into groups to create an everyday object, such as a chair, toilet, motorbike etc... Once we had all created the shape with our bodies, we were given an emotion that our object should be feeling. One example was that the motorbike was feeling sexy, which would never happen in real life, but would be the sort of thing used in Brecht's play. The reason this is strange is because objects don't have emotions and being sexy ins't normally associated with motorbikes. Brecht would do this because the audience wouldn't understand why this emotion was being linked to the object, so they would question it. 
This exercise helped me understand how the V effect can be applied to performance and how strange it has to be, to be able to get the audience to sit up and listen. It helped me understand the logic behind Brecht's techniques, because although it may seem silly, it is very effective. 


Exaggerated Gestures- The 'hi' Exercise 

In this exercise we found a normal, every day gesture, such as waving or stretching and exaggerated it so that it was really strange and unfamiliar. We chose to do a wave and say 'hi'.  First we did it how we would normally, then we changed it so that the action was made larger and more surreal. Once we changed the action, the change in voice came naturally. Then we separated into two groups, one half doing the gesture normally, the other doing it strangely. This helped us to see the huge difference between them and showed how effective the exaggerated action is compared to the normal one. It is similar to the moody objects exercise because it shows how something odd and unfamiliar happening on the stage will make the audience pay attention and question the strange things that the actors are doing. 



Brecht's plays 

The actors in Brecht's plays would play more than one character. They would play multiple roles so that the audience wouldn't get too attached or become too invested in one character. There was minimal costume, set and lighting, so that the character could mainly be shown through their physicality. The small amount of costume was only meant to give a hint of the character. All costume changes would happen on stage for the audience to see, as a constant reminder that they were only seeing actors on stage, not real characters. Unlike conventional plays, the audience are lit, just the same as the actors. This means that the audience aren't taken out of the real world and are kept alert and don't feel the actors are in any way different to them. 



Brecht's Characters Exercise 
This exercise was used to help us understand why and how Brecht made his characters into very stereotypical, caricatures. The exercise involved us getting into pairs, one becoming an old man, the other an old woman. We were given their physicality (legs spread and bum out), then as we walked around in our pairs, we decided on what class we were going to be. We used exaggerated physicality to show the class of our character and the story behind our them. This helped me to understand that the reason Brecht used the exaggerated physicality, was to make a bold statement or comment on certain people in society. It also showed me how Brecht used comedy to grab the audience's attention and add fun to such serious subject matters. 

For the next part of the exercise we looked more closely at how physicality reflects status. We split the class up, half of us becoming a male factory owner, the other half a pregnant woman who works at the factory. The given circumstance for both characters was that the factory was being shut down, however the owner didn't care, but the woman did, because she wouldn't be able to provide for her child. Through these two very different reactions, the male character and female character came up with two very different gestures and lines. This highlighted that through voice, gesture and physicality, it is possible to convey a characters status, class, personal story, emotions and outlooks.