Gestus

Gestus, another Brechtian technique, is a clear character gesture or movement used by the actor that captures a moment or attitude rather than delving into emotion. So every gesture was important. Brecht and his actors studied photographs of the plays in rehearsal to ensure each moment worked effectively. Could the audience tell by the actor’s gestures alone what was happening in the scene?

Bibliography:

BBC. (n.d.). Epic theatre and Brecht. Retrieved February 3, 2015, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/zwmvd2p/revision/7

A combination of gestus and facial expressions and body language is deliberately used to communicate a message to the audience. Actors carefully use GESTUS to provoke debate and educate the audience. 

Features of Epic Theatre 2

Stagecraft:
- A bare stage
- Minimal Stage 
- Minimal lighting 
- Minimal Props 

Everything was indicated that this was theatre, not real life.

It was the completely opposite approach to Naturalism

Role of the Actor:
The role of the actor is to primarily arouse the critical consciousness of the audience members 

The actor should not generate any emotional empathy.

Ways to Alienate

Signs: 
- Big signs were used to designate:
   Obvious stage props 
   Characters
   Places 
   Or to comment on action 

Song:
- Songs were used to break up the scenes 
- To alienate the audience 
- To comment on the action in the play

Generalised Characters:
- As Epic Theatre discouraged audiences from identifying with or becoming too attached to characters, general roles were written.
- Some characters had names but often they were only know as mother, worker etc.

Actor:
- Actors often stepped out of the action to talk directly to the audience.

Historification (word that only exists in epic theatre):
- All events were set in the past
- He didn't want audiences to bring their own contemporary societal conditioning to view the pay
- This was so that audiences would be able to watch and consider critically  

Features of Epic Theatre

- Alienation 
a) He did not want his audience to sympathise with characters on stage.
b) He wanted the audience to feel estranged, separated detached.
c) Breaking the forth wall.

- Narration
a) He wants the audience to feel detached.

- Episodic
a) Containing or consisting of a series of separate parts or events: an episodic narrative.
b) Brecht's plays consisted of short scenes / episodic broken up by narration song and dance.

Linear Structure
A, B, C Structure 
Non-linear Structure 
A, B, A ---> Cyclic Structure.

- No stage illusions
a) Actors moved props around
b) No blackouts for the scene changes - lights were left on
c) Props are minimal
d) Scenes were often augmented with slide projections. 

- Chorus


- Signs


- Song
a) The song does not compliment the mood of the play or scene. 

- Generalisation 

Alienation Practical

Today we had an alienation technique, theres what we did...

- We discarded our old names and adopted a new name.

- The name I choose is Jacqueline (jack - quew - lin), I was a ratchet name. 

The activity was interesting, in realism people have two names. But in this activity the class only had one name, placing a distance between reality and the un-relatable, causing alienation. 
(Criteria B Skill Development)

Brecht's Philosophy

 
Bertolt Brecht
Class Notes:
- He believed theatre should be political.
- He believed that theatre should be used to force people to think.
- He opposed theatre as entertainment or escapism.
- He sought to create the opposite.

- He wanted audiences to leave his plays having learn't something about themselves and the world.
- Brecht lived over a period in history which included both World War, Nazism, the Great Depression, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

- Brecht despised the romantic, the sentimental and the realistic.
- He promoted political theatre. 
- He did not want the audience to accept the play as a form of real life. 
- He wanted the concepts presented to be looked at objectively.

- Brecht created a distinct style called Epic theatre
- It is sometimes referred to as theatre of Alienation
- Brecht had been influenced by many other earlier theatrical practitioners and theatrical styles, even those from Asia.

Personal Notes: 
- Brecht wanted his work to be controversial and instigate thoughts and feeling in the audience.
- We wanted the audience to bring their brains in the performance. 

Unit 2 - Epic Theater

Statement of Inquiry:

By re-designing traditional conventions theatre has the power tom motivate audiences into bring about social change.

Key Concepts:

Change 

Global Context:

*Fairness and Development 

Didactic |dɪˈdaktɪk, dʌɪ-|

Adjective

Intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive: a didactic novel that set out to expose social injustice.

 Bertolt Brecht was one of the most influential practitioner of Epic theatre