Lesson 1

                                                             Lesson 1

At the beginning of the class Ben asked us what Political theatre includes the group responded by saying the following:

-educational

-has a message

-it is current

    -it can be about to opposing sides of an argument for example, labour and conservatives (politics)

    -the practitioner Bertolt Brecht influenced and was apart of the political theatre movement.

    -the point of it could either be to make people think about the issue being presented or change the  issue completely.

     -it can be about capitalism or socialism.

Bertolt Brecht-

Bertolt Brecht looked at our theatre during his time (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956). He stated that a lot of stanislavsky’s work was wrong. He made it clear that he doesn’t want people to forget their at the theatre as they will enjoy the play rather than think about the messages trying to be implied.

“Mixing one's wines may be a mistake, but old and new wisdom mix admirably.” -Bertolt Brecht

I was trying to find out what made Brecht come to the realisation of disagreeing with stanislavsky and I ended up finding this quote. Even though Brecht thought that theatre should provoke rational self-reflection, he doesn’t disagree with some of stanislavsky’s thoughts. Such as, the starring system being wrong. As each century goes by civilisation gains new knowledge, people learn from one another making society wiser. It is a slow progression but it is happening.

Exercises-

Opposites/ stereotypes: We firstly got into pairs and lettered ourselves A or B. We had to be statue of anything Ben said. For instance, Romeo and Juliet, Winter and Summer, hero and villain, and Rich and Poor. I loved this exercise because mostly everyone played the hero with hands around the waist looking up or flexing their muscles whereas the villain was portraying a creepy looking character. All of the pairs were clearly opposites. This juxtaposition within caricature creates an effect that is understood by everyone. This exercise made me realise that all of those stereotypes are known to everyone. It is a universal language that it most definitely used in political theatre. So that people from different countries, ages, races and religions can understand, think and reflect.

shrugging: This was a very short exercise almost like a warm up of the minds as it made me think more about every exercise we were doing and the purposes for them. We first started off by shrugging normally whilst saying “I dunno”. Then we slowly exaggerated the gesture by raising our shoulders to our necks and our arms the height of our shoulders then relaxing the arms and letting them connect into your legs. He kept saying say it like a teenager would and I was trying to see the point of this exercise. I assumed that it was about using the technique gestus but then Ben said now sound like a zombie. Then it slightly became clear to me and others what the purpose was. Ben then clarified this  making someone control someone else’s shrug then the person controlling said “I’m society!” I then understood. It’s a reflection on teenagers of today’s being controlled by society. They don’t know or want to know anything as all they do is follow and consume social media of society  making them like zombies. This further aided my understanding of political theatre.