Blog Post 4: Commentary

The Brecht's techniques that we used:
- Expressionism
- Gestus
- Costumes and Makeup
- Setting and Positions
- Projection
- V-effect
One of the techniques we have used that really contributed to the V-effect was that we avoided placing emotions in the plot and constantly reminded the audience of the fact that it was only a play. For example, I was to shout out "lights, come on, faster" to the person controlling the lights when it was time to change scenes. This directly indicates to the audience that this was in the room of a theatre and purposely creating mistakes that would remind the audience of the reality outside the plot.

The costumes and makeup had contributed to the stress of expressionism of the play. Every character except the defence counsel had white paint because they were stressed to be the roles that were "out of their mind" and without common sense in the act. The white paint an dthe exaggerated eyebrow and moustache shows exaggeration and stresses the fake personalities and sarcasm of the roles.

By Rose. These photos are of the different roles in the play. The costumes show their roles. The white paint indicates that they are on the bad side of the act. Some of the makeup is to indicate gender. For example, Linda (Giri) had moustaches to indicate that she is a man in the act. 

Also, we explored the setting, lighting, and projection concepts of Brecht's techniques. We have used placed the setting to look like a courthouse. However, we did not overdressed the setting since we still wanted it to look like a empty theatre space. The lighting we used changed depending on what happens in the scene and its focus changes to directly draws the audiences attention to the main actions in the scenes. 

Photo By Rose. Setting and Lighting of the performance

We used projection to directly inform the audience of what happens in the play and how it relates to the real world. This would help the audience to not guess and waste time, instead they would just need to logically deduct the meaning of the play through already knowing what is happening. This then would allow the audience to be able to propose change to the society according to the message in the play, effectively. 

The ending message to the audience using projection. 

Reflection of our play: 

I thought that overall, the performance of our play was good. I thought that the performance of all of our roles meets a certain standard that is enough for the performance to be reasonably successful. However, I thought that we could have done better. I thought that because I was very nervous, I did not focus on exaggerating and using the techniques. This might have caused me to contribute less to delivering the message of the play to the audience. 

I thought that Jeremy, Linda, and Terry did a good job in performing their roles and using the techniques. This was shown because they were not that nervous on the outside and they were very open in their actions and expressions. However, I thought that all of us could step our exaggeration level up and create humour in the play, so that it will be more fun and vivid for the audience to enjoy. 

I also thought that since one of the audience had explained that we could have a little more props like hats to state the roles of the play and the genders of these roles better. The improvement to the stage details could be all in place if there was more time allowed and the organisation of our time was better. 

Audience feedback of the play:

We had one of the audience that had no background knowledge of the play and Brecht to watch our performance. We had asked him to describe what he thought he learned about the plot of the play an what message he received from it. It had resulted that he had mostly understood the whole plot of the play. Also, he had understood the message that we were trying to deliver. He understood that there was a powerful group trying to corrupt the government and its laws through nonsense, and ultimately understood that this was related to the situation of WWII. He said that many of our techniques such as light, setting, and projection had helped him to understand the scenes and play. Also, he thought that the expressionism and the exaggeration created humour that he thought was very interesting and attracted him to concentrate on the play more. 

Two of the Year 12 Drama students which have experience in performing theatrical pieces have stated that all of us needed a boost in our exaggeration and familiarity with the lines and the gestures. They have reflected that this could have helped the performance be better and more fun to watch. 

Applying this in other subjects: 

Firstly, we have learned to brainstorm and plan before acting. In the beginning of the unit, we have made brainstorming diagrams to help us plan what we are going to do for our performance. This has helped us organise our work and our thinking. I think that this will be very useful and important for all subjects, since everything without planning and organisation would be chaotic.

Secondly, I thought that the transfer skills that were used to transfer what we learned about Brecht's techniques to our practical performance was very useful as well. This skill would then be very useful for learning in many subjects since everything we learn have to be once used in practicals. 

Also, deeper and a more clear understanding of the global context will help us in our MYP studies.