Verfremdungseffekt: My workshop was a crime scene - a victim is on the floor and all the surrounding characters (driver, 2 witnesses, 2 doctors and 1 police) divert attention away from the victim through arguing about who to blame for the victim's situation. This shows criticism of the society's selfishness - the need of the supporting characters to take the 'lime light'.
Gestus: Everyone chose partners and separated with their pairs to a corner in the room. They thought of their own nursery rhymes and then formed a circle. They were shouting and acting our their rhymes at the same time. Gestus was achieved - wide movements and acting out to state the obvious idea of their songs.Reflection: Through reading and studying about Brecht's theatrical philosophy, I thought I already had a significant amount of knowledge to understand how Brecht aimed to convey Verfremdungseffekt. However, I realized that I had lot more to understand about his theories once I put these theories into action through the workshops I have conducted above. It was also a great deal of help to have Mother Courage and Her Children as part of our English A1 literature to study in depth as it made me learn about how Brecht infused into writing his thoughts. It showed me how he wrote to enforce the play's central themes; and apart from this, how he incorporated very detailed information about how the scenes should be acted out. Furthermore, as we have seen one of his plays, Puntila/Matti, I was able to visualize how he portrayed various elements of theatre to achieve his desired effekt. This workshop had made me realize how integration and application of practice is very important in understanding a specific theatrical theory.
No comments:
Post a Comment