UNIT TITLE
Acting Methods and Styles
LESSON TITLE
Brecht
CLASS
Drama 4
DURATION
75 Minutes
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE
Students will be able to accurately demonstrate Brechtian style by creating and performing mini-Brechtian scenes.
NATIONAL CORE ARTS STANDARDS
CREATING
• TH:Cr1.1.HSIII.a
o Synthesize knowledge from a variety of dramatic forms, theatrical conventions, and technologies to create the visual composition of a drama/theatre work
• TH:Cr3.1.HSIII.b
o Synthesize knowledge from a variety of dramatic forms, theatrical conventions, and technologies to create the visual composition of a drama/theatre work.
PERFORMANCE
• TH:Pr4.1.HSII.b
o Apply a variety of researched acting techniques as an approach to character choices in a drama/theatre work.
• TH:Pr5.1.HSIII.a
o Use and justify a collection of acting exercises from reliable resources to prepare a believable and sustainable performance.
MATERIALS
• A space for students to work/perform in.
TEACHING PRESENTATION:
Hook:
Ask the class, “what is your favorite fairy tale?” While this seems random, the mini-scenes in this lesson will be based on fairy tales. The students may find the question strange, which is exactly my purpose, to distance the students in a way, while still getting them to think ahead about what fairy tale they might like turn into a scene. Listen to a few suggestions from the group, and then explain that there is much to do, so we must move on.
Step 1: Instruction Explain that we have just come from Augusto Boal, who was very interested in using theater to make social changes. Explain that now we are moving from Brazil to Germany, to study Bertholt Brecht. Explain the following information:
• Brecht was interested in using theatre as a means for political change.
• He believed that theatre, in it’s traditional form, sent both the actors and audience into a sort of passive trance.
• He wanted theatre to be a much more present experience, causing the audience and actors to think more about what they were seeing.
• As a result, he disliked realisms. It was too much like life. He preferred broad physicalizations. He believed it created a distance between the actor and the part he was playing.
• He wanted to go in the complete opposite direction of “the willing suspension of disbelief,” and ask his audiences to use their disbelief and skepticism.
• He wanted to create what he calls a “distancing effect, or alienation effect,” that would constantly remind the audience that there were watching theatre it was not real.
• He wanted this because the separation would allow the audiences to then think more about what the piece was trying to say.
• He accomplished this distancing by using very broad physical techniques, using half curtains, changing costumes in full view of the audience, rejecting Stanislavski methods, not empathizing with characters, projections, announcing scenes, or pretty much anything that would throw the audience off.
• All of this disconnect was aimed at trying to have the play mean something political.
Answer questions as you go along, and elaborate when necessary. It’s important that they understand that Brecht was a political theatre practitioner, and that he wanted to achieve the distancing effect to keep his audience off guard, so that his political messages could get across.
Step 2: Directions Explain that you will be counting off the class into groups of 4. Once you have been added into a group, your group must decide on a fairytale that they would like to tell in Brechtian style. That means that your group should reimagine your fairy tale as a political statement, and figure out how to perform it while creating the distancing effect in whatever way you feel is right. You only have 30 minutes to create your performance. It should be no longer than 4 minutes. Take clarifying questions, then allow the students to work!
Step 3: Group Practice Allow students to work in their groups for thirty minutes. Meander about the room, checking in with each group. If they need help, give a suggestion, though it might be better to questions them so they might come to their own solution. As you move between groups, keep an eye out for students you are sitting on the sidelines. Encourage them to get involved. Keep note of who is regularly not participating. Give regular time updates, then stop them after thirty minutes.
Step 4: Performance Explain that each group will go, one right after the other. Explain that you will choose which group will be going next. Applaud between each performance.
Step 5: Reflection Upon completion of the performances of the Brechtian fairy tales, conduct a short discussion:
• How does Brecht differ from the other methods we have studied so far? From Stanislavski? From Boal? From Meisner?
• From your experience with Brechtian style today, do you like it? What does it feel like to you as an actor?
• How might this come in handy during a rehearsal process? Or will it?
Give follow-up questions to encourage students to delve deeper and think broader. It’s important that students start to connect the styles and methods to one another and to real life situations. So help guide conversations in that direction.
Assessment
Students can be assessed on their Mini-Brechtian scene performances. Participation in this scenes is worth 20 points.