Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht was born in Augsburg (Bavaria), Germany on 10th February, 1898. While he was working in an Army hospital he also wrote plays meantime. His work mainly associated with the Dadaist and the Marxist ideology, His concepts caused a huge uproar in the German society after the first world war. Later he left Germany and flew in to the US where decided to settle and expand his work on theater.
He was a playwright and poet . aimed for escapism. Hated luxury and wanted the audience to think and not just enjoy the show. He used alienation also known as Verfremdungsekkeft to catch the audiences attention and then instead of having a story that smoothly ran through he would make sure that the audience does not enjoy it too much and that he would do something the audience does not expect. He does something unexpected and also his plays are meant to raise awareness about the current issues and events that took place during that time.
This is where I got the information for Brecht Biography > http://www.biography.com/people/bertolt-brecht-9225028
Since Brecht lived through the first world war and to the second world war most of his plays were influenced by the surrounding events that took place during that time. In most of his work we can see that he emphasizes on the Dadaism and the Marxism. Most of his ideas and plays would question people and would them leave wondering for an answer. He loved the concept of how Marx's ideas were proposed and that his theory were questionable for instance " who is in charge of power?" " who has the authority? " and such.
For more information on Brecht (Will also contain information about when an event took place.) > http://german.about.com/od/culture/p/brecht.htm
In Brechts early years, most of the plays he wrote was deeply rooted and influence with German Expressionism but he was also preoccupied with the idea of Karl Marx and eventually the idea of "epic theater" was born.
http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~jamesf/goodwoman/brecht_epic_theater.html
The main difference between dramatic and epic theater is dramatic theater intends to be plotted whereas epic theater intends to narrated. There are many differences between the two types of theater for instance in dramatic theater we would have a story, the introduction that would lead to the body and the climax and then ending it Basically one scene would led to another and is done for entertainment purposes. however epic theater does not work that way and each of the scenes would vary from one another as each of them would convey a major issue or event that occurred during the time Brecht lived and was thought provoking.
Look at this website for more information > http://academic.evergreen.edu/curricular/ppandp/PDFs/Brecht-a%20brief%20overview.pdf
Brecht introduced a new genre of theater which is called epic theater. His ideas and messages were brief and thought provoking. Brecht did influence the world of theater as he did introduce a whole new genre of it. He proved that theater or any drama production does not need fancy lighting, costumes, a story line and such. He uphold the major events to make sure that everyone knew about it.
The influence of Brecht > http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~jamesf/goodwoman/brecht_influence.html
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
End of Unit Reflection (A memory of Lizzie)
For this unit we were given a script which was based on true events, about a girl named Lizzie Borden who killed her parents Andrew Borden who was her father and Abby Durfee Grey who was her stepmother with an Axe.
The opening of the script begins with little children singing to oranges and lemons which is a very well known English Nursery rhythm. The main Protagonist of this story is Lizzie Borden and also a girl named Rachael Brayton. When I read the script for the first time I was a bit confused about the transition of the play, from the playground to the murder of her parents. But we read the script couple of times and I was able to visualize how each scene would look like in the play. After we read it in class we were told to make rough sketches of Set designs and thumbnail sketches of costumes for the characters of the play. I made five different set designs for different places such as the Auditorium, the secondary well and the school Gym. the designs that I made were pretty simple and straightforward mostly because I was told to utilize the equipments that were available at the school instead of having to remake or even make a scene for the play. I used pillows for the murder scene. a single tree where they played funeral which was part of the play and finally a piece of black block for the characters to come and say their lines. As for the rest of the stage it was a playground since most of the scene is on the playground.
After we did the rough set designs we were told to make thumbnail sketches of the costumes. and I did them. For the main protagonist I thought about making her dress plain like her characteristic. Most of the thumbnail sketches that I drew matched the personality of that person ( from what I read and the information I got from the script) Soon after we had to annotate the script and I did. I wrote all the stage direction and body language as instructed ( I was confused so I asked my teacher) and then I uploaded them on the blog.
After that I we had to work on a particular scene in the play which was the cat killing scene where Lizzie kills the cat. I paired up with Hamza and Ryan and we discussed each others Ideas and agreed on some of them.
Later we were told to choose either set design or costume design and then research for more information and then produce a final product with details. I decided to go with costume designs and I had to research on dresses that people used to wearing during that time. I got the the time a bit wrong and it was 1890s and not 1880s so that wasn't a good thing. As a result I had to produce fourteen different costume designs for each of the characters and then I had to color and Annotate the drawings. I was also told to add swatches but not many of us did it so we had to option to had pictures from the internet and I did do it.
In this overall unit I think my strongest had to be my set and my final costume designs. also my script annotation was very much detailed. My weakest had to be that I researched but the wrong period of time.
The opening of the script begins with little children singing to oranges and lemons which is a very well known English Nursery rhythm. The main Protagonist of this story is Lizzie Borden and also a girl named Rachael Brayton. When I read the script for the first time I was a bit confused about the transition of the play, from the playground to the murder of her parents. But we read the script couple of times and I was able to visualize how each scene would look like in the play. After we read it in class we were told to make rough sketches of Set designs and thumbnail sketches of costumes for the characters of the play. I made five different set designs for different places such as the Auditorium, the secondary well and the school Gym. the designs that I made were pretty simple and straightforward mostly because I was told to utilize the equipments that were available at the school instead of having to remake or even make a scene for the play. I used pillows for the murder scene. a single tree where they played funeral which was part of the play and finally a piece of black block for the characters to come and say their lines. As for the rest of the stage it was a playground since most of the scene is on the playground.
After we did the rough set designs we were told to make thumbnail sketches of the costumes. and I did them. For the main protagonist I thought about making her dress plain like her characteristic. Most of the thumbnail sketches that I drew matched the personality of that person ( from what I read and the information I got from the script) Soon after we had to annotate the script and I did. I wrote all the stage direction and body language as instructed ( I was confused so I asked my teacher) and then I uploaded them on the blog.
After that I we had to work on a particular scene in the play which was the cat killing scene where Lizzie kills the cat. I paired up with Hamza and Ryan and we discussed each others Ideas and agreed on some of them.
Later we were told to choose either set design or costume design and then research for more information and then produce a final product with details. I decided to go with costume designs and I had to research on dresses that people used to wearing during that time. I got the the time a bit wrong and it was 1890s and not 1880s so that wasn't a good thing. As a result I had to produce fourteen different costume designs for each of the characters and then I had to color and Annotate the drawings. I was also told to add swatches but not many of us did it so we had to option to had pictures from the internet and I did do it.
In this overall unit I think my strongest had to be my set and my final costume designs. also my script annotation was very much detailed. My weakest had to be that I researched but the wrong period of time.
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