Brecht Final Performance Evaluation

For this unit we studied about a German playwright named Bertolt Brecht. Most of this ideas and concept come from the Karl Marx, as he loved Karl Marx's idea about "communism". We started our unit off with a research task based on Brecht where we had to find out where he lived, How he influenced the world of theater during that time period and such. After our research task we had read through the play and then we were told to chose a theme that we would work on and make a mind map and present it to our class. My chosen theme was Capitalism Vs. Communism and basically we had highlight the aspects that were interconnected with our theme and the script "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" .  Eventually we were divided into groups where we had to work with what theme we had chosen, what major event, and what brechtian elements we decided to work with. I was in a group with five people including me, Hamza, Mushanna, Ulughbek and Armin.  

Our theme was different from one another but also somewhat similar as well which we were able to mix in and work with. The same can be said about our chosen major event and also brechtian element that we decided to work with. As a group we worked on Act 2: The Noble Child Pages 145-146 for our rough draft as well as our final draft performance and we did. I played Grusha, Hamza played the Fat Prince, Mushanna played Micheal, Armin played the Governor's wife and Ulugbek played the soldier. But since we made it shorter I had to play The beggars and petitioners and Mushanna was the Singer while rest of them remained the same  (Ulughbek and I were also the doctors of the scene. Ulugbek was the first doctor and I was the second doctor for our Final Performance) 

Getting our rough draft was by far the hardest that I had to overcome because I had people goofing off and talking and taking pictures and not listening so basically it was chaotic. From the time when we were assigned group till the day of our rough draft performance the only thing I was able to do with the group was assign them their roles ( I had to take the initiative and direct since no one would) and thats what the outcome of our entire class time was, which was reflected on the day of our rough draft performance. There isn't much I can write regarding this issue since there isn't much that we did such as use our time wisely and sort things out for our rough draft performance but from what I've seen while talking and discussing ideas with the group the most difficult person to handle was Armin and Ulughbek as they would drift off quite often and if I were to give them a grade for personal engagement then Armin would get a 4 and Ulughbek would get 3. But there were selected few who were cooperative and they were engaged with everyone such as Hamza and Mushanna. I would give Hamza a 7 and Mushanna a 7 as well. 

Armin 4/8: She did make an effort and did give us suggestions and ideas for our performance but she wouldn't pay attention from time to time as she was distracted by her surrounding ( Her phone, Laptop and such) while all of us would discuss how we would stage our performance but she did offer everyone to come over to her house one day and rehearse our performance ( Never happened) There were times when she would shout at us and tell us to work which was helpful because everyone including myself would get distracted and talk about things that had no connection with our final performance. She also listened to our instructions and applied it to her role. For our rough draft she tried to memorize her lines in the last 15 minutes before our performance and wasn't able to to do. For our final performance she managed to memorize her lines. 

Ulughbek 4/8: He did not make an effort or give us suggestion but he did listen to what I had to say and managed to stay with us during our small discussions. Even though he is not the type of person who can sit quietly and listen to what others have to say he did work and did memorize his lines when needed and try his best to be serious as well. He is easily distracted which makes it harder for me to give him a mark because there isn't much contribution that is made by him. He had to make a montage for the rough draft performance that not only he had forgotten about but all of us as well but we did make a montage for our final performance that hamza and I made and All he did was memorize his lines and listened to what we instructed him to do for the performance. For our rough draft performance he did memorize his lines but he stuttered which looked as though he had not memorized his lines. For the final performance he didn't stutter and was able to be very dramatic. 

Hamza 7/8:  He helped out a lot, he would listen to all of our ideas and suggestions and he would be actively engaged with us as well. He would also give us ideas as to how we would stage our performance, He also help me control everyone and make sure they were also engaged. Sometimes there would be people who wouldn't listen at all so he would come in and help me out so that we were talking about relevant things instead of irrelevant things that had nothing to do with any of our performance.During our rough draft performance he memorized his lines and delivered his lines with a loud voice but he would stutter and start thinking about what the next line would be. Hamza was able to interpreted the Fat Prince extremely well. During our Final performance Hamza did not stutter and did what he is good at which is being loud and dramatic and was dominating and stood out very well. He also made the Montage for our final performance which shows that he is committed and would like to achieve a higher grade. 

Mushanna 7/8: She was also actively engaged with the entire group, she helped with a lot with the staging and gave me ideas and suggestions and we were also able to carry out her idea as well as some of ours as a whole. We assigned Mushanna as our singer which meant she had most of the lines that she had to remember and memorize. For our rough draft performance she tried to memorize her lines in the last 15 minutes but was unable to do so and had to read it off the script but for our Final performance she was able to memorize her lines and deliver it nicely. 

Ayat 7/8: I would give myself 7 out of 8 because I did everything that has been asked for. I had to initiative and direct our performance. I had to push people and tell them to work and listen to what I had to say. Its hard to control a group that doesn't cooperate with you but I'm grateful to have Hamza and Mushanna who helped me out a lot. During our rough draft performance I had to stage the entire scene in the last 15 minutes before our performance and this was difficult because more than half the group did not memorize so they tried to learn it in the last 15 minutes so everything for our rough draft performance was extremely chaotic and jumbled up as well as stuffed together. Basically we were not at all ready to perform but we performed because of the sake of performing. When we did get our feedback for this performance it helped us a lot and we were able to to improve because of me and also the help of certain people I think we did do a good job on our final performance. 

There were many thing that weren't right with our rough draft performance so when we were given feedback regarding what needs attention and improvements we did take all of our feedback and applied it to our final performance. When we did the rough draft performance we had a key component that was missing which was our Montage and there were small little details as well such as our energy level and getting into characters as such which we improved on for our final performance. Hamza and I made the montage for our groups performance, We infused our chosen theme and our major event with our live performance which was nice and this also reflects that Hamza committed since he was able to take the imitative and make the montage. For our groups final performance I would grade ourselves (7/10) for Application mainly because of the montage we made that reflected the women in society and also the classes and status of the poor and the rich. The women in society reflected the beggar and the petitioners in the performance since it was about abuse and such. The classes and status of the poor and the rich reflected how Fat Prince talked to the Governor's Wife and neglected the poor. This was the message that our montage tried to convey. We also used Alienation effect on the audience (The script was written this way) and also we stood in positions so that we do not block any of the characters on stage and also made sure that everyone saw our front and not our back. 

We watched Shubham,Noshin and Mifrah perform and personally I liked their performance, I liked the fact how the montage and also the live acting went well together and also the pictures they used in the montage and the situation they had in hand went extremely well with one another. Their Montage were just pictures of animal abuse and torture but their performance was about a girl getting Raped and then her family "disowning" her as she is impure according to the mother and the society. They used to idea of alienation effect really well and also they did break the fourth wall. Shubham for instance played a double role, He was the one who played the father in the scene and was also the one who broke the fourth wall by talking to us audience. If I were to grade them for their application then I would give them a (9 /10). During the performance there were a few things that was difficult for me to capture which was their voice levels I wasn't able to hear them clearly and also Mifrah was talking fast so I completely missed out what she had said. But Everyone knew what they were doing and knew how epic theater worked. They used everything we learnt in class and something that Brecht himself would have done. Brecht would have used a major issue and Shubham's group did use a major issue which was "Rape". If a woman does get raped (Even till this day) There are many family member would disown their own daughter because of how the society would think about them and also because of many religious reasons. They were able to convey this extremely nicely. Brecht would have used a Montage that would make his audience think as well as know the reality and shubham's group were able to do that as well, They used animal abuse and torture to convey their messages. Overall They did a really good job on their performance. 

Brecht Text Study/Caucasian Chalk Circle-Evaluation

In our rough draft performance we had many flaws that needed to be improved on and also in our feedback we were specifically told what we needed to work on so that we get a better grade. Before our rough draft performance we were given time to work and rehearse on our chosen act (We decided to work on Act 2: The Noble Child Pages 145-146 for our performance). In that time span we didn't really work efficiently and left it till the last minute (15 min. before our rough draft performance). We selected pages 145-146 for our rough draft performance and for those pages we selected what roles/characters we would play and I chose to be the beggars and petitioners, Hamza chose to be the fat prince, Mushanna chose to be the singer, Ulughbek chose to be the soldier and Armin chose to be the governors wife. For our performance Hamza and I memorized our lines long before. There were certain people in the group who tried to rush in a few minutes by memorizing the lines and we had no clue about our positions on stage. So I had to take initiative with the help of Mushanna and Hamza we were able to stage it. Personally I think that if we didn't position the characters on stage then we would have lost a lot of marks for the rough draft, so the staging managed to save us some grade. There were mistakes in our performance such as who we were addressing and talking to and also things we have to improve on such as Energy level on stage, Gestus and such. The Caucasian chalk circle is a play that was written by Brecht himself so the elements of epic theater is evident throughout. As for us we have to convey what Brecht is trying to say by breaking the fourth wall. This is known as the alienation effect or Verfremdungseffekt which allows the audience to forget about their own lives and think about the major issues. (In this case a Montage and Gestus helps). In our rough draft the elements of epic theater wasn't clearly conveyed which confused many of the audience for instance the Montage was missing, It was hard to tell who the characters were, Who we were addressing and such. Although the Act that was written by Brecht himself, he did use the character (The singer in this case) to break the fourth wall. The singer would stand on one side and deliver her speech to the audience (Breaking the fourth wall) while the other cast members stood still (A Tableau) and when the entire cast/ play was talking then the singer would stand still in her position. This is how we initially planned out how we would portray this Act so that the elements of epic theater is evident. In our feedback we were told to have more Gestus and energy and the montage was missing so we have to work on that as well. 

In today's lesson we were really productive, We used all of the double period we were given and worked on what we think we need to prioritize. We divided our group into smaller group so that they can concentrate on or maybe help out another member of the group in staging and montage making. Mushanna, Armin and I are in charge of staging and Hamza, Ulughbek and I are in charge of montage making. Today we worked on staging and all of us gave an idea and suggestions for improvements and where we would stand, enter, exit as such. We divided the entire stage up into up stage, center stage and down stage where we placed all the characters and decided where each of them would enter from. We tried out what we had discussed and fixed our positions so that we do not block any of the characters while we carry out the scene. We just worked on the staging and it took the entire period. In the last few minutes of the class we kind of discussed how we would infuse the montage, Our chosen theme and the scene we decided to perform as our final draft for this unit. 

Rough draft performance: Brecht

For our rough draft all of us decided to do the first two pages of Act 2 the noble child. Initially I play Grusha through out the entire Act but in the first two pages there weren't any lines for me so I volunteered to play beggar and petitioners. Personally I think my individual performance was good as I had memorized my lines and I knew what I was doing throughout the scene. I also think Hamza did a great job on memorizing his lines and he was projecting his voice which is a good thing but I know he would've done a better job with memorizing because there were times when he stopped and did think, He would also stutter. Hamza and I both did a really good job and we both have small little details we have to improve on such as confidently delivering our lines and such. Even though both of us did do a good job for a rough draft I think the other members of our group could have put an effort like us and get the job done for today, we were given time to practice,discuss and memorize our lines and few of us didn't bother as much as others and left it till the very last minute which was today where some of us had to rush. Overall I think the group that I had to work with didn't take this so seriously which made it harder for the ones who take Drama quite seriously as they wouldn't listen and would be very much distracted. and I think in our today's performance this was very much evident as to who worked and who did not work. I chose "Acting" as my Brechtian element and I worked on that, memorized my lines and tried to practice our act with the group. There were a few others who also chose to do acting as well but there were people who decided to take up and do Montage and directing but they weren't really clear on that so all of acted instead. As for those who took directing, I had to direct instead so basically I had to tell people where they would stand, where they would face, when they would enter and things like that. As for those who took montage, They didn't do it because they were "confused" so nothing was done about it and I wasn't really aware about that either although its not really my responsibility to know what others are appointed to do but our rough draft had so many flaws so it leaves me no choice so I have to see what others are doing and if they are distracted I would be forced to be a bit harsh on them, this is exactly why working with this group is somewhat difficult but Hamza made my work less stressful because he would listen to what I have to say and would do things instructed to him. Our performance today was done very poorly because we misused the time given to us and also because there were people who wouldn't work or let others work and it was a bit hard working with these type of people so in order for us to improve we need to work and I have to take the initiative and look at what the other group members are doing and if they get distracted I would just snatch that item away from their hands and not listen to them.

The other groups did a great job on their rough draft performance (better than ours, we were the worst) only three groups performed today including us, the other two of those groups did do a better job than us. The first group consisted of Ryan, Vanessa and Umar their brechtian element was montage. So their story was linked with the two strong political figures in Bangladesh (this was in the montage) and a conflict between a Rickshaw driver and a Maid (this was what they acted out). I think they did a good job in memorizing their lines and projecting their voice. The downside of this performance would be the message that they were trying to convey wasn't really clear and also the positions they stood in other than that I think they did a good job. The second group consisted of Shubham, Mifrah and Noshin their brechtian element was playwright and Montage and I think this group did a really good job. So their story was linked to animal abuse (this was in the montage) and Rape (This was what they acted out). Overall this is how a rough draft should look like, this shows that they did work consistently throughout the time they were given. The downside of this would be emotion,While Shubham was telling his lines he was being emotional and in a Brechtian play we don't see emotions being involved at all, its blunt and straight to the point that should make the audience wonder what is happening and make them think while watching the play as well. Overall both of these groups did do a good job as I have mentioned earlier and I think their final ones are going to be really good if they improve on the feedback they were given in class. As for our group we have a long way to go. 

The Muslims are coming! Reflection

The Muslims are coming! Is a documentary that was used to rise in Awareness about the Muslims through comedy. All the Comedians that are shown in the documentary are Muslims and they would travel as a group to different parts of America where they would host a stand up comedy show and just have a good laugh that would hopefully have a positive impact on the audience members who had a wrong idea about the Muslims and be more open and accept them in the society in a more friendly manner without labeling them as terrorist or Dangerous.

So these group of Muslim Comedians would also put stalls such as " Ask a Muslim" or "Hug a Muslim", They got both positive and negative feedback from the stalls they put up some people would line up and hug them while others would walk away and say something hurtful. They also did a survey which was about the most hated group of people in America and the results show that the most hate group of people are the Muslims. In the society the Americans simply judge each group by looking at the stereotypes. All Muslims are terrorists; All Muslims are dangerous and such. This false accusation about the Muslim has lead to the most hated group in America. The government also plays a huge role in this and the Americans blindly believe and trust in the government and whatever they say. Not all Americans are like that but there are some people and part of America that do believe this and these group of Muslims would go to those people and parts of America to show that not ALL Muslims are the same. Some of the comedians would mock the stereotypes and some would talk about their lives and maybe change it or tell the whole truth about what was funny and what seemed funny to them.

Throughout the documentary the comedians got different sorts of responds from the audience members in some parts where they visited they got different responds. For instance they were parts in which they didn't have enough audience members so they had to cancel the show. For some parts they got a really positive feedback and the crowd was very cooperative. Even though some of the audience enjoyed the show there were a couple of them that just left the show. There was this part of the documentary when Negin was openly talking about her sexuality in front of the crowd and there were a few hijabi women who got up and walked out of the show. The Muslim society is a very conservative society and for females it is a hard world since they are judged easily by their actions.The documentary covered many things such as the show and even how they would travel from one state to another and also they would have small little interviews from time to time where they would discuss matters concerning how they felt and how the Muslim society is like.

Its actually nerve wrecking how the Muslim community in America is hated so much and not only that but the Immigrants as mentioned in the documentary is hated as well. I think "The Muslims are coming!" is a great way to target audience members even though there were ups and downs of it, I think its a good way of raising Awareness regarding this matter and it enables the audience member to think twice before categorizing them with a mislead accusation of being a terrorist or dangerous.

"The Muslims Are Coming!." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2014. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2224509/>.

The Caucasian Chalk Circle Theme: Capitalism Vs. Communism

Mind Map Drawn by: Ayat 

Brecht and Epic theater research task

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

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.