The Theatre Uncut website says that 'Theatre Uncut was created to encourage debate and galvanise action around political issues that affect all of our lives. Anyone can get involved, anywhere.'
They began through a reaction to the cuts happening in the UK after the ecomomic downturn. They launched 8 new plays in March 2011which anyone could download and perform. These were performed in schools, universities, pubs, in the streets and front rooms. The playwrights for 2011 were Clara Brennan, David Greig, Dennis Kelly, Lucy Kirkwood, Anders Lustgarten, Laura Lomas, Mark Ravenhill and Jack Thorne.
The movement also wants to allows dramatists to experiment with theatre and different ways of producing theatre.
In order to get one of the plays, you can send an email to the company saying where you want to perform the piece, your plans, permission and agree to the terms and conditions. I think this is an interesting way of spreading the plays and globally because almost anyone can put it on anywhere. This means they'll be different performances of the piece all over the world.
Tuesday, 18 December 2012
Monday, 17 December 2012
Evaluation of our Performance
As an ensemble, I feel we engaged well with Brechtian techniques and they were successful at getting the audience to question the society they live. When we were rehearsing I was concerned that we didn't know the lines properly, especially the lines we said together, but I think it got better and snappier in the actual performance.
The fact we performed inside rather than outside made projecting our voices and clarifying meaning to the audience easier. However, I think having the physical distance from the audience added to getting them step back from the piece. When we did it inside, I feel the audience may have felt more immersed in the piece, and this would not have encouraged the audience to want to change things in society.
I think we dealt with the change of space very well because we went through the piece quickly and made changes to the blocking, collectively coming up with ideas. In a sense, even this was Brechtian and I feel this shows we had all learnt about Brecht's technique and it helped us create good theatre.
The Brechtian elements we used were successful in our piece. The signs that said things like 'Stop being so emotional' helped the audience step back from the action because they were confronted with a message outside of the play that addressed the factual content of the piece rather than the emotional content.
The human microphone was Brechtian because chorally speaking made the audience directly confront the idea that these ideas weren't just held by the parent and child in the piece, but by the masses. It is also a very unnaturalistic way of speaking, so this also distances the audience from being emmersed in the emotion of the words.
The part when Shannon came out of the action and repeated the line to the audience out of character was Brechtian because it reminded them that what they were saying is commenting on society and their emotion is not important in this case.
The images we created with our bodies to express what was said and the dynamic that was presented by the parents on stage was an effective technique to use because it allowed the audience to stand back and analyse what is going on the picture like looking at a photograph or a painting.
However, I think our piece focused very heavily on keeping to the text and I feel we could have experimented with the text and the issues risen in the text. With Sarah Goodhall's group's I feel that they looked at real people in society and created short sketches about them that was outside the context of the actual play but helped the audience draw similarities to the world of the play and reality.
I thought Catherine performed well because she learnt the lines well and had clearly developed the gestus of her character which we worked off in the ensemble by copying the gestures she made. She also referred to the parents when she spoke which reminded the audience of the masses the argument were representing. She also got incredibly angry and she let this fuel how she moved around the stage, which was engaging to watch.
I thought Josh also made interesting choices with his voice that worked really well inside for the actual performance. He did the American accent well and really played with the sarcastic parent stereotype in his facial expressions and small sharp movements he used to clarify aspects of what he was saying.
I think I performed well in the piece because I engaged with the parents as I spoke and I made clear character choices in how I spoke and the physicality of my character who had her arms folded because I felt this presented the defensive parent stereotype in society I wanted to explore.
We could have looked at other situations where the parent-child argument has happened in the past in the audience's reality. There was a moment in the play when the Parent spoke about the ancestors of the past and the amount of effort they put into going to see places in comparison to the child. I feel this moment was lost because we didn't look at the images we could create from this part of the text with our bodies like other moments in the play.
The fact we performed inside rather than outside made projecting our voices and clarifying meaning to the audience easier. However, I think having the physical distance from the audience added to getting them step back from the piece. When we did it inside, I feel the audience may have felt more immersed in the piece, and this would not have encouraged the audience to want to change things in society.
I think we dealt with the change of space very well because we went through the piece quickly and made changes to the blocking, collectively coming up with ideas. In a sense, even this was Brechtian and I feel this shows we had all learnt about Brecht's technique and it helped us create good theatre.
The Brechtian elements we used were successful in our piece. The signs that said things like 'Stop being so emotional' helped the audience step back from the action because they were confronted with a message outside of the play that addressed the factual content of the piece rather than the emotional content.
The human microphone was Brechtian because chorally speaking made the audience directly confront the idea that these ideas weren't just held by the parent and child in the piece, but by the masses. It is also a very unnaturalistic way of speaking, so this also distances the audience from being emmersed in the emotion of the words.
The part when Shannon came out of the action and repeated the line to the audience out of character was Brechtian because it reminded them that what they were saying is commenting on society and their emotion is not important in this case.
The images we created with our bodies to express what was said and the dynamic that was presented by the parents on stage was an effective technique to use because it allowed the audience to stand back and analyse what is going on the picture like looking at a photograph or a painting.
However, I think our piece focused very heavily on keeping to the text and I feel we could have experimented with the text and the issues risen in the text. With Sarah Goodhall's group's I feel that they looked at real people in society and created short sketches about them that was outside the context of the actual play but helped the audience draw similarities to the world of the play and reality.
I thought Catherine performed well because she learnt the lines well and had clearly developed the gestus of her character which we worked off in the ensemble by copying the gestures she made. She also referred to the parents when she spoke which reminded the audience of the masses the argument were representing. She also got incredibly angry and she let this fuel how she moved around the stage, which was engaging to watch.
I thought Josh also made interesting choices with his voice that worked really well inside for the actual performance. He did the American accent well and really played with the sarcastic parent stereotype in his facial expressions and small sharp movements he used to clarify aspects of what he was saying.
I think I performed well in the piece because I engaged with the parents as I spoke and I made clear character choices in how I spoke and the physicality of my character who had her arms folded because I felt this presented the defensive parent stereotype in society I wanted to explore.
We could have looked at other situations where the parent-child argument has happened in the past in the audience's reality. There was a moment in the play when the Parent spoke about the ancestors of the past and the amount of effort they put into going to see places in comparison to the child. I feel this moment was lost because we didn't look at the images we could create from this part of the text with our bodies like other moments in the play.
Sunday, 16 December 2012
Occupy - Noam Chomsky Book
I read Occupy by Noam Chomsky, which is a series of lectures that he gave between 2011 and 2012. The videos above are from the first lecture in the book, which he gave in Howard Zinn's Memorial, an American activist and historian.
Noam Chomsky is a Professor at MIT in America, but he actively supports movements like this an gives talks expressing his ideas.
He did not start the Occupy movement, nobody specifically did, but his Lectures have been used by many people in the Occupy movement as a source of motivation. He talks in his lectures about what changes need to be made and how.
However, a like many people in the Occupy movement, he's not entirely concrete in his knowledge of how. He leaves this for the masses to decide. But is this a strong enough base for the masses to make a difference? In the past change has come about as a result of having a strong leader - Ghandi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. Although Occupy's way of working is democratic because there is no leader, what way are they going to get their ideas for change heard if they're all saying different things at the same time. The Occupy movement talks about all the things that are wrong with society but there's been no say of how we can change them. Even Noam Chomsky can't answer it and that's what I think makes this movement weak - until it has something or someone that can embody the force of the changes wanted. But, I think that also makes the movement interesting - to see what change arises from it.
From reading this book, I feel like I understand my character's confusion, anger and desperate defensiveness at the child going out to the protest because this protest isn't concrete. They're fighting for many things but don't know how they want those things to be changed.
Protest Systems born from the Occupy Movement
Hand Signals
The occupy protests created a fair and democratic way of sharing ideas and listening and not interrupting. These were in hand gestures that indicated if people wanted to speak and how they felt about what was being said.
Human Microphone
As amplification at the Occupy Wall Street wasn't allowed, the protesters used the Human microphone to amplify what someone was saying. One person would speak and the people who could hear closest to them would repeat what they said so that the people furthest away could hear.
It is a very democratic way of getting across ideas because
However, it can be seen as a more time consuming way of getting across ideas because the human microphone can only remember a short phrase and longer words can be missed or garbled.
Human Microphone
As amplification at the Occupy Wall Street wasn't allowed, the protesters used the Human microphone to amplify what someone was saying. One person would speak and the people who could hear closest to them would repeat what they said so that the people furthest away could hear.
It is a very democratic way of getting across ideas because
However, it can be seen as a more time consuming way of getting across ideas because the human microphone can only remember a short phrase and longer words can be missed or garbled.
13/11/2012 - Solo Protester Exercise - Exploring Gestus
1. Look online for a protester's transcript explaining what they're protesting about.
2. Consider the following: What are they protesting about?
What social strata are they - what do you think their inclass are they in?
3. Create a social gesture that fits your character - do they play with their hair? Assert specific words in a certain way
This exercise is helpful to help characterise when devising a piece. You could apply this to any stereotype of a person in Brechtian Theatre or where you think it applies. If you're going to play a politician you could look at how the politician's gestus and develop it to suit your character.
2. Consider the following: What are they protesting about?
What social strata are they - what do you think their inclass are they in?
3. Create a social gesture that fits your character - do they play with their hair? Assert specific words in a certain way
This exercise is helpful to help characterise when devising a piece. You could apply this to any stereotype of a person in Brechtian Theatre or where you think it applies. If you're going to play a politician you could look at how the politician's gestus and develop it to suit your character.
Saturday, 15 December 2012
British Political Theatre in the Early 20th Century
Royal Court
In 1903-1907, The Royal Court was run by Harley Granville-Barker who encouraged producing political plays from playwrights such as George Bernard Shaw and Cicely Hamilton, who more namely produced plays concerning the Suffragette movement in 'The Pioneer Players'.
Some other influential playwrights of the time that wrote for the Royal Court came from the Manchester School of dramatists - Harold Brighouse and Stanley Houghton who wrote 'Hindle Wakes' in which the main characters were working class. This play was moved to the Playhouse Theatre in the West End after a very successful showing in Manchester in 1912.
Socialist Theatre
Co-operative societies around the UK ran drama groups producing political theatre to try and promote socialist concepts in the local community. In 1912 the National Association of Carlton Dramatic Clubs established People's Theatre in Newcastle. Across the region, more socialist theatre groups sprang up as a result. These companies were amateur dramatic societies which were a result of people wanting to induce some kind of change in their small communities.
The Workers' Theatre Movement
In 1926-1935, the Workers' Theatre Movement wanted to protest for social change through producing theatre that engaged with issues they felt needed addressing. The company were an amateur dramatic group that dealt with promoting Communist ideas. They developed an 'agit-prop' (Agitation Propaganda) style of theatre that involved performing songs and sketches in a similar way to Music Hall, which was still a popular form of Theatre at the time. It was street theatre that engaged with the working class audiences they wanted to invigorate a sense of wanting to create change in. In Salford theatre were the Red Megaphones and in London there were the Hackney People's Players. They developed some physical theatre to reflect the machine-driven industrial age they were looking at in their plays, such as 'Masses and Men and The Machine Wreckers' by Ernst Toller and 'RUR' by Karel Capek which looked at how machines and robots replace the working class in a futuristic age.
'Agit-prop' is simply spreading ideas through explaining them, creating excitement and therefore initiating change. It is a Russian term associated with the Bolshevik ways of initiating change amongst the masses and starting revolution.
The Actresses' Franchise League
Founded in 1908, the League supported the suffragette movement in the work they produced. They organised events and readings and wrote their own plays which they put on. Some key influential members are Cicely Hamilton, Ellen Terry, Elizabeth Robins, Edith Craig and Sybil Thorndike. By 1914 the group had 900 members in all the major UK cities. Some of the key plays they produced are 'How the Vote Was Won' (1909) by Cicely Hamilton and Christopher St. John and 'Diana of Dobson's' by Cicely Hamilton.
The group also later supported the war effort in creating the Women's Theatre Camps Entertainment Group which toured military bases around the UK.
Pioneer Players
Founded by Edith Craig and Ellen Terry (members of the Actresses' Franchise League), the group's plays dealt with current political, moral and social issues. They were above all a Feminist group wanting to spread feminist ideas in their work. Ever since 1773, theatre that was put on was controlled and censored by the Lord Chamberlain, so he was legally allowed to stop any play from being performed and prosecute anyone that did. In order to avoid this, the group performed their plays at Little Theatre which was a Club Theatre. Club Theatres worked so that you became a member and payed a small subscription rather than an entrance fee. This made them private, and therefore censorship was avoided.
Some of the groups plays were 'In the Workhouse' by Margaret Wynn Nevinson, 'The First Actress' by Christopher St. John and 'The Verge' by Susan Gaspell, when the heroine rejects social norms in pursuit of creativity.
Unity Theatre
Sprouting off from the Workers' Theatre Movement, Unity Theatre started on 16th February 1936 as a reaction to developing anxiousness during the depression. With hunger marches, the republican struggle in Spain, the rise in fascism under Hitler in Germany and Mosely's Blackshirt's (British Union of Fascists) in the UK, the group wanted to expose and try and promote change surrounding some of these issues.
They began based in Kings Cross but moved to an old chapel in Camden near St. Pancreas, renovating the building themselves voluntarily and putting plays on voluntarily too.
The company made it's name with 'Waiting for Lefty' in 1938 written by Clifford Odets (1906-1963). It tells a story of a group of New York Cabbies wanting to take strike action for a better living wage. In this production, the fourth wall was broken as the Cabbies recognised the audience and talked as if it was a meeting not only with the people on stage but with the audience. The action cut between the meeting and the personal stories each Cabbie told like a film. The story affected the audience so much that when the leader of the strike was shot in the first performance they joined in the Cabbie's 'strike, strike, strike' chants and rushed onto stage with them.
Along with this, they developed a new form of theatre: devised documentary in their 'Living Newspapers', satirical pantomimes which challenged Lord Chamberlain's censorship and was the first company to present a Brecht play.
From my research, I have found it really interesting the different Theatre movements that were happening and the different ways Theatre companies were trying to promote changes and ideas. It really has shown me the importance of Theatre in England and the same time as Brecht was making theatre. It also reminds me of the way Theatre Uncut works because they open the plays to anyone that wants them and that means amateur theatre companies can help make a difference in the community in looking at issues in the plays in a variety of different ways.
 |
| Stanley Houghton |
Some other influential playwrights of the time that wrote for the Royal Court came from the Manchester School of dramatists - Harold Brighouse and Stanley Houghton who wrote 'Hindle Wakes' in which the main characters were working class. This play was moved to the Playhouse Theatre in the West End after a very successful showing in Manchester in 1912.
Socialist Theatre
Co-operative societies around the UK ran drama groups producing political theatre to try and promote socialist concepts in the local community. In 1912 the National Association of Carlton Dramatic Clubs established People's Theatre in Newcastle. Across the region, more socialist theatre groups sprang up as a result. These companies were amateur dramatic societies which were a result of people wanting to induce some kind of change in their small communities.
 |
| Worker's Theatre Movement |
In 1926-1935, the Workers' Theatre Movement wanted to protest for social change through producing theatre that engaged with issues they felt needed addressing. The company were an amateur dramatic group that dealt with promoting Communist ideas. They developed an 'agit-prop' (Agitation Propaganda) style of theatre that involved performing songs and sketches in a similar way to Music Hall, which was still a popular form of Theatre at the time. It was street theatre that engaged with the working class audiences they wanted to invigorate a sense of wanting to create change in. In Salford theatre were the Red Megaphones and in London there were the Hackney People's Players. They developed some physical theatre to reflect the machine-driven industrial age they were looking at in their plays, such as 'Masses and Men and The Machine Wreckers' by Ernst Toller and 'RUR' by Karel Capek which looked at how machines and robots replace the working class in a futuristic age.
'Agit-prop' is simply spreading ideas through explaining them, creating excitement and therefore initiating change. It is a Russian term associated with the Bolshevik ways of initiating change amongst the masses and starting revolution.
 |
| Actresses' Franchise League |
Founded in 1908, the League supported the suffragette movement in the work they produced. They organised events and readings and wrote their own plays which they put on. Some key influential members are Cicely Hamilton, Ellen Terry, Elizabeth Robins, Edith Craig and Sybil Thorndike. By 1914 the group had 900 members in all the major UK cities. Some of the key plays they produced are 'How the Vote Was Won' (1909) by Cicely Hamilton and Christopher St. John and 'Diana of Dobson's' by Cicely Hamilton.
The group also later supported the war effort in creating the Women's Theatre Camps Entertainment Group which toured military bases around the UK.
 |
| Edith Craig and Ellen Terry |
Founded by Edith Craig and Ellen Terry (members of the Actresses' Franchise League), the group's plays dealt with current political, moral and social issues. They were above all a Feminist group wanting to spread feminist ideas in their work. Ever since 1773, theatre that was put on was controlled and censored by the Lord Chamberlain, so he was legally allowed to stop any play from being performed and prosecute anyone that did. In order to avoid this, the group performed their plays at Little Theatre which was a Club Theatre. Club Theatres worked so that you became a member and payed a small subscription rather than an entrance fee. This made them private, and therefore censorship was avoided.
Some of the groups plays were 'In the Workhouse' by Margaret Wynn Nevinson, 'The First Actress' by Christopher St. John and 'The Verge' by Susan Gaspell, when the heroine rejects social norms in pursuit of creativity.
 |
| 'Waiting for Lefty' by Clifford Odets |
Sprouting off from the Workers' Theatre Movement, Unity Theatre started on 16th February 1936 as a reaction to developing anxiousness during the depression. With hunger marches, the republican struggle in Spain, the rise in fascism under Hitler in Germany and Mosely's Blackshirt's (British Union of Fascists) in the UK, the group wanted to expose and try and promote change surrounding some of these issues.
They began based in Kings Cross but moved to an old chapel in Camden near St. Pancreas, renovating the building themselves voluntarily and putting plays on voluntarily too.
The company made it's name with 'Waiting for Lefty' in 1938 written by Clifford Odets (1906-1963). It tells a story of a group of New York Cabbies wanting to take strike action for a better living wage. In this production, the fourth wall was broken as the Cabbies recognised the audience and talked as if it was a meeting not only with the people on stage but with the audience. The action cut between the meeting and the personal stories each Cabbie told like a film. The story affected the audience so much that when the leader of the strike was shot in the first performance they joined in the Cabbie's 'strike, strike, strike' chants and rushed onto stage with them.
Along with this, they developed a new form of theatre: devised documentary in their 'Living Newspapers', satirical pantomimes which challenged Lord Chamberlain's censorship and was the first company to present a Brecht play.
From my research, I have found it really interesting the different Theatre movements that were happening and the different ways Theatre companies were trying to promote changes and ideas. It really has shown me the importance of Theatre in England and the same time as Brecht was making theatre. It also reminds me of the way Theatre Uncut works because they open the plays to anyone that wants them and that means amateur theatre companies can help make a difference in the community in looking at issues in the plays in a variety of different ways.
What is Political Theatre? Research
Arguably, all theatre is political. It will look at elements in our society that we recognise and critisises them or comments on them. For example, Macbeth and others of Shakespeare's plays make comments on the way society was at the time.
Political Theatre has been a way of promoting change.Through presenting faults in societies workings in everyday life and in higher society and government.
Some playwrights who write political plays are David Hare, Alan Aykbourne, Caryl Chuchill.
This is an interesting article that I read about Political Theatre. It talks about how broad Political Theatre is genre because so many plays can count as a political piece. But the writer also argues that theatre should be more political than it is because it is more valuable for society as a whole. In a way this is a similar view that Brecht would have held when making his theatre because he lived in an age when he valued being part of the theatre industry as being an active part of society.
Political Theatre has been a way of promoting change.Through presenting faults in societies workings in everyday life and in higher society and government.
Some playwrights who write political plays are David Hare, Alan Aykbourne, Caryl Chuchill.
This is an interesting article that I read about Political Theatre. It talks about how broad Political Theatre is genre because so many plays can count as a political piece. But the writer also argues that theatre should be more political than it is because it is more valuable for society as a whole. In a way this is a similar view that Brecht would have held when making his theatre because he lived in an age when he valued being part of the theatre industry as being an active part of society.
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