Bertolt Brecht!

In Siobhan's lesson we were split into three groups. Each group were given a poem written by Brecht. Our task was to perform our own interpretation of the poem.

The poem we were given was called 'On Thinking About Hell'. Siobhan already gave us some information about the poem such as Brecht writing it when he was in Los Angeles, but as a group we decided to sit down and read the poem to gain more of an understanding on it.
The play is very much about being alienated and isolated. Although the play seems to be about hell, Brecht seems to be describing it as the complete opposite. The lines, and phrases that stood out for us was:

• "Luxuriant gardens"
• "Flowers as big as trees, which of course wither unhesitantly if not nourished with very expensive water"
• "...Fruit markets with great heaps of fruit..."
• "Jolly-looking people..."
• And houses, built for happy people..."

All the irony Brecht created inspired us to create a very grotesque piece. We decided to show the audience someone's adventure and journey through hell. Liza played the person experiencing "hell" while me, James, and Chris played the characters who lure her into the experience. The beginning starts off with James and Chris as tree's with a white screen placed upstage centre. Liza walks on stage through the audience looking confused. She approaches the tree and picks off a fruit and eats it. I then come out behind the screen skip towards her, holding her hand and dragging her around the stage while pointing around the room showing her hell. Still showing signs of confusion she walks away and looks back at the white screen. James and Chris are at either side of the screen doing grotesque movements and actions behind the screen keeping Liza, as well as the audience guessing what they're doing. Not allowing Liza to have a look I drag her way from the screen. Chris and James then pull out three chairs for us to sit in.
Once we're sat down Me, James, and Chris freeze with huge grins on our faces. Liza then walks up to us trying to figure out what's happening. However James and I then grab her arm, and throw her into Chris. Me, James and Chris then hold hands, making Liza be in the middle unable to escape. Us three then skip around her in a child-like, playful manner singing 'Ring-a-ring o' Roses'.
The adventure then ends after we sing "...We all fall down!" and Liza falls to the floor while Me, James and Chris walk off behind the screen leaving Liza on the floor (CS).

Performance Evaluation

In Siobhan's lesson we had to watch our performance of naturalism on video. Despite cringing the whole way through watching it, I managed to make notes on my role as Irina, the audience, and interaction between characters.

I felt throughout most of the performance I managed to sustain my character physically. I was able to have my back straight when sitting down and when I was walking around the stage. Also, at the beginning when I was reading while Koolyghin and Masha were talking I believe I came across as shy and reserved by having my head down reading the book and looking up at the two once in a while. However I did think i slipped out of character and found myself slouching while I was sat down talking to Olga.
Vocally, I was surprised at how I managed to enunciate my words properly and pronounce my t's as I had trouble doing so during rehearsals. I do think the projection of my voice could have been louder. Irina is very quiet and withdrawn compared to the other sisters but I do think I still could have projected my voice better.

I was pleased with the audience response. It was difficult gain a sense of how the audience felt about our performance as the scene we were given was a very serious. It consisted of Irina's breakdown and her eagerness to go back to Moscow to find love. However, in the scene there were elements of comedy and humour  to add some comic relief to the piece.
Throughout the rehearsal period I was worried the audience wouldn't be able to capture the humour of the performance. Fortunately, the audience understood it and laughed at the bits that were supposed to be funny.

As a group, being given a play about three sisters, it was important we had to show chemistry between us on stage. I felt during the performance we were able to interact with eachother properly. During most of the scene, I had to confide in my older sister Olga and I think the bond between us two on stage worked. It portrayed Olga's role as the older sister who had to look after everybody. Although me and Masha don't have a lot of dialogue between each other I do think our relationship came across clear to the audience. It was obvious we do not get along with each other, but do however care for one another.
For example, when I approach her talking about our brother Andrey she ignores me. But when I talk to Olga about Moscow, and how unfulfilled my life is, although the proximity between us two is far, we were still able to communicate with each other using facial expressions.

Evening of Naturalism Poster - Final Draft

As part of our assigment with Michael, we had to design a poster for our performance using 'Adobe Photoshop'. This would enable use to use our creative skills, and develop and understanding of other area's besides performing such as marketing, graphic designing and the ability to effectively use digital imagery.

In the first part of the process, Michael went through a brief introduction of Photoshop and showed us the basics and features that could be use to create an effective poster. The posters had to include:

• Name of the event
• Venue (Arts Depot - Studio Theatre)
• Date and Time (15th November, 7.30pm)
• Tickets and price 
• Box Office number
• Running order of the show - A Doll's House, Three Sisters, The Seagull, and Top Girls.

 My Development
After Michael's introduction, I decided to play around with Photoshop. I got some images off Google of the plays and added some effects to see which ones I would consider using and which ones I thought didn't work. An effect I used to play around with was the 'Blur' tool. I used to to blur out a bit of the image while a section of it was still in focus. The image I found was of the 'Three Sister' and a few of the other characters in the play. I decided to blur out the other characters so the focus would be on the three sisters. I thought the effect did work as the sisters are the main characters of the play and the narrative of the play on a whole revolves around them.

However I chose to go for a more simplistic approach to designing  the poster and decided to use... a tree! I felt by adding too much to the poster it would end up looking messy, and it might even put the audience off.

I believe the tree managed to represent the essence of 'Nature'. The only changes made from the original picture was the added motion blur. I also decided to add a black outline around the text as it was very difficult to read with the white text against the background.


End result: