Take Me Out

In this lesson we decided that the Nazi speed dating was not working and was not sitting well with us, so we wanted to explore other ways we could be speed dating whilst adding a little X factor to our scene. We decided in a moment of genius to have Hitler appearing on a Nazi version of Take Me Out. This works fantastically and we are soon devising an exciting and involving piece. We immediately loved the idea and started looking at how Paddy McGuinness welcomes people on the show and we decided to incorporate that. We thought this would make it a lot funnier and a lot more topical we all agreed this was a brilliant step forward in our piece and that it would drastically improve our scene. We rehearsed and decided that Hitler would come up to the song ,I'm too sexy for my shirt' ,we also agreed that he would say some outrageous statements that we would ask the audience clapped and that the girls would say reasonable statements and we would request the audience to boo! We also decided we would have one girl, who thought that Hitler hadn't killed enough Jews and we thought Hitler could ask the girls what they would do with his industrial size ovens. The starting point made for a shocking yet hilarious scene, at the same time exactly what I wanted to get from my audience along.

Preparing for our Protest

In this protest lesson we finalised what we would be doing for our protest we decided that we would bring in our native clothes. We would have pictures and signs, The pictures will be of our various groups that we are representing and signs will be questions such as 'Would you sit next to me on the bus?' or 'Would you call an ambulance for me if I was hurt?'. This was clever because were trying to get people to question themselves, because we do all judge people by how they look. We decided to have a tally using postet notes to get the general reaction of the school populous. In this lesson we also decided that we would a firm, but calm approach to people. This protest works extremely well with our play, because it allows us to explore people reactions to various situations and it also allows us to understand more, how we can approach various political subjects. I think this was an invaluable exercise whilst studying Brecht, because it gives you a feel for politics.

The Audiences Feeling

I found this picture and I think this is how the audience should feel, laughing on the outside, but crying at the fact they are laughing. Unfortunately I could not upload the photo because of technical difficulties, but it a picture of a young boy in clown makeup crying reservadly

Nazi Speed-Dating

In this lesson we decided to look at our newspaper article which was the former head of the EDL becoming a member of a Muslim organisation. To do this we thought we would go back to 1938 and look at what it would be like if Hitler fell in love with a Jew namedly Anne Frank. We thought we would have Hitler doing some not see speed dating in Starbucks where he meets, a disabled person, a gay, black person and a Jew. We decided to make it Brechtian that we would have a black girl playing the Jew a white girl playing the black girl, and a girl playing the gay man. We scripted out little conversations between them and tried them several times. We also had possible idea of segregating the audience from black and white to make them think about the history and how they have moved on from that terrible time. We tried these ideas a few times however they did not sit particularly well, we did, on the other hand show them to jack, and he suggested that perhaps we might introduce the show and segregate the audience on their moment of entrance. He also suggested I may give a speech at the beginning saying that we would specify we allowed; no flash photography, no phones and no Jews in the auditorium. I thought this was very Brechtian and would add to the shock value of our scene and allow people to think.

Protest Preparation

In this lesson we return to our protests and decided that we would do stop and search laws and how some people view them as institutionally racist. Unfortunately this didn't last long and eventually after some deliberation we decided to look at how people judge others based on the way they look particularly focusing on race and religion. After the deliberation in this lesson we decided we will perform in the reception area and that we would all bring in clothes from our native countries to question peoples morals in terms of others.

Brecht's Characterisation Continued

Following on from the previous two posts, we looked at how Brecht deals with characterisation in a similar way to, say, Comedia del Arte with a use of over the top stock characters. We also looked at the physicalisation of these characters and how many can seem similar, such as the pregnant lady and business man, and how these are all stereotypical archetypal characters. We each took a character and played out a scene involving those characters, where at some point, we would find out that these characters were effected by a strike that was happening elsewhere. It was interesting to see how these characters reacted when played almost as caricatures. This certainly was an insight into how Brecht intended theatre to be viewed.

Special Brew Drunk

We paired up as girls and boys, and both given the chance to manipulate the other. so one had to stand still, whilst Jack instructed them on what to do to the other to create a character, such as bottom out noes forward and crooked back. The women together with doing various other things and to imagine a coin clinched in between their buttocks allowing to walk in a certain way. This is the start of our look at Brechtian characterisation.