Brecht believed classical approaches to theatre were escapist, and he was more interested in facts and reality rather than escapism. Brecht did not want the audience to have any emotional attachment to his characters, so he did various things to break it.
Here are some of the techniques he used. This is where the wall between the audience and actors on stage is broken. Rather than allowing the audience to sit passively and get lost in the show, the actors will sometimes directly address the audience with a speech, comment or a question - breaking the fourth wall.
Short movie clips are put together, often to show factual events. This helps to remind the audience that they are not watching real life.
Sometimes the songs are juxtaposed ironically, with cheery upbeat music but with dark lyrics. Narration is used to remind the audience that they are watching a story. Sometimes the narrator will tell the audience what is about to happen in the story, before it happens, because if the audience knows the outcome then they may not get as emotionally involved.
Brecht believes the stage should be brightly lit at all times. That sets should not be realistic, just suggestive. And that actors should use minimal props, often only one per character. Also props can be used in several different ways, for example a suitcase may become a desk.
Wow tanks alot for em write ups.. Migel, Brecht collaborated with fellow German theatre director Erwin Piscator on a well-known production of a work entitled The Good Soldier Schweik in which film projection was used on stage.
It is believed that Brecht, in collaboration with Piscator, were two of the first directors to successfully use projection in the theatre. I believe the production used projection as scenery, cartoon film and real film John Willett — scholar and author of books on Brecht. This information is a little tricky to find. Sorry my reply was late, but if still relevant I recommend searching books such as Brecht in Context, Brecht on Theatre, Brecht on Performance, Bertolt Brecht Mumford etc for more details, or searching.
A great resource that has helped me develop throughout the entire year. From my Solo performance to developing descriptive language for my Performance analysis, this resource has helped a lot. A fantastic resource, thank you for developing these pages. Expect a lot of hits from South Australia as I will be sharing this with my students as it is so clear and accessible. What is it called when a performance does a breif overview of the play at the start…ie…in a short movment piece.. Does the techniqu have a name?
Not in the slightest. Skip to content Along with Constantin Stanislavski, Bertolt Brecht was one of the two most influential figures of 20th century theatre and the most significant practitioner since World War II. Post navigation Previous Previous. Next Continue. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published.
Hi guys Stumbled apon this site by accident. Hi- what would you say the definition of epic theatre is? And the socio-political context?? HI Elizabeth Have you seen Hamilton. Hi there Brecht was highly influenced by Marxism. What techniques could i teach a class to make them get into brecht more?
Elizabeth, I teach this to my students as an epic theatre technique. Hi Justin what do you mean used to emotionally detach the audience marginally? Well ariculated. Thank You so much guys! As an artist, Brecht was influenced by a diverse range of writers and practitioners including Chinese theatre and Karl Marx.
The turmoil of the times through which Brecht lived gave him a strong political voice. The opposition he faced is testament to the fact that he had the courage to express his personal voice in the world of the theatre. He also had an original and inspired talent to bring out a dynamic theatrical style to express his views.
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