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Jordan Cooper Task One – Research into Techniques ‘Theatre Of Cruelty’ A theory created by playwright, actor and theorist, Antonin Artaud who was influenced by Surrealism having once been a member of this movement. He believed that theatre should set to awaken the haunting dream images of our minds. The techniques would involve disturbing the audience through techniques such as movement, which often created violent and uneasy images on stage. Often dance and movement was used instead of the spoken word. Space and the actor and audience’s relationship was a key element that Artaud explored. The relationship between the two was very intimate so often the actors would perform around the audience who would be sat in the centre. This would make the audience feel exposed and uncomfortable. There was an emphasis on light and sound during the performances. It is said that the audience’s sense were ‘assaulted’ with movement and light ‘hence the cruelty’. The light was often used to ‘hypnotise’ its audience to add to the sense of the unknown and disorientation. Artaud only managed to create one piece of drama using his technique, but many modern groups have adapted this technique to use within their shows. In 2011, a group of geography and sociology professors used the technique to explore the struggle of deforestation. These professors “…suggest that theater, more generally, provides structure for cruel performance, and that violent land conflict, together with forest destruction, constitutes a predictable tragedy of theatrical events. In other words, violent land conflict in Amazonia, with all its terrible implication for people and environment, can be grasped as a theatrical structure with philosophic and material consequences for mind and body.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_Cruelty#Modern_activist_application) I find that this technique does seem to some extent quite torturous but I think its main purpose is to release the emotions of the audience to help them to connect to the performance whilst experiences catharsis and feeling empathy towards the actors. To put this theory into practice, I would create an exercise that would make my class feel uncomfortable. I would ask them to sit in a space, alone so they had no company. I’d turn the lights off and ask individuals to walk around the space making noises and invading the class’ personal space. Undoubtedly, this would make everyone feel very uneasy. The Meisner Technique This technique was formed by the American practitioner, Sanford Meisner to help develop the actor externally often through repetition. The main focus with this technique is on the other actor and not on your personal internal thoughts. Meisner wanted the actor to live in the moment and to learn what it means to respond truthfully to a given moment based on how your partner responds to you. The technique relies on repetition and helps the actor to make a scene more believable because it allows them to get into character. Famous actors such as Sandra Bullock, James Franco and Tom cruise use this technique, proving the technique has benefits and works for even the highly experienced actors. The benefits of this technique appear to be that it teaches an actor to relate to a character their playing from the heart, not just purely from the lines they are saying. An exercise idea: - - Two actors face each other and try and place their attention on each other Lines are spoken: ACTOR 1: You’re calming yourself ACTOR 2: I’m calming myself ACTOR 1: You’re calming yourself. ACTOR 2: I’m calming myself. ACTOR 1: You’re calming yourself. This will improve the actors improvisation skills and the ability to respond in the moment Stanislavski – ‘The Magic If’ ‘The Magic If’ was developed and used by Constantin Stanislavski as part of his ‘system’, which involved many techniques. Stanislavski believed that the truth that appeared onstage was different to that in real life but should be so believable that the audience believed the action to be true. Therefore, he created this technique to achieve this. The technique involves the actor asking questions of their character and situation such as, ‘what would I do IF I found myself in this circumstance?’ This allows the actor to use their personal feelings and answers but through their characters actions resulting in a performance that would be more believable and truthful. To put this into practice, I would give my class a situation each and a character. I would ask two characters to enter the situation, which would be a ‘scene’ and ask them to act it out through improvisation. I would then stop the scene and ask them how they, personally, would respond to it. After asking questions, I would then ask the two characters to take part in the scene again having thought through their actions and feelings. Brecht – ‘Verfremdungseffekt’ This technique created by Bertolt Brecht sounds very complex when in fact it has a very simple meaning. The technique simply means alienating the audience from the action happening on stage. Brecht was against cathartic theatre because he believed that if the audience become emotional attached to what they are watching, they will lose the ability to think and judge. He wanted the audience to feel distanced so that they could sit and think and make rational judgments about the social issues Brecht involved in his work. The technique mainly involved breaking the ‘fourth wall’. This could be achieved through narration. A narrator would remind the audience throughout that what they are watching is just a story and would sometimes tell us what is about to happen to prepare us mentally so that we don’t become emotionally attached. Secondly, a character may sometimes come out of role and explain his feelings before entering the scene. Stage directions were spoken which forced the audience to study the actions of the character with an objective in mind. Direct address and placards were also used to break that wall. The positives that come out of this technique are that, often Brecht wrote about political issues, which at the time were very current to the audience. Brecht has the ability to force the audience to think about their views on the situation because he was pulling them away from the emotions and would not allow them to feel attached. To explore this technique, I would ask the class to think of a classic story such as ‘Romeo and Juliet’. I would give them 15 minutes to devise a piece of theatre based on this plot but in the style of Brecht whilst involving at least three of the different techniques used to create the Verfremdungseffekt.