Download Approaches to Acting Meyerhold and Boal Bree Smith

Drama HSC Course
Approaches to Acting: Meyerhold and Boal
Bree Smith
Drama practitioners, Vsevolod Meyerhold and Augusto Boal, overlapping in periods of
theatrical history, had similar aims to revolutionise the theatre. Both practitioners aimed to
transform the theatre through creating a new method of actor training, contradicting previous
theatre styles, changing the role of the body in performances and engaging the audience at a
greater level. Boal’s Arsenal for Theatre of the Oppressed and Meyerhold’s Biomechanics
include games in their actor-training systems that seek to achieve these aims which they felt
would have a dramatic effect upon the world of theatre.
Meyerhold was a Russian practitioner born in 1874, and is known for his development of
Biomechanics, a contradictory theatre that revealed the unpredictable aspects of life through
machine-like movements and clashing scenes. His theatre was a response to the lack of
realism taught in teachers Stanslavski and Danchenko’s regimes which he believed was a
mediocre attempt at reflecting daily life, belief that theatre should have more depth than
repeating the everyday reality one experiences.
Meyerhold had four main aims for his Biomechanics theatre. The first aim being that he wished
to establish his own method of actor training; yearning to eliminate Stanislavski’s influence of
“The Method,” which relied heavily upon recreating a moment through voice and facial
expressions, and very little upon using the body, therefore tying into his other aim, to change
the role of the body in performances. Meyerhold felt that Realism had been stripped of body
movements that helped to tell the story, as it relied heavily on dialogue and extreme emotion to
lead the scenes, so using these as their theatre’s only expressive mediums, the body had lost
its impact, therefore he brought the use of the body up to par with the use of voice and facial
expressions. His final aim was to engage the audience and eradicate Naturalisms shortcoming
actor-audience relationship, which denied audience members the right to imagine and take
responsibility, as they were mainly passive and weren’t appreciated.
Meyerhold had much reasoning for his creation of the theatrical style of Biomechanics,
firstly he felt that the body of an actor was the most important part of theatre, as it was able to
evoke the imagination of the audience and bring them from out of their passive state, yet it was
still economical as through his training system actors were able to express emotion through
their fluid motions, “Utmost precision, purposefulness and economy.. Movement is the most
powerful means of theatrical expression.”1
Biomechanics theatre is also a response to communism, Meyerhold viewed the communist
government alike to a machine, overly organised, where every person made up the cogs in a
machine therefore through his etudes he is able to reveal communism for what he felt it really
was, a controlling and oppressive structure which saw its people as no more than an
apparatus.
Meyerhold built his Biomechanical theatre in refutation to much of Stanislavski’s conventions,
one of the most imperative reasons was that Realism did not provide the audience with the
means to think about issues in their society, but just provided them with entertainment for an
hour, so Meyerhold created his theatre to entertain as well as be stimulus for thought.
Meyerhold was spurred on to create his theatre because of other theatre styles such as
Naturalism-which he felt restricted the actors skills as well as vetoed the audience; Commedia
Dell’Arte-which influenced much of the movement of actors and satirical characteristics of his
1
Pitches, Jonathan. Vsevolod Meyerhold. London: Routledge, 2003.
plays including the playful nature; as well as Constructivism- which influenced Biomechanics
greatly through emphasising machine-like movements.
Meyerhold was able to achieve these aims through his Biomechanics theatre through his
games and exercises, called the Etudes, a series of stylised movements which develop the
actor through concentrating on the skills of precision, balance, coordination, efficiency, rhythm,
expressiveness, responsiveness and playfulness with discipline. Thus, through his training of
the Etudes, his actors needed no more than this for successful execution of his Biomechanical
theatre. Involved in the etudes is the break-down of movement which is otkas, posil, stoika and
tochka, which is respectively the preparation of movement or pre-movement, the action itself,
the moment of contact and the rest at the end of the movement. Meyerhold saw these as key to
his theatre because it gave form and structure to the movement seen on stage, and discipline
to movements yet still lively.
Meyerhold had five etudes that ranged from solo to partnered pieces, an example of a
partnered piece is ’The Slap,’ which develops numerous skills that are key to Meyerhold’s
theatre.
We are able to see constructivism’s influence through the development of precision in the
piece, through repetition of stages such as tap-dancing and the hand-shake, because he saw
that his actors could develop precision through repeating movements and becoming more
economical in movement.
Balance was developed through precision, as Meyerhold demanded his actors to stand in
anomalous positions where their feet were twisted, making it hard for the actor to stay stable.
We are able to see this through the person who is administrating the slap’s feet position after
coming into contact with the face, where they crouch with arms outstretched.
Co-ordination is required not only within the actor where there are stages when both arms and
legs are to be used, but also between actors in their movements, such as in the dactyl, where
being in sync is required because of the jump and clapping of hands. This stage also relies
heavily on otkas, where both actors must be aware of movement of the arms to communicate
when they are about to jump, therefore also incorporating the rhythm of the actors into all
facets of his performance.
Efficiency was a major part of Meyerhold’s theatre, as he believed that the body was more
economical at expressing itself than the voice or body, and can be observed within ‘The Slap’
where the body does have elongated gestures, but are somewhat sparing as they are smooth
and fluid and do not jar erratically, but are organised accurately and efficiently.
Expressiveness is also incorporated into ‘The Slap’ through the immensely prolix movements
that express the images without words, such as the retracting after being slapped, so through
this, we are able to see the aim of Meyerhold’s theatre clearly through the heavy use of body
movement.
Responsiveness is observed in combination with the rhythm of the piece, as the actors have a
heightened sensation of movement and awareness of each others bodies. Through the
development of responsiveness in his etudes, he believes that in performances, the actor was
able to become reflexive to the movements around him, and therefore having the heightened
ability of being in sync.
The final Biomechanical stage is playfulness with discipline, and can be observed in all of
Meyerhold’s Etudes, as the actions that they execute are almost always playful, yet have
discipline incorporated into them, through the machine like movements whilst parading or fluidly
jerky movements in the slap.
Meyerhold believed that through the development of these skills in the Etudes, his trainees will
able to successfully incorporate all of training techniques into their performances without
actually revealing the training regime, as it will be evident through their movements and
rhythmic actions.
Meyerhold included use of the Mask and the Grotesque into his style, this was evident
throughout his performances, just as the Etudes can be observed as performance building
exercises.
Meyerhold used the Mask as a device that could capture the imagination and attention of the
audience. The mask could be created by anything ranging from make-up to facial expression,
as long as it depicted the character in stipulation with it’s external qualities. The mask is
contradictory in nature as it both reveals and conceals opposing forces within the same
character, and is able to represent the past yet be in the moment at the same time. The mask
is demanding of the actor, as it is able to expose the performers faults through compelling him
to use his body to externalise communication , but through the Etudes as building blocks for the
actors skill, the actor becomes impartial to yielding to weakness.
The Grotesque genre was used by Meyerhold to keep the attention of his audience, through
tactics of shocking and unsettling the spectators. Through influences such as E.T.A. Hoffman,
Francisco Goya and Aleksandr Blok, he used this style as it helped to portray incongruities and
challenge the perceptions of an audience, which was what he wished to do on such issues of
communism and the government at the time, thus helping to fulfil many of the aims that
Meyerhold created his theatre for.
Brazilian born Boal, born in 1931, was the founder of Theatre of the Oppressed, a theatre
style that was laden with political nature regarding individuals being oppressed within society,
as it sought to remove individuals from oppression through drama, although he didn’t seek and
was aware that his theatre would not be the grounds for a social revolution, he felt his theatre
would “empower people with the tools for change […] which could change reality,” and
eventually break the tyranny of an individual’s spirit.
Boal‘s aims for his theatre were dissimilar to those of Meyerhold. Boal created his theatre
because he wished to empower people through his games and exercises, which he felt allowed
those undertaking them to recreate them on stage, and through this change themselves from
spectators in a passive state to ‘SpectActors,’ who are involved in the performance and turned
into actors. He wished to change theatre similar to provide his ‘SpectActors’ the opportunity to
change social conditions and oppression in their existence, through providing his ’SpectActors’
with content within his performances such as sexual subjugation, and are provided with the
opportunity to repair the situation, thus they are provided with the ability to strive en route for
societal emancipation in their own existence.
Boal further believed that because of his ‘SpectActors’ oppression in their own lives, their
bodies and psyche have also become oppressed and quintessential. Thus, he believed that
through his exercises and theatre, he could demechanise their bodies and liberate them of their
oppression to display realistic images.
Boal’s main rationale for creating his theatre was to break the chain of oppression, after
experiencing it’s harshness in his home country of Brazil from the 1960’s onwards. His theatre
was also a response to the Ancient Greek Theatres, through showing tragedy in their
oppression, he was able to let this run throughout his performances and let it come to influence
much of his foundations for both Arsenal and throughout his theatre in general. Another
influence upon him was from that of a political writer - Bertold Brecht, where he wished to
educate both actor and audiences experiencing oppression that there is an escape. He was
able to achieve combined pedagogy through his SpectActor convention, where audience and
actors were on the same level and not bound by performance etiquette where they are
alienated from one another.
Boal was able to achieve his aims through his Arsenal, which was seen as his means to
demechanise the body, and fight against the oppression of the mind and body The Arsenal of
Theatre of the Oppressed is grouped under five headings, feeling what we touch, listening to
what we hear, dynamising several senses, seeing what we look at and the memory of the
senses. Under each of these headings, there are a diverse range of exercises that are
executed by both groups and individuals, which vary in degrees of difficulties, but all come
down to the simple aim of demechanising the body as well as the mind. All of these activities
are preparation for performers to implement into forum, image and invisible theatre; all of which
are Boal’s own form of drama that seek to break oppression.
Boal’s actor-training method for his Arsenal in feeling what we touch contain a series of
exercises which he intended for both actors and spectactors to use onstage, and entailed a
series of movements and positions that were designed to demechanise the body and mind and
allow for the performers to convey meaning through the use of their body. Through the use of
certain exercises, performers became aware that touching does not permanently involve handto-hand touching but can use other parts of the body to feel, such us leg-to-leg. As well as this,
Boal used exercises that changed the performers centre of gravity, so instead of carrying all the
weight on feet and legs, Boal challenged his subjects to carry their weight on their face and
shoulder, and to use muscles and other parts of the body that are not commonly used and
have been forgotten. One exercise, Bear of Postiers, challenged the performer to desensitise
the body and control automatic reactions, such as squirming when being tickled etc. This can
be linked to Boal’s image theatre, where one has automatic stereotypes about ideas, and they
create images that depict this stereotype, but when they have been demechanised, they are
able to create an image that has been thought about and is not an automated response to a
generalisation.
Image theatre is a device used by Boal where spectactors shape the body, wether one persons
or a large group of peoples, and use it as a medium to channel feelings, ideas and
relationships that may have aspects of oppression within it. In this theatre, the image of
oppression usually begins with an ideal image, such as a bad day at work, which may be
represented by a safe, stereotypical image of a worker not being able to meet their employers
demands. This image is then manipulated until all agree that it represents a real image, so that
then the reason behind the bad-day at work is that they might not be able to have time off to go
to a social function. From this, each manipulated statue acts as a character in the real image.
Boal’s other main theatre device was Forum Theatre, which includes an issue of oppression
between the protagonist and antagonist, and, like Image theatre, it relies on involvement by the
spectactor, who is empowered with the opportunity to change the situation of oppression for the
protagonist through revolting against the antagonists. This involves Boal’s other device of ‘The
Joker’ who acts as the supervisor of the spectactor and offers guidance and reiterates
characterisation etc whilst allowing the spectactor to find a solution to the oppressive situation.
The Joker is not a teacher or didactic, but facilitates the thoughts and actions of the spectactor
and does not oppress.
Once again, the SpectActor is a major technique used by Boal, as it allows his theatre to
become a joint learning experience where oppression can be seen as a joint hurdle, by actors
and audience alike. In this combination, solutions to oppression are able to be found and
perhaps even translated into the lives of the audience, as was Boal’s aim.
So, through demechanisation of the body through Boal‘s Arsenal, which revolutionises the
muscular, sensory, memory, imagination as well as the emotional aspects of the human being,
it allows the performer to gain dominance over themselves, as well as to exile the oppression
on stage. In forum and invisible theatre, the former being where spectactors are unaware of
their role in the theatre, actors are able to go against the grain and perform in a way that is truly
demechanised and can react in a way that is not banal. Therefore, throughout the arsenal as
well as theatre types created by Boal, actors are able to set in motion a reformation against
oppression and it’s presence in their lives.
Consequently, through both Meyerhold and Boal’s exercises and games in their actortraining schemes, they were able to set in motion and achieve their aims for their theatre, which
was to change theatre, the role of the body and also empower the audience to become
proactive and involved. Through their exercises, they were able to prepare their performers;
Meyerhold wished for his performers to become mechanised and aware of their body
movements and Boal, while also wanting his performers to become aware of their movements,
he wished to do this through a series of exercises which were unorganised and relied on
spontaneity. In many ways alike, both were able to achieve their aims through their extensively
measured actor-training regimes.