"The biomechanical system can be defined not only as a system for the basic grounding of actors and stage articulation, but also of a global theatrical system." * film acting: stanislavsky.us [ advertising space : webmaster ] * The Images (The Album) are still not all in place! [new from vTheatre -- GeoAlaska, links to my graphic files are in the list minipages] * 2007 updated : brecht + epic theatre pages [ textbook part2 ] epic theatre definition * virtual theatre NEW google.com/group/acting2 From Epic Theatre Summary Epic Theatre Go to... BM One 12th Night Taming of the Shrew Don Juan Theatre w/Anatoly Film-North my mailing list blog Theatre UAF my shows Theatre Theory The Possessed 2003 biblio appendix links list new faq glossary * one act fest The Moving Body: Teaching Creative Theatre by Jacques Lecoq -- Jacques Lecoq was born in Paris in 1921. He taught until the day before his death in 1999. David Bradby is Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at Royal Holloway University of London. His is a director, translator, and the author of, among other books, Mise en scene: French Theatre Now. Notes see Epic Theatre page! From ACTING Textbook, part 2. Presentational vs. Representational Acting (BM Cycles in Acting 1?) * see acting2 group pages! Please, read acting for the camera pages in advance: Actors in Film Directing, Film in BM and Camera in Method Acting -- before we have video-sessions in class! You have to have your monologues shots-broken (Actor's Text). Epic Theatre ... [ on film acting -- where? "The 6th" Approach? ] ... Each chapter in part 2 -- new lesson (5 * 6 * 7 * 8) = p.61 textbook Episode (segment) and action unit No cause and effect (Dada and absurd scenes) "Objective" and Constructivist Theatre (Expressionism) Gest -- Kabuki (Mikado, parody), Commedia Episodes and Captions (Poster Idea: 1. WHAT happends? 2. WHO makes it happen? 3. To WHOM does it happen?) Report to the audience (75) = No 4th Wall Demostration (A-Effect) Transitions The Gest Terms (glossary): ... the object lesson ( prop and ... ) The Chart (80) : Basic Unit * Key Question * Dramatic Action Ch. 5. Combining Episodes Playing an Opposition ("naked conflict") --> counter-actions Alienation, Take 2 Plot and Story (according to Kaplan) Tableaux Marx and Dialectic (Hegel) Ch 6. 3 Lives in the Episodic Theatre (105) : Meyerhold, Piscator, Brecht ... Notes on Epic Theatre * Galileo [ script : Life of Galileo (Paperback) by Bertolt Brecht (Author), John Willett (Author), Ralph Manheim (Author) 978-1559702546 ] [my wishlist title? ] Epic Theatre Notes [ key points ] ... After Brecht: British Epic Theater By Janelle G. Reinelt * Published 1994 University of Michigan Press Plays / Drama ISBN 0472084089 Performing Brecht By Margaret Eddershaw - Performing Arts - 1996 - 200 pages Performing Brecht is an unprecedented history of the productions of Brecht's plays in Britain over forty years Brecht Sourcebook By Henry Bial, Carol Martin - 2000 - 256 pages These essays are an ideal companion to Brecht's plays Limited preview - Table of Contents - About this book books.google.com * web-show : pomo.vtheatre.net (Utopia Project) : virtual theatre files ... 2007 Life of Galileo From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia : The plot of the play concerns the latter period of the life of Galileo Galilei, the great Italian natural philosopher, who was persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church for the promulgation of his scientific discoveries. The play embraces such themes as the conflict between the dogmatic church and science, as well as constancy in the face of oppression. Bertolt Brecht (category) ...

BM Acting II: Episodic Techniques

Read intro and Brecht (script.vtheatre.net).

Unlike "Aristotlean" drama, Epic Theatre works with "episodic structure" (simular to movie scripts).

Paying Oppositions

Terms: Episode, Caption (in the style of tabloid newspapers).

Tasks:
Identifying roles (types)
Report to the audience (no 4th Wall)
Demonstration (open to see)
Transitions (identify them)
The gest

[ use film terminology, montage and dialectic ]

Episodic Analysis (Kaplan):
* Basic unit: the episode, an event that happens on stage, understood by the audience.
* Key question: actor -- "What do I do?"
* Dramatic action: a transition between characters, clarified by a gest at the moment when the transition is successfully completed or fall apart.

Tableaux

( exerc. in class )

Review: opposition -- contradictions, simultaneous or sequential, deliberetly included in a performance in order to create a dynamic fusion of opposing forces.

alienation -- making the familiar seem strange by taking what is familiar out of context.

Tips (Kaplan):

1. Read the stage directions aloud

2. Unifying image (poster)

3. The intended reaction of the audience. Episodic acting encourages the audience to synthesizs a story from the progression of episodes. Brecht wanted his audience to sit in judgement of the action. (101)

4. The illusion of character

5. The relative theory: Marxism -- Epic Theatre, Freud -- Method

[ scenes in class ]

Lesson # 60 or 90 min 1. review (previous class) 2. overview 3. new key terms & definitions 4. monologues & scenes 5. issues & topics 6. questions, discussion, analysis 7. in class work 8. feedback 9. improv & games 10. reading 11. homework 12. online, journals 13. quiz Links Class Project (after the midterm) Chekhov, Ibsen, Shakespeare Actingland.com - Acting resources, career guides, and casting information.

The performer’s discipline was further dissected and tested by Meyerhold’s insistence on breaking down every instant of an individual’s performance to ensure that the instant has no superfluous elements, and adds to the objectives of the piece.

"The co-ordinated manifestations of excitability together constitute the actor’s performance. Each separate manifestation comprises of an acting cycle [element of excitement].

Each acting cycle comprises three invariable stages :

Intention.
Realisation
Reaction

The intention is the intellectual assimilation of a task prescribed externally by the dramatist, the director, or the initiative of the performer.

The realisation is the cycle of volitional1, mimetic2 and vocal reflexes.

The reaction is the attenuation of the volitional reflex as it is realised mimetically and vocally in preparation for the reception of a new intention (the transition to a new acting cycle)…"

1 The term ‘feelings’ is used in the strictly technical sense with no loose, sentimental connotation. The same applies to ‘volitional.’ The word is used on the one hand the ‘inspirational’ method of acting (and the systematic use of narcotic stimulants ), and on the other the method of ‘authentic emotions’ (the hypnotic conditioning of the imagination)…

2 ‘Mimetic reflexes’ comprise all the movements performed by the separate parts of the actor’s body and the movements of the entire body in space.

[Meyerhold’s notes]."

NB

Next : mise en scene

1. ‘Certain changes of emphasis as between the dramatic and the epic theatre’ (37)

Meyerhold trained under Nemirovich-Danchenko, and joined the Moscow Arts Theatre at its formulation in 1898. Although Meyerhold both performed and directed under Stanislavsky in the naturalism style, he eventually formulated his own ideas on theatre, which were so different from the Moscow Arts Theatre’s that he had to leave. Meyerhold considered the art of the performer dead under Stanislavsky, he suggested that naturalism is a sort of hypnotism, removing control of what happens on stage from the actor, and giving it to a fictional character. [ * ]

http://picasaweb.google.com/anatoly.antohin/EpicTheatre

http://picasaweb.google.com/anatoly.antohin/Meyerhold

http://picasaweb.google.com/anatoly.antohin/ACTING

It doesn't contradict the concept of "motivation" (Method); simply an approach from "outside-in".

Mark the stages in your Actor's Text breakdown.

"Emotional Structure" -- plot

Start with the monologue!

I use Leonardo Da Vinci drawings (identify the theme-emotion in each, give a name).

Connect the changes in "emotional soulscape" with the movement (left and right notes in your Actor's Text).

"Face breakdown" -- how the emotion is expressed (eyes, mouth, head position and etc.)

Captions -- define (discribe) each moment (as if for freez-frames).

Check for psychological truth in evolution (story) of emotional path.

This technique is very useful for film acting (closeup and shot-by-shot approach)

... Leonardo and ... gest ("master gesture" page?)

[ images : Galileo (web-show) ]

http://www.nmsu.edu/~honors/galileo/main_galileo_page.htm Brecht's Galileo * Dramlit THR215

An online course supplement * Film-North * Anatoly Antohin * eCitations *
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