Our introduction to Brecht has taken me by surprise, I imagined Brecht to be a rather obvious and simple style of acting. In reality Brecht's teachings offer us as actors an opportunity to 'represent' rather than 'become'.
After an entire term of Stanislavsky which obviously requires the actor to think about our objectives and super-objectives, Brecht is a refreshing contrast.
Betolt Brecht hoped to highlight the constructed nature of the theatrical performance, this made the audiences own reality clearly constructed and therefore changeable.
This would be done for instance by having the actors costume changes on stage. Or by having no offstage. Typically a Brechtian performance would be suitably bare and simple possessing no elaborate props or set features. The simplicity draws the audiences attention to the actors and takes the attention away from the 'irrelevant' features such as costume and set design.
Immediatley I began to think of what plays might work well as Brechtian pieces, I think a good choice would be something like 'Mad About The Boy' or 'The Witness'.
I think these would work because of their small cast and focus on dialogue and not on action.
I am looking forward to a term of exploring a new theatre style that has become an irreplaceable style for some practitioners and directors.
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