Occupy Movement.

The Occupy Movement was an international protest movement against social and economic inequality. They aim to protest against political views they have issues with, yet their priority and main goal is to make the economic structure and power relations in society more equal than they are now.

There were more occupy movement protests before the Occupy Wall Street in New York City's Zucotti Park, (which began on 17th September 2011) but this was the first one to receive wide coverage. This then influenced so many more as, like the protesters were hoping, more people around the world discovered they had  the same opinion and the same views so decided to join in the fight to change something they strongly believe in, having it been in the 2 minutes since they came across it or 2 years, just finding the passion and the power to make the change after seeing someone else take the first step.

The occupy movements go about their protests in non-violent ways, only causing long term and inconvenient damage to achieve what they want: taking general strikes, picketing, internet activism. They take direct action, an approach that they feel is more likely to get them what they want.

Brecht believed that psychological theatre focused too heavily on facial expressions and it meant that gesture dried up. He wanted people to investigate the body language of a class and their habits, manners and customs.

Brecht was not interested in psychological drama that presents the mental attitude and actions of its protagonists as God given are unknown forces.

He wanted to display characters actions as choices a person makes because of the social factors effecting them.

The Protest Improv.

I believed this was really effective. With the class split into 2, one side was cast as the over protective parent and the other side were the delinquent teenagers. This exercise enabled you to get into a stereotype of these two characters and even though we only played one of the characters, we were able to see from both perspectives.

DO-RE-MI

One of our tasks was to pair up and do some off text improvisation from the playwright Neil Labute and his play we're studying In the Beginning. We focused on Brecht's theory of prioritising actions and gestures over emotions when saying our lines. I found this particularly hard to grasp to begin with, I won't lie. I think this was purely because I've been taught and trained with act with emotion for so long now it was difficult to push this habit aside and try something new. When I perform, I have a habit of getting emotionally attached to my character and I tell the story with my facial expressions as opposed to hand gestures... which isn't Brecht like at all!

We then added singing to our scenes. We had to be sure not to make this seem entertaining or funny as the singing is used purely for commentary. It informs the audience what is going on in detail as sometimes it's not entirely comprehensible. They narrate with their voices which does give some entertainment but not for the wrong reasons.

Lesson 2 - Alienation

With most theatre, the plays and actors emotionally invest in the situations they're acting in and this is influenced on the audience, so then they begin to become emotionally involved in the scene and focus more on how and why they are saying something as opposed to what they were actually saying.

Example:

I presented this clip to the general public and asked them what they thought of it and what they thought was going on. The main result was:

"Well the redhead is clearly frustrated and angry at the other woman. She's shouting and her facial expressions shows how pissed off she is. The actress really plays the character and you can tell." When I asked them what they were arguing about, none of them could tell me. Brecht doesn't want this to happen when people watched his plays. He wanted people to know what the conversation was between his characters, not how it made them feel. Explaining Brecht's theory, I showed the clip again and asked what they thought was going on.

"Bianca is annoyed at her mother because she always seems to get in her business and is always involved in her daughter's life. Carol acts as if she knows it all and Bianca says she doesn't. Carol is sticking up for Ricky because Bianca has cheated on him and Bianca hits back that her mum is just jealous because Bianca is happy whilst she has never been so."

Due to this, Brecht wanted his actors to focus more on gestures and actions than emotions.

Lesson 1 - Questions.

1. How much time do you spend texting, on social networking sites, watching TV or playing video games?

Honestly? I wouldn't be able to count. A lot. A lot, a lot, a lot. My Twitter account is like my child, as
psychotic as that sounds… -In this modern day society you pretty much have everything technological on your phone so you don’t have to go out of your way to text or play a game or check in on Facebook as it’s all sitting in your front pocket. It’s not like it’s even a waste of time because you can do it all when you’re on the go: on the trains back from school, walking to the shops, the last few moments in bed before you fall asleep. You’re not deliberately wasting time, or at least you don’t realise you are, and it all adds up.

 
2. What would you like to change?

I would like to change the way people see others. Well, to an extent anyway. The reality is, sometimes you can’t help but judge someone. It’s not a spiteful intention; it’s just the way of life. As soon as you see someone for the first your first natural instinct may be to collect your first impressions of them which sometimes can be categorised as judgements, and then you spend the rest of the time separating the facts from the judgement the more you get to know them. Some things simply can’t be helped, I understand that, but I truly desire to change people’s opinions on things/choices/lifestyles that do not affect them: for example, gay people. There are so many homophobic people out there and it really does grate my cheese. Like, homophobic? Phobic? As in phobia? As in scared of gay people? What the hell! You’re not scared, you’re just a moron. I would love to change those who voice their “phobias” like it’s something to be proud of, oppressing and judging someone because of their sexual orientation. Just let people be who they want to be and if it doesn’t affect you then shut the hell up. I would love to change the way some people treat others differently depending on their appearance. It sounds dated and cliché that “it matters what’s on the inside” but that really does count. What’s it to you that someone has different interests, different music taste, they dress differently, speak differently, believe in different things? People should be able to just be themselves and who are you to stop that? Yeah, that’s what I’d change.

 

3. What power do you have?

 I have the power of freedom. The power of speech. The power of doing what I feel is best and necessary and influencing those to follow me. I have the power of self-belief. If I truly believe I can do something I will… It’s just about recognising those powers. The problem is, people don’t realise that we can all make a massive change if we just take the first step, which can involve something so simple like speaking.

 

 4. What do you have plenty of?

 I have plenty of dreams, inspirations and support. I have plenty of dreams that get me out of bed every morning, dreams that turn into plans that leave me with a goal to achieve and as long as I still have that goal insight, I’ll always be alive. I have plenty of money, and I mean that in the least materialistic and shallow way. I have a great job that pays extremely well and I realise I am better off than most people my age and even some older. I have the love from those around me and the reassurance that whatever I do, say or want, they will be there with me.

 
5. What am I scarce off?

 There are many things in life that I could do with more of, which is probably the way everybody feels. The main thing would probably be time. Money is great but, obviously, it simply cannot buy time. In life, you spend so much of your time worrying about things that don’t actually matter and not enough time doing the things that though. Lately I find I don’t have time to stop as there is just so much going on in my life. If I could squeeze a few more hours into the day that would be great.

 
6. What do you believe in?

I believe in that if you truly want something in life you can get it. There are only a few factors that could prevent this but I also believe there are always ways around it. It’s all about having that drive, that fire in your belly that means you won’t settle for anything but your dream. When life gives you lemons, you throw that lemon back at them and say “screw you, I want a fruit bowl.” Or, something like that. The point is you need to want something enough and if you do, you’re willing to work for it and I can guarantee it’ll be yours.

Me and Berty back in the day x x

What is political theatre?

Political theatre challenges the 'norm.' To begin with, I assumed politics referred to David Cameron and the Government and so the theatrical side of it must be a group of actors’ reinacting Parliament... which is stupid, I know. Once I actually thought about it, I came to the conclusion that politics is so much wider than that in terms of what it is and what it entails. Political theatre addresses the issues of current events central to society through performance. Some performances aim to encourage a change in the audiences’ perspective on how they see some of the world and some wish to at least show an awareness of it.

 
Political theatre challenges you, makes you think about issues that have never even entered your mind before. Something you never even knew existed can be communicated to you through the movements of theatre and suddenly you have an opinion on it so strong you feel you can change the world, which is influenced.

 
I believe, to a certain extent, all theatre is political/has some political elements or aspect to it, whether it is a character’s belief, life choice or even job. Political theatre does have the power to change the world and how we as individuals interpret it, and that’s what is most exciting. It mixes something so controversial and powerful with an art that can do well to spread the messages we so desperately want heard.