Practitioners
A practitioner, in theatre terms, refers to a figure in the field of performing arts who has, in some was, redefined the area in which they work. You need to be aware of a whole series of practitioners in order to fully appreciate the development of the theory of the stage. During classes we will be exploring the work of Stanislavski; this study will be supported if you all have a basic understanding of the practitioners that came after him.
Each of you is to research one of the names on the list below and post a six bullet point overview of their life and work.
You are not to create the list from the first six things you find out. Visit a series of sources and decide what six key details you should include to well represent the figure.
Practitioners
Bertolt Brecht
Antonin Artaud
Edward Gordon Craig
Peter Brook
Lee Strasberg
Augusto Boal
Keith Johnstone
Make sure your response is of a decent length and include the sources you use at the end.
Lee Strasberg;
ReplyDelete*Born November 17, 1901, died February 17, 1982. He was born in what is now Ukraine, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
*He is recognised as being the main promoter of Stanislavsky's 'Method Acting', the use of emotion memory etc.
*He was acting in plays in New York by the age of fifteen, in the Christie Street Settlement House. Later on, he had began taking acting lessons at the American Laboratory Theatre, two of his instructors knowing Stanislavsky and his techniques through first hand experience.
*In the 1920s, Strasberg started work with the 'Theatre Guild', a New York acting group, as an actor and stage manager.
*Disillusioned with the state of theatre in America at the time, Strasberg, as well as drama critics/actors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford created the Group Theatre, in an attempt to establish an acting troupe based on more wholesome principals, than the commercial ones American theatre displayed at the time.
*In 1947, members of the Group Theatre had created 'The Actors Studio Inc.', to which Strasberg was invited, becoming Artistic Director. Becoming leader of the outfit by 1951, he tutored promising actors in the disciplines of acting, such stars as Marlon Brando, Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman benefiting from Strasberg's teaching; his preaching of Stanislavsky's method. He continued his work with theatre up until his death at the age of 80.
Sources;
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Strasberg
-http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/568111/Lee-Strasberg
-http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Lee_Strasberg.aspx
Edward Gordon Craig;
ReplyDeleteBorn 16 January 1872 and died on 29 July 1966, he was born in england and died in france.
In 1908 craig was introduced to constantin stanislavski and helped him with the production of hamlet in the moscow arts theatre which opened in 1911. After getting settled in italy he went on and created a school of theatrical design with help and support from lord howard de waldon.
Many people considered craig extreemly hard to work with because he would not take on a production unless he had full artistic control, this eventually went on to withdrawal from practical theatre production.
Craig is most famous for his idea of using 'neutral, mobile, non-representational screens as a staging device'
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Craig%27s_design_%281908%29_for_Hamlet_1-2_at_Moscow_Art_Theatre.jpg
(this is a picture of Craig's 1908 design for Hamlet at Moscow Art Theatre)
Source;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Gordon_Craig#Career
Bertolt Brecht was born on the 10 February 1898 in Augsburg and he died on the 14 August 1956 of a heart attack at the age of 58 he was buried in Berlin.
ReplyDeleteIn July 1916 Bertolt Brechy newspaper articles started to come under the name of Bret Brecht. In 1919 he wrote his first theatre criticism newspaper article.
The result of Brecht's research was a technique known as "alienation effect". It was designed to encourage the audience to retain their critical detachment. His theories resulted in a number of "epic" dramas, among them Mother Courage and Her Children which tells the story of a travelling trader who earns her living by following the Swedish and Imperial armies with her covered wagon and selling them supplies such as clothing, food, brandy, etc. As the war grows more intense, Mother Courage finds that this work has put her and her children in danger, but the old woman determinedly refuses to give up her wagon. Mother Courage and Her Children was both a triumph and a failure for Brecht. Although the play was a great success, he never managed to achieve in his audience the unemotional, rational response he desired. Audiences never fail to be moved by the difficulty of the stubborn old woman.
Brecht would go on to write a number of modern masterpieces including The Good Person of Szechwan and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. In the end, Brecht's audience determinetly went on being moved to terror and pity. However, his experiments were not a failure. His dramatic theories have spread across the globe, and he left behind a group of dedicated disciples known today as "Brechtians" who continue to spread his teachings.
source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht#Theory_and_practice_of_theatre
http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc15.htm
Keith Johnstone:
ReplyDelete1. Born in 1933 in Devon England, by 1950 he had become a play-right and a director.
2. Johnstone hated school he believed it made him shy, self-conscious and blunted his imagination.
3. Another belief was the creation of more spontaneous performers. Saying lines such as 'Don't concentrate', 'Don't think' and 'be obvious and don't be clever'
4. He introduced the term 'status transactions' into the theatre, this involved thinking that people change there social status to get what they want. He created workshops where student would at in different classes.
5. Johnstone has wrote two books these being: Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre and Impro For Storytellers.
6. Johnstone had a keen intrest in masks, to once again show different social roles and emotional states. It was reported that the student came so involved with their characters when using masks, that fellow instructors became frightened. Johnstone believed this was down to the fact that masks allow student to 'let go of their day to day identity'
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Johnstone
http://www.keithjohnstone.com/
since i didnt read the task proberbly and only wrote 4 bullet points last time here is another 2 bullet to make six
ReplyDeleteBrecht's plays reflected a Marxist interpretation of society and when Adolf Hitler gained power in 1933 he was forced to flee from Germany. While living in exile he wrote anti-Nazi plays such as The Roundheads and the Peakheads and Fear and Misery of the Third Reich. This was followed by Galileo (1939), Mother Courage (1939), The Good Man of Szechuan (1941), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1941) and the Caucausian Chalk Circle (1943).
in 1949 bretolt founded the berliner Ensemble and ove the bext fewe years it became one of the famous theatre companys in the germany. In the last few years of brecht's life he wrote a new play called the day of the commune.
source:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAbrecht.htm