Monday, 30 April 2012

A human being is only breath and shadow - Sophocles

In separate posts...
Over the next few weeks...
Each of you...

Post a description of the characters and scenery that you are creating for your Chinese shadow puppetry project.

Post a link to a good, interesting, entertaining, helpful site that you have found on the subject.

Post a comment on why (whether?) you think moral tales, fables, cautionary stories, stories with messages (propoganda?) are well communicated through puppetry. Why might an audience be inclined to be influenced more by a puppet than a person, after all, there is a person behind the puppet...isn't there? Why might someone learn more from a shadow than a human? Might we learn more from a piece with no words than a traditional spoken play? Might we learn different things?

Post responses to each other's responses.

Team with most/best quality post wins a prize.

A human being is only breath and shadow - Sophocles

In separate posts...
Over the next few weeks...
Each of you...

Post a description of the characters and scenery that you are creating for your Chinese shadow puppetry project.

Post a link to a good, interesting, entertaining, helpful site that you have found on the subject.

Post a comment on why (whether?) you think moral tales, fables, cautionary stories, stories with messages (propoganda?) are well communicated through puppetry.  Why might an audience be inclined to be influenced more by a puppet than a person, after all, there is a person behind the puppet...isn't there?  Why might someone learn more from a shadow than a human?  Might we learn more from a piece with no words than a traditional spoken play?  Might we learn different things?

Post responses to each other's responses.

Team with most/best quality post wins a prize.

Monday, 16 April 2012

The Deadly Theatre

Read the essay The Deadly Theatre

Supporting your argument with quotation from the text, explain what you understand Brook to mean by the term Deadly Theatre


Monday, 26 March 2012

“The theatre is the arena where a living confrontation can take place.”

 

This is Peter Brook

Saner than Artaud
More humble than Brecht
More readable than Stan
...and more alive than all three put together

Here are some places to go...

The first is an excellent record of Brook's groundbreaking production of A Midsummer Night's Dream

http://www.touchstone.bham.ac.uk/exhibition/MND/home.html

The second and third are good extracts of his work.  Read some and see how much sense he makes.

http://www.so-rimlee.com/literature-supernova/2011/4/29/peter-brook-on-deadly-theatre-in-the-empty-space.html

http://owendaly.com/jeff/grotowsm.htm

The last is his seminal book The Empty Space in its entirety in PDFtastic form.

http://preterhuman.net/texts/religion.occult.new_age/occult.conspiracy.and.related/Brook,%20Peter%20-%20The%20Empty%20Space.pdf


 


Post responses

not compulsory; but excellent

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01dppfp/Henning_Knows_Best_Politics/

Quality stand up from the German comedy ambassador to the UK.

Henning Wehn

...and you can tell him you like him here...
http://henningwehn.de/contact.htm

Tuesday, 20 March 2012

you ain't seen nothin' yet




Watch one.
How does it fit with what you have learned of Artaud?
What do you think the desired effect for a spectator is?
What do you think the message is?

Finally

Is it entertainment?