Evaluation of 'The most horrific'

On the 10th of December 2014 Simon Stevens political theatre class performed there interpretation of 'The most horrific' we started the process by being given the play 2 weeks before the show and reading it getting a feel for what it's about and the style it in. At first when reading it i didn't completely understand it but after I did my research on the play and understood it and the issues I became really excited to perform it. I was given the role of A which was a fun character to play 'sassy' but also very ignorant.

The rehearsal process was productive and I feel everyone worked really hard the class was split into two a&b's and c&d's I was put into the group on a&b's were I came up with a productive way to divide lines. Getting into pairs and choosing a page or two with your partner I was with Romy we chose page 5-6 because the lines were snappy and there was a dark meaning behind them which meant we could give them more depth. Simon staged the piece so we then knew what we were doing once we had the main performance staged and rehearsed we then created small outer pieces to do with the issues being disgust in the play my group did force feeding and we created a strong scene that was to do with filtering the news and what we hear, which was very successful and we got strong positive feedback from it, I decided to add my own small part into the play there is a scene while boe it talking and he is talking about something very serious when i then interrupt him by saying 'ssshhhhh' i then ask all the a&b's if they want sushi this was a Gestus moment because it shows the characters mannerisms and there little care for serious topics and it relates to all the a&b's. I believe over all that my performance was successful because i took on everything simon said and performed it my strengths were that i was fully committed i felt that i kept my character on the appropriate number when necessary most of the time it was a seven but it changed to a 1 and 10 when we were asked too. My weaknesses where i felt i could of projected my voice better in order for the audience to hear me clearer but also for my fellow actors to know there cue e.g.. when i say 'its just...' billy then has to say 'Cheryl Cole' straight after and i don't feel i was loud enough billy had to see we had stopped talking so i should of spoken louder but when it got to the final show everyone worked really well was a team the positives where that we really took on all the direction and put it into the final show e.g. Keeping our voices down when the other group talks, also keeping our body language at 7,10,1 when  appropriate the negatives where that a few people forgot there lines but it wasn't noticeable over all it was a successful performance and I really enjoyed the process.

The Most Horrific by Vivienne Franzmann

The opening play splits the actors into three groupings.Two men discuss the horrors perpetrated by a bearded celebrity, using oblique terms but fooling nobody, given a recently closed court case.A woman relates stories of terror, again all familiar from recent news coverage and each competing for the attention of a director or producer, who seeks entertaining perversity.The play is most effective using irony to remind us how awful today's world is.

i am a really big fan of the play as it explores a disturbing and very much alive issue in a creative and clever when we first got given the script i was confused but understood some on the issues that were being disgust (the political news storys) but as i read it again and became more aware of what was going on in the story and better educated in the message the play was giving its audience, i have been given the character of A page 5-6 and i talk about how the rolf harris scandal and how much it effected me when i was not abused and how i am so self indulgent and feel bad for myself and betrayed when nothing even happened to my character! i play a rude media hungry media wanker who only cares for the gory bits. 00

Targets-

I need to learn lines and be confident with the character, use a large range of tones in my speech and make it more interesting by slowing it down or speeding it up and speaking louder I'm some bits and quieter when appropriate finding the appropriate voice for the character that is in tube with the monologue, because my monologue is a lot of fast paced talking I need to find places in the text where breath can become a technique in my monologue e.g. A sigh or loss of breath which is needed in my monologue. The technique must support the interpretation.

The interpretation must be a appropriate and relevant to the character and performance style it should be then supported by your technique but interpreting a piece wrongly can ruin and weaken the monologue all together especially if it's well known, I am going to fully understand my character and the style of the play before learning lines so the lines come naturally and so does the interpretation also your physicality will help your voice style and technique. Having an opinion behind your vocal technique is by doing it with energy and imagination be braver and make some bold choices driving through and committing to your vocal choices 

Political piece

Different aspects of Society's and men's expectation of woman, and how it effects them. - 

Porn

Objectifying 

Media 

Night time 

Props-

Spotlights

Camera 

Tripod

What would our society be like if expression was band, suppressed or denied a platform?

Nothingness everyone would be the same, we would be living in the Stone Age, expression gives you identity. Ideas would not be expressed which stops society developing.

What right do we have to discuss upsetting it serious issues?

Because we can change it, freedom of speech and open peoples eyes

Human obligation

Forget about the government and all that bullshit for just a second forget about laws and the army just think human to human. 

Us as humans have an obligation to take care of one another and it rarely happens 

Evaluation 

The research I over took for the protest affected it greatly the knowledge I had towards the subject and personal experience helped me to make the political protest more effective. I began by reading blogs about woman and men’s personal experience to do with being labelled sexualized and abuses by the opposite sex and same sex as well I then read magazines e.g. vogue that portray woman as objects of ‘perfection’ when it reality it is pure photo shop this was the role of josh in the piece his character or representation was the way in which the media affects us and categorises us. I also watched a documentary about the real side of porn and how degrading it is to woman and how powerless the woman in the industry actually are to their scenes and what they have to do they are harmed and scared in the process. Josh took the role on by showing how humiliating it really is. Then I explored the labelling of woman and how men and even other girls critique them e.g. ‘she’s only a 6’ ‘she’s not that skinny’ ‘her ass isn’t big’ miner comments that added every day to most girls insecurity. So all of the research I did was then the bases for the entire piece and was built upon that.

My role in the political protest was director I sparked up the idea that the group liked then went on to further develop it and make it into a piece of political theatre I also was in the piece as well as had created it, I played the role of a sales woman who was advertising the men who depicted the 3 areas of society’s and the medias effect on people and the expectation given I was practically selling the boys and de-humanising them and selling something that was a ‘product’ of the environment around them.

The level of professional execution was high I believe we did it in a sensitive yet shocking manner. Provoking lots of different emotions in the audience/spectators we conducted our self’s professionally and made sure we got our point across. It is a sensitive topic I am passionate about and although people have done it before we took it and made it completely original like no other piece the way we staged it, it was aesthetically pleasing with a strong political message.

I think our piece made an impact because it wasn’t the conventional woman that were out in that situation as we see every day by making it a male based piece made it even more shocking because people are not use to seeing this on a regular bases. For example when we were performing a girl even said to me that she felt sick and sad for the boys and asking if they were okay, another person said that they were honestly shocked and had never put them self’s in a situation of empathy for woman in porn and when they  labialized them.

The weaknesses of the piece was that I felt it was a little unorganized and caotic but that was partly due to the environment also we were restricted by the law and could not show pornographic images so on our part we should have been more prepared and less reliant on that media to create a point and done it our self. I also feel some people were a little unsure on the topic and we that held back the performance in having to explain to some people about what it was about. The strengths I felt were that we had a strong group dynamic and that came across in the piece we really felt strongly about the issue and wanted to do something that could really open people’s eyes about the issue and make people empathy’s with the situations that we were portraying I felt it was also very successful because at the moment in society I feel as woman understand more how it feels to be in that position and then replacing it with men then meant men felt what woman feel and this made the piece relatable to both sexes which was very successful. Overall I felt it was a successful message we were informing people about but also as a piece of theatre or performance art it also applies and is successful!!!

Getting to know Bertolt Brecht-

Bertolt Brecht is best known for his plays and poems, in which he embraced anti-bourgeois themes and being forced from his native Germany.Bertolt Brecht was born February 10, 1898 in Germany, he began writing plays while working at an Army hospital. Brecht's work fit nicely with the Dadaist and Marxist movement of the time. The increased dissatisfaction with society after World War I fit Brecht's anti-bourgeois writing. He fled Nazi Germany and settled in the US, until setting in Berlin following World War II.

Gestus is socially encoded expression that is consciously employed by an actor. It is inspired by Charlie Chaplin and his ability to express social types through silent physical movement and mime.

Brecht felt that traditional theatre focused too much on facial expression and so gestures dried up. He wanted people to investigate their body own body language as well as the body language of a social class, their mannerisms and customs included. As Brecht was uninterested in traditional, psychological drama that presents the mental attitudes and actors of its protagonists as God-given or unknown forces, he wanted to display a character’s actions as choices a person makes because of the social factors affecting them. For example, a ‘peasant’ would lick their plate not because they were a peasant but because that is how they had been brought up to behave in a less wealthy climate.

What is political theatre?

Political Theatre, is Theatre that moves away from your ordinary story telling. I believe that Political Theatre is there to give a voice to someone who is expressing there opinion on the politics we live in today. It should leave the audience motivated inspired and questioning the society in which we live and them selfs over all what life choices they have made and ones they will make to contribute to a more stable future for them to live in.

I believe it addresses several issues, not just politics and the Government. We live in a society where Homophobia, racism, Discrimination and Prejudice are common occurrences. Through Theatre, we can confront those issues and make the audience think about them. We can also confront the Government, and the current affairs we see on the news everyday.

Political Theatre weapon used by actors to fight against what should be changed. as a tool to mold the minds of he audience into thinking for or against. It gives us a chance as Actors, Directors and even Writers to talk about the issues we face everyday, and with political theatre we are so blessed that we really do have an influential voice and people listen no matter if the spectator agrees or disagrees we have the power to make people think!