Monday 11th November 2013

What did we do?
In this lesson, we covered the negative portrayal of immigrants in the media and wider society, determining how these beliefs and interpretations arise in our popular culture. 
As a group, our task was to create performance pieces that presented the stereotypical idea of an immigrant whilst incorporating an underlying message that related back to our understanding of Bertolt Brecht and the "V- Effect". (Hidden meanings and messages in theatre.) We analysed different newspaper articles, investigating whether the political stance of journalists and writers could determine contrasting perspectives on immigration and picked a scenario for which we could base our performance pieces around. 
As a group, we decided to base our piece around the "mistreatment of foreign individuals on public transport". We incorporated Brechtian techniques into our piece such as over exaggerated gesture, body language, voice and accent in order to represent a "racist" individual and used the idea of a "bus" as a microcosm of society; the idea that passengers are closed in much like the policies and laws concerning immigration, integration and the general feeling of alienation and intimidation that many immigrants feel on a daily basis.

What Went Well?
Using  the newspaper articles as stimuli for devising around the concept of "immigration", helped to broaden ideas for our piece. The controversial nature of the newspaper articles challenged my opinions on the level of respect that the media shares for immigrants in society and therefore allowed me to seek out ways in which I could convey the news stories into a scenario through the use of "caricatures".
Brecht's belief in "caricatures" helped, in that it provided a path for which I could characterise the stories portrayed in the news on the basis of illegal immigrants into a "fascist, uneducated character" that provided "race hate" as it appeared in the newspaper headlines of the "Daily Express". My body language and vocal tone successfully replicated the way the punchy headlines and slogans were being portrayed in the anti-immigration stories and execution appeared largely non-naturalistic, which plays as a contributing factor to Brechtian performance. 

Even Better If?
I believe that we could have developed our understanding of the "V-Effect" and incorporated more hidden meanings and messages into our performance which would have encouraged our piece to appear more Brechtian.
However, the skills and knowledge that we acquired from devising our own "Epic Theatre", provided a gateway for which we could incorporate into our "Theatre Uncut" pieces later on in the term.