Day of Reading; Caucasian Chalk Circle: Day 1

Period 1:

• "More Than Skin Deep"
• "In Living Color"
• "Grey Matter"
• "Color Lines"
• Junot Diaz

Period 1 or 2: Now, let's turn our attention to the play The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht. 

Question/Prompt: Should someone who owns a thing have possession of it? Or should someone who uses a thing best hold possession? Relate this to problems of race in our society. Should students, for example, be given every opportunity, even if they do not take advantage of that opportunity? Or should only those who use the opportunity gain benefits from it? Should, for example, immigrants get jobs if the indigenous people lack the skills or interest to hold these jobs? Or vise versa: should immigrants be given privileges (jobs, education, economic stability) that American citizens might lack? Respond in writing.

Some background on Brecht:

Bertolt Brecht influenced modern theatre throughout the 20th century. His brief bio can be found here. Of particular, Brecht created a style of theater called Epic Theater. Let's learn a bit about that today before we read. You may examine the links on your own time or when we are in the lab for further education if you want it.

Notes about Epic Theatre:

Epic theatre was a reaction against other popular forms of theatre, particularly the naturalistic approach pioneered by Constantin Stanislavski. Stanislavski directed the Moscow Art Theatre where Anton Chekhov (not the ensign of the Starship Enterprise) premiered his plays (The Seagull, etc)

Brecht disliked the spectacle, manipulative plots, and heightened emotion or unrealistic "overacting" of melodrama; While Stanislavski insisted on creating real human behavior in acting to absorb the audience completely in the fictional world of the play, Brecht saw Stanislavski's methodology as escapism. Brecht's own social and political focus departed also from surrealism and Theatre of Cruelty, as developed in the work of Antonin Artaud, who sought to affect audiences viscerally, psychologically, physically, and irrationally. Artaud plays were notoriously difficult to watch (and sometimes stage). For example: see Jet of Blood by Artaud.

Epic theatre incorporates a mode of acting that utilises what he calls gestus. His plays use choruses, music, projections, and disassociation as a means of commentary on political and social issues. The ultimate goal of epic theatre is that the audience should always be aware that it is watching a play. The epic approach to play production uses a montage technique of fragmentation, contrast, juxtaposition, and interruptions.

Common production techniques in epic theatre include a simplified, non-realistic scenic design offset against a selective realism in costuming and props, as well as announcements or visual captions that interrupt and summarize the action. Brecht used comedy to distance his audiences from the depicted events and was heavily influenced by musicals and fairground performers, putting music and song in his plays.

Acting in epic theatre requires actors to play characters believably without convincing either the audience or themselves that they have "become" the characters. Actors frequently address the audience directly out of character ("breaking the fourth wall") and play multiple roles.

Here are some clips of Brecht's best known works for the theatrically interested:

7 Deadly Sins of the Middle Class (Brecht & Weill)
Baal (1982) BBC Version with David Bowie
The Life of Galileo (The Wilma Theatre)

Trailer for the 3 Penny Opera (stage production)
Berlin theatre, Brecht's Mack the Knife sung by Lotte Lenya (from the 3 Penny Opera)
Pirate Jenny (from the 3 Penny Opera) - translated/Brecht
Alan Cumming & Cyndi Lauper singing 3 Penny Opera for the Tony's.

Mother Courage (Fiona Shaw) & the National Theater's production with interviews with Fiona Shaw
Interview with Meryl Streep - Mother Courage and Her Children

The Good Soul (Woman) of Setzuan (trailer)
Interview with Jane Horrocks about Good Soul (woman) of Setzuan
The Good Woman of Setzuan

Caucasian Chalk Circle (SUNY Purchase's production)
Caucasian Chalk Circle (Texas State University production)
Caucasian Chalk Circle (high school production trailer...compare to what we do at SOTA)
Staging the In the Mountains (Crossing the Bridge) sequence.

And just for fun, here's a formalist avant-garde collage using Bertolt Brecht.

HOMEWORK: Please complete your reading of The Distance Between Us by Monday, Feb. 5.
Examine Grande's use of narration, description, exemplification, and compare/contrast tactics in the memoir. As an open-book test assignment, please answer 10 of the 20 questions for discussion to be turned in by Feb. 5 (pages 331-333 in the "teacher's section"). We will also hold a class discussion on the book at that point. Be prepared!