Study of Bertolt Brecht

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Historical Context of Brecht's Life

Bertolt Brecht was born on the 10th of February, 1898, in Augsburg, which was a part of the German empire. His occupations included theatrical directing, play-writing, and writing poetry. Brecht's father worked for a paper mill, and his mother was relatively religious. He grew up in a middle class household. When Brecht turned 16, World War I began. His father advised him to enroll for an additional medical course, which he did, at Munich University. Brecht also studied theatre/drama. In 1919, Brecht had a son, Frank, with Paula Banholzer, and in 1920, his mother passed away. 

Work Cited:
"Biography of Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)." GrAde Saver. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014. <http://www.gradesaver.com/author/bertolt-brecht/>.
Kussman, Brendan. "A Man named Bertolt ." the nice piece. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014. <http://thenicepiece.wordpress.com/tag/bertolt-brecht/>.

"The Muslims Are Coming"

This documentary film, "The Muslims Are Coming", portrays basic facets of Islam in a comedic way, which reaches towards the audience from a different and unique angle. They used different comedians from different regions of the world to depict different stereotypes, accents, and qualities. For example, Negin (one of the recurring comedians) is an Iranian muslim. The crew toured around different places in the United States to help spread the message that Muslims living in America should be able to live like normal immigrants/human beings. All Muslims are not terrorists and people need to understand this fact. In fact, a true Muslim would not kill a single human being, and would respect and comprehend the concept of peace. 

End of Unit Reflection: "A Memory of Lizzie" Design Unit

The role of a designer in theatre production is extremely significant, as they form as the foundation for a theatrical performance. If the costumes or set is not designed effectively, the play will lose its balance and will confuse the audience. I have learnt that the designing portion of a theatre production is almost as important as the acting portion, and they need to blend well with one another to have a positive outcome. 

There are two distinctive design branches for a theatre production- the set design(s) and the costume design(s). Firstly, the set design requires a deep analysis of the script of the play, and finding clues that would aid in the creation of the different set components. As "A Memory of Lizzie" is a very dark play, the set needs to display this emotion. After analysing the play, you need to research about what props would best represent the play, and how the stage needs to be set up in order for the actions to take place and flow. For this particular theatre production, props such as deciduous trees would complement the plot. The play mainly takes place in a playground, so there is a need for physical elements that display that location evidently. Below is an image of a basic design process that designers in theatre production can utilise: 

http://sarahesparrow.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/design-process-diagram/

The problem (or goal) for this unit was to design the production of "A Memory of Lizzie". As mentioned previously, you need to collect information from both the script and from alternate research sources, and the brainstorm and analyse these ideas to develop solutions to the defined problem. For the people that designed sets, they needed to build a white model of what they have designed and decided the set to look like. Our class performed peer evaluations in order to give feedback to one another. After receiving feedback, you need to make improvements or slight alterations to your design that you feel are necessary. This is a never-ending process, so you can go to different stages at different times and in different orders. 

The costume design goes through the same design process, but is slightly different from the measures taken to achieve the set design. Firstly, in order to create a costume that truly represents your chosen character, you need to pick out traits that depict the character accurately. Generally speaking, for example, you would not make Batman's costume neon pink per say. I chose to go into the costume design root rather than the set design root because I feel that I can connect with creating costumes more, because I have a knack for fashion designing. In order to collect information, I read the script "A Memory of Lizzie" thoroughly and focused on finding clues to what made each character distinct. For the principal characters, like Lizzie Borden, this task was fairly simple. However, for characters such as Georgina, it was rather difficult as she did not have many lines that displayed her characteristics. I also did extensive research on female clothing in the 1870s, as the play takes place during that time period and all the characters are female. Then, to brainstorm our ideas, we generated four thumbnail sketches that give us a rough approximation of what our final coloured renderings might look like. We then developed colour renderings to create a solution to the defined problem. The colour renderings needed to have swatches that showed what materials could actually be used if we were to actually create the costumes. Next, we performed a peer evaluation. I evaluated the contents of Ayat's blog, and her colour renderings were remarkable. Overall, this process provided the students of grade ten with a glimpse of the effort that is put into a theatre production from the design aspect of things. 

I put quite a lot of effort into this design unit. As it was quite new to me and I am not very skilled at drawing, there were many challenges that I faced. Firstly, when we researched about the different types of stages, I could have understood the purpose of the different stages by watching short clips of plays that were performed in the various stages. But overall, during the research portion of the process, I worked efficiently and managed to manage my time quite effectively, compared to my usual organisational skills. While designing my set designs, I did not work well at all, and I slacked off a lot. But I did find it very challenging to design a set because I am not familiar with what they are supposed to look like and how each scene can progress. My set design ended up being very basic and dull in terms of where the props were categorised. I think my analysis of the characters in the play went into a good degree of depth and aided me whilst creating the sketches and final renderings. I actually find evaluations the most challenging because I am not very good at expressing my strengths and weaknesses. Overall, I really enjoyed this unit as opposed to improvisation and it broadened my knowledge in theatrical practices. 

Work cited:

"sarahesparrow." sarahesparrow. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Feb. 2014. <http://sarahesparrow.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/design-process-diagram/>.