Volume 2 Number 13
Hi Folks,
Kim's Drama Blog
I'm starting to think that I might be better off calling this
newsletter Monthly rather than weekly! Yes, I seem to have a lot
on my plate - but then doesn't that always seem to be the case?
This evening I'm off to see Black Swan Theatre's production of David
Auburn's "Proof" - looking forward to seeing it realised after
working only with the script to contribute to the educational resources
that BSTC will provide to attending schools. On the subject of
performance, I also went to see a production of Beckett's "Happy
Days" performed by Marta Kaczmarek at Rechabites Hall. It was
a good production, offering some genuinely though-provoking moments as
well as being an engaging piece of theatre. Some students found it
pushed their limits too much, but several, upon reflection, have
reconsidered their opinions.
I'm currently waiting for the feedback from the peer review of thesis
proposal. This process is so time-consuming - I tend to prefer to
act immediately on ideas and innovations, learn from the process of
engagement (sounds vaguely like a Drama approach doesn't it)...
but having to wait as each of the stages of the game are played out is
bloody annoying! Ethics clearance, peer review and then my seminar
presentation - if I had my way they'd all happen in the same two-hour
block! Oh well, at least there is light on the horizon.
Well, I've had my Primary Education freshmen strutting their stuff
devising Drama lessons to address a variety of integrated learning -
using themes like Transport, Holidays, Cultural Diversity, and Ancient
Egypt they had some very inventive ideas. One particularly
interesting piece drew on a letter written by a soldier who was part of
that famous Great War Christmas story where both sides set aside their
differences to play a game of soccer and share food only to return to
being military foes the following morning. Another piece used
"holidays" to great effect, and used playfulness as learning
tool... it was great to see 25 adults dressing up, playing and
inventing in a lesson about holiday destinations... and in the process
looking at similarities and differences between people around the world.
This week I also heard that my nomination to be a school-based
moderator has been accepted. I'm looking forward to stepping out
and seeing how other schools are addressing the post-compulsory Drama
courses.
POSITION WANTED
I'm
genuinely looking for a new context in 2005, so if anyone
knows of any Drama positions - anywhere in the world really! -
I'm willing to consider anything from classroom
teacher to Arts leadership... Prefer something
able to accommodate University lecturing - please let me
know. If anyone knows about the position going at the British
School in Brussels or Lanfrancs in Croyden, I'd love to hear
more.
(My CV is available online)
LESSON/ACTIVITY IDEA
Brecht made actors turn their lines into third
person narrative. Actions given in stage directions are
narrated:
“Then X entered. After a few silent compliments he sat down on
the sofa.”
Dialogue, spoken (in performance) in the present tense, becomes
reported speech. For example,
“Has your excellency seen the new dancing master?”
becomes:
“He asked whether Madame had seen the new dancing-master. ”
from http://www.shunsley.eril.net/armoore/drama/brecht.htm
This is a useful process for engaging students in presentational
forms used by Brecht. Have students locate sections of text
where they can apply this principle. Have them explore the
effect on audience by alternating more realistic delivery
styles.
Another extension is to use the video of Peony
Pavilion (Chinese Opera) to demonstrate to students what Brecht
was drawing on when he began to develop the form we call
"epic". This fits well with Brecht's own article on
Chinese Acting.
RECOMMENDED WEBSITES
Moodle is an online course delivery system I've been working on at school.
I'm finding it a very useful adjunct to the theoretical, historical,
and social components of the senior school courses I'm teaching.
MOODLE (http://moodle.org) is freely
available and a very versatile - I recommend you get your ICT folk at
school to set it up and start exploring the possibilities. The
NCP Moodle is a publicly accessible site that explores the use of
Moodle in the Western Australian context. The folk running it
are school teachers in Perth and are keen to extend the application of
effective ICT in schools.
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/brecht.htm
Studying Brecht - http://www.shunsley.eril.net/armoore/drama/brecht.htm
PROFESSIONAL NEWS
PLEASE ADVISE OF ANY UPCOMING
PROFESSIONAL EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES AND I WILL LIST THEM HERE
IDEA
5th World Congress in Ottawa, Canada 2004 TIME
TO START BOOKING!!
The next world congress will take place 2-8 July,
2004 in Ottawa, Canada. Hosted by Theatre Canada, this congress will
follow a theme of
"The Universal Mosaic of Drama: walking
diverse pathways together; finding new directions".
For further information about this event, please
contact the organizing committee at the following address.
Wayne Fairhead wfairhead@oise.utoronto.ca
-
STELARC at the BAKERY
Currently Artist in Residence at School of
Contemporary Arts, Edith Cowan University. Principal Research Fellow
Digital Research Unit School of Art and Design, Nottingham.
Presented by Media-Space with venue support from
Artrage.
http://www.media-Space.org.au
When: Wed 26nd May -2004
Time: 6.00pm - 8.30pm
Where: BlackBox Studio @ THE BAKERY Artrage Complex
233 - 239 James street
Northbridge, Perth
Western Australia.
Stelarc has used medical instruments, prosthetics,
robotics, Virtual Reality systems and the Internet to explore
alternate, intimate and involuntary interfaces with the body. Some of
his projects include the THIRD HAND, the STOMACH SCULPTURE, EXOSKELTON
and the PROSTHETIC HEAD. Recently he has performed and exhibited in
“Transfigure” (ACMI, Melbourne); the “Clemenger Contemporary Art
Award” (NGV, Melbourne); the Yokohama Triennale; the “Microwave
Media Arts Festival” (Hong Kong); and “Ars Electronica”. In 1997
he was appointed Honorary Professor of Art and Robotics at Carnegie
Mellon University. In 2002 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate and
was artist-in-residence in the Faculty of Art and Design, Monash
University, Caulfield. He is currently Principal Research Fellow in
the Performance Arts Digital Research Unit at The Nottingham Trent
University. His art work is represented by the Sherman Galleries in
Sydney.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
Ye
Tang - The Peony Pavilion / Lincoln Center, Festival d'Automne (2000)
This production of the epic Chinese opera The
Peony Pavilion was a smash hit at New York's Lincoln Center Festival
in 2000; at 19 hours long, however, it resists being released on video
in its entirety. But this two-hour distillation (with narration by
Robert Powell that bridges the gaps necessitated by such abridgment) is
more than satisfactory, giving viewers a sense of the shape and the flow
of the entire work. It also shows off this staging's sensationally
colorful costumes and sets, along with the talented cast of actors and
musicians, all under the direction of Chen Shi-Zheng, who brings off a
near-miraculous dramatic and musical event. While the cumulative impact
of such a lengthy dramatic work is inevitably lost, this string of
"highlights" still manages the remarkable feat of developing
both a narrative and characters worth spending time with.
Bertolt
Brecht : His Life, His Art and His Times
by Frederic Ewen
Highly acclaimed when it was first published in
1967, Frederic Ewen's monumental biographical study of Bertolt Brecht
has long been out of print. In response to national demand, Citadel
Press is proud to reissue this complete and unabridged text.
Of "Bertolt Brecht: His Life, His Art, His
Times, the critics wrote:
"The finest critical study of Brecht to date.
This book is at least a worthy appreciation of a towering, poetic and
dramatic genius." -Los Angeles Times
Brecht
on Theatre :
The
Development of an Aesthetic
- by Bertolt Brecht and John Willett (ed)
Bertolt Brecht discusses his views, ambitions and approaches to
theatre in over 50 chapters of essays and critiques.
-
-
Art
and Politics in the Weimar Period:
The
New Sobriety, 1917-1933
by John Willett
Baal
by Bertolt Brecht, Peter Tegel (Translator), John Willett (Editor)
Systems
of Rehearsal :
Stanislavsky,
Brecht, Grotowski and Brook
by Shomit Mitter
Brecht
and Method
by Fredric Jameson
The legacy of Bertolt Brecht is much contested,
whether by those who wish to forget or to vilify his politics, but his
stature as the outstanding political playwright and poet of the
twentieth century is unforgettably established in this major critical
work. Fredric Jameson elegantly dissects the intricate connections
between Brecht's drama and politics, demonstrating the way these
combined to shape a unique and powerful influence on a profoundly
troubled epoch.
Kim Flintoff
Copyright © September, 2004
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