Berold Brecht: Script

Script:
Chorus: Mina crouched in pain as she had stumbled across the village in her torn clothes, headed towards home. When she had reached her destination, she needed to be comforted since she was tired and her stomach was hurting. She thought about her parents and imagined them saying “Come in dear, where have you been? Are you all right? Do you need help? Everything will be fine, don’t worry” They will say, she thought as she longed to tell them the dreadful story of the pain she had experienced. She finally knocked on the gate waiting to be welcomed by Hasin and Sakina, her parents.

(Hasin opens the doors with his squinted eyebrows. Sakina is sitting on the table with her hands on her face looking disappointed. Hasin steps back and stands beside Sakina)

Hasin: Where have you been all night? (Eyebrows squinted towards Mina. Mina stays quiet as she looks down)

Sakina: We have been searching for you since 4pm. We looked all over for you and gave up. (Voice increases; angry tone. Mina still looks down, quietly)

Hasin: You think you can stay out as long as you want? You have restrictions Mina. (Angry tone, squinted eyebrows, points fingers at Mina. Mina is looking down)

Sakina: How could he have done this? Where were you?

Hasin: We give you food and a shelter and you do this.

Mina: (Waits a few seconds and bursts out) Do you know what I have gone through? Do you have any idea? You fail to protect me from the predators in our villages and you tell me I have restrictions? You are a disgrace to parenting.

Sakina: How dare you speak to us like this! What has happened to you? Tell us. (She looks at Mina eagerly)

Mina: I was abused and raped by Mahmud.

Hasin: What?! How did this happen Mina?

Sakina: Why aren’t you speaking now? Are you having trouble understanding? Where have you gone lingering off?

Mina: I was getting groceries as you have instructed me. I was in the shop and as I was getting out, I decided to go to the forest to collect some fresh blue berries.  Mahmud was there. He saw me. He smiled at me. I kept on picking berried. Suddenly he was gone, he came from the back and choked me and dragged me to his home….

(She looked down for a second)

I cannot speak anymore.

(Sakina does not say anything and just looks down)

(They wait for 30 seconds as Sakina and Hasin look at each other without saying anything as Mina stands there)

Sakina: You are impure now. You cannot be here. You must leave Mina. Run away. You cannot be seen with us.

(Sakina goes back into her room)

Hasin: Mina, you can stay now but you must leave tonight, your mother is religious you see.

(Hasin goes back into his room)

(Mina studs out of the house without saying anything)

Chorus: Mina left the home without looking back.

She sought to be comforted and be safe but she got nothing in return.

She had no home and no money for food
But what can she do? Her mother’s religions you see.

Bertold Brecht: Tasks before performace

Five tasks to do before the rough draft performance:

1. Assign characters to Noshin and Shubham and I
2.   Make sure lines are memorized
3. Work on Gestus while re-reading script
4. Work on stage directions
5.   Play the montage while reading script, to make sure it goes well.
6.   Practice the script again and again before performance.

Bertold Brecht: Reflection 1

Reflection 1:  March 24^th, 2014

The theme that my group and I chose was religion. The reason for choosing this theme from Brecht’s play was my strong feelings towards some parts of religion. I believe that religion is predominantly supposed to unite people but nowadays it’s used for reasons other wise. The play that I will be writing will show how religion is used to disempower woman in the villages. The disempowerment is done thorough different ways but I will be writing about a rather controversial side.

The story is based on a girl who was raped by one of the villagers. She needed comfort since she was in a lot of mental and physical pain. She wished to seek help from her parents but they turn her down blaming this case on her. She used “religion” to kick her out of her home.

I will be using the same structure as the Caucasian Chalk Circle with 3 characters. The extract, which I will be following, is from Act 4 (When Grusha goes to her brother’s home) I have written a draft of the chorus below:

Chorus: Mina crouched in pain as she had studded across the village in her torn clothes, headed towards her home. When she had reached her destination, she yearned to be comforted her and warmed under the thick blankets near the fireplace.

“Come in dear, where have you been? Are you all right? Do you need help? Everything will be fine, don’t worry” They will say, she thought as she longed to tell them the dreadful story of pain and misery. She finally knocked on the gate waiting to be welcomed by Hasin and Sakina her parents.

Brecht: Production Proposal Reflection

Production Proposal Reflection

Which Theme has your group chosen? 

The theme that was chosen by our group was religion.

Which Issue are you relating it to from modern society? 

The modern issue that we are relating this to is how religion is used to disempower woman or even other religions in society.

How will you make this connection clear in your performance? 

We will make this connection clear in our performance by having distinct characters with a strong script connecting with similar statements from The Caucasian Chalk Circle to deliver our performance.

What is the overall CONCEPT of your production?

The overall concept of the performance is to basically show how religion is used as negative rather than a positive that it is ideologically supposed to be.

Which characters will each group member play? 

In our group, to make a clear and concise connection with The Caucasian Chalk Circle we can have two of us playing as the antagonists (Lavreti and Aniko) and one of us playing as the protagonist (Grusha). We will have one person who would also play as the chorus (singer) in the play.

What specific characterisation or gestus choices will each character employ?

Each character will employ physical characterisation, expressions and one specific role. Two of the characters will be antagonists (Shubham/Noshin/Mifrah) and one character will be an antagonist (Shubham/Noshin/Mifrah)

What production roles/elements of Epic Theatre has each member chosen? 

Shubham has chosen gestus and I have chosen script writing.

How will you illustrate the CONCEPT through these roles? Be specific to the production role/responsibilities AND the specific choices that you have discussed in your group. 

Our concept is religion therefore we have chosen a story where a girl who lives in a village was raped and impregnated by the rapist. She needs support and comfort from her relatives but they refuse to help her since they contemplate it was her own fault and abortion is sinful in their religion. I will be writing the script by using the same structure as the Caucasian Chalk Circle Act 4. Shubham and Noshin will be directing the play as well as decide the staging and characters. Either of us could be the chorus who will say the scene.

Name 5 tasks that you need to complete during devising rehearsals in order to fulfill YOUR specific production role.

 Write an original script (using structure and conventions of Act 4) which reflects our new concept.

    Research and devise specific gestus that relates to religious piety (antagonist) and victim (protagonist)

       Make sure the concept is not lost while making the script 

       Choose chorus of the play

·            Choose roles, memorize lines, rehearse scene

·             Figure out staging/blocking for scene

Epic theatre in real life

Epic theatre in real life

Pick a theme- Religion

Relate it- current issue: Disempowerment of woman in the villages in the name of religion.

Brecht/ Epic theatre: Script Writing

The Caucasian Chalk Circle: Religion

THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE

In this play, the storyline and most of the context are directly related to Catholicism. Brecht uses biblical references as a in a negative tone rather than a positive. We can tell that he is not in favor of Christianity or religion as a whole. As we have learned before, Brecht was highly influenced by Karl Marx or Marxism. Also, communism uses the ideologies of Marxism as well where religion is not accepted. Since Brecht is influenced by it, he probably agrees that a society is better off without any religion.

From the beginning of the play, we notice the straightforward religious context. The story begins on an Easter Sunday, which was time when Christ was resurrected. As we move forward in the story,  the government was killed by his brother, the Fat Prince. Brecht relates this to the biblical story of Cain and Able.The Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church are also evident throughout the play. We see the evidence for this in the beginning when Simon and Grusha are engage.

In Act 2, the second sacrament that was evident in this play, which was Baptism. We understand this after the quote "I'll wash you, son, and christen you in glacier water." The religious context in act 2 was about Jussup. He was married to Grusha. He represented Joseph who was the father of Jesus. He was signified as Joseph since he married Mary when she was pregnant.

The last religious connection made in this act was when Aniko kicked Grusha out of her home. She is described as religious and she used that as in excuse to kick her out. After this act we can clearly see that Brecht uses religion as a negative theme in the story.

In act 4, we see the religious context when Azdak was compared to Christ. We see this when the Singer says, "Broken law like bread he gave them." Lastly, in act 5 we can see that Azdak copies Christ during his last act. He lay on the ground after he was beaten and pretended to be dead. After the messenger had arrived he was “resurrected” following which he wears his gown again.

During the end of this story, we see the huge similarity to the tale of Solomon from the Bible. In this story Salomon had to choose the real baby of the mother. It was basically a test where the baby would be cut in half and each part would be given to one another, the real mother would give the child to the other woman. This is similar because Grusha and Natella had to fight for the Michael when he was put in the center but Grusha did not take the baby. This is how it was decided that Grusha was the real mother.

After reading the play, we can see the many different religious contexts in the play. Brecht blames societies problems and the way people act because of religion and he portrays it through the acts of some character that are religions. The biggest example was how Aniko had kicked out Grusha from her house and she was introduced as someone who is religious. Brecht makes a mockery of religion and uses major characters from the Bible to portray the negative characters in his play.The negative theme about religion is evident in some of Brecht’s other plays as well. As I have mentioned before, Brecht’s influence of the Marxism could have been the trigger which made him detest religion.

"The Caucasian Chalk Circle." Gradesaver. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.gradesaver.com/the-caucasian-chalk-circle/>.

Brecht, Bertold. "The Caucasian Chalk Circle." Socialist Stories. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Mar. 2014. <http://socialiststories.net/liberate/The%20Caucasian%20Chalk%20Circle%20-%20Bertolt%20Brecht.pdf>.

The Muslims are comming!

The Muslims are coming!

The documentary “Muslims are coming” which shows us the stereotypes of Islam in a comedic fashion, therefore reaching the audience in a unique manner. Quite obviously, this is controversial in America as well as for Muslims. Negin Farsad and Dean Obeidulla are Muslims who have a mission; they want to make a better place for the next generation of Muslim- Americans and immigrants in order for them to stop being looked down upon by the society. 

They are Muslim comedians who went on a journey to many different cities and states which are conservative to show them that Muslims aren’t all that bad. Statistics show that Muslims are the most hated group in America and ironically most of the "hate" comes from places where there are lack of Muslims.

The main goal for these Muslim comedians go around conservative states and cities in America where they have not met Muslims but rather based their opinions from the media. They wanted to show them what Muslims are really like. These comedians had free shows wherever they went and their content was not typically what a conservative Muslim would do. Negin and Dean used other stereotypes such as racism against black people and hatred against immigrants to make people laugh. They would also make Muslim jokes and use stereotypes as well to show that Muslims can be fun-loving people. As the movie began, Negin was going to the shooting ring to shoot a practice gun for the first time. She messed it all up. The message behind this scene was to show us that all Muslims are not terrorist, better yet most of them don't even know how to hold a gun!

In many different scenes of the documentary, we saw different clips of politicians, talk shows, TV channels etc. of how they use Islam as the main source of all their problems. If anything went wrong such as a murder or a theft, the Muslims were always to blame.  Negin and Dean used these stereotypes in their stand-ups as well to prove that it's not true. Another significant issue that happened was during one of Negins stand up performances, she was saying jokes about her Islamic family and her sexuality. She noticed that woman in the room who wore Hijabs (clothes covering their head) left the room. This was upsetting since the main purpose was to help the people and empower Muslims but there was a lack of Muslim support in this plan.

Negin and Dean both mentioned that they are not fully practicing Muslims. There main idea was not just to empower the religion of Islam but rather the culture and the people from the same roots. They wanted to stop the stereotypes and help the cultural Muslim immigrants who are suffering in USA.

The “Muslim’s are coming!” is a great documentary film. It shows how comedy can be used to revolutionize the mentality of ignorant people and cause major social changes. Comedy just doesn’t make people laugh but it also helps people understand things they wouldn’t otherwise. We saw that their plan was coming in action when people from these conservative states visited the comedy shows and actually had a great time. From the 20th century, Bertold Brecht used Theatre to cause social change. Comedy is a part of theatre and I would say that it is a catalyst for new ideas, mindsets and the perfect way to stir our minds in a light hearted manner. This documentary is a perfect example of comedy used for social change.

Work cited:

"Plot Summary." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2224509/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl>.