Bertold Brecht: Epic Theatre Final Performance Evaluation!

We have just completed our Epic Theatre unit with out final performance. I picked script writing, Noshin picked directing and Shubham picked Montage and all three of us were actors in the play. The biggest challenge while doing Epic theatre is to make sure there is the least amount of emotion in our sketch and to make sure it is as factual as possible. The idea is make sure that we don't make the audience feel the emotions we are feeling but we are letting them about the situation and they can have their own judgements.

 This was different from any other performance that I have participated in since it was a completely new genre that I needed to focus on. I have never done a scene with a montage running at the background, the script was quite different since it needed to be factual and precise. The stage directions were straightforward including minimum amount of props. Throughout this unit I felt I was quite engaged with the work. In the performance, I wrote the script for the performance and I also decided what type of religious segment we would use for the performance.  I would give myself a 7 on 8 on personal engagement. I would give Noshin a 7 on 8 since she memorized her lines and she gathered the pictures for the montage. I would give Shubham a 7 on 8 as well since he memorized his lines and he created the montage video. After the first draft we all had a few major problems regarding the script. Shubham had a tendency to ramble on during his chorus segments and Noshin was being too stiff. Due to this I had to change the script a little bit and we practiced on it the next few classes. I feel that all three of us worked well and understood the problems. This helped us succeed during our final performance.

Our group's final performance was quite good. We took feedback from our rough draft performance and we used it to improve upon our final performance. During the performance I forgot my lines in a segment and I interrupted Shubham. I remembered my lines afterwards but i felt that it was pretty evident in an audience perspective. I feel that the audience did understand the big issue since all the information we portrayed was very straightforward. Mina (Noshin) mentioned she was raped and her parents (Shubham and I) did not want her anymore since she was impure due to their "religion". The audience gave us feedback during our rough drafts that they enjoyed our performance and it was well portrayed. There were definitely flaws in our performance, the biggest of which would be the fact that we had too much emotion. In terms of Epic Theatre elements, we had montage, script writing and gestus. All these 3 elements molded our performance and created an effective Epic Theatre piece.

The group I'm evaluating is Ryan, Umar and Vanessa. They used scriptwriting and montage as their epic theatre elements. Their staging improved massively from their rough draft performance since they were facing the audience. Even though at one part of the scene, Umar turned around to talk to Ryan and he was facing completely away from the audience. This could have improved their performance. Their performance was based on communism and capitalism where a rickshaw puller and a maid were quarrelling over how much money the maid would pay. The rickshaw puller wanted 50 tk but the maid would give 20. Ryan was the policeman who came to fix the quarrel. Instead of saying," Pay 30 tk, I know it's not enough (for the rickshaw-puller) but if you get a few customers it would help you get a meal..." He said, " Pay 30 taka more.." which basically meant pay 50 taka since 30+20 is 50. This was a little confusing but it was a mistake on his part. Overall I understood how it related to "The Caucasian Chalk Circle". During the beginning of the, the goat herders and fruit farmers were fighting over the land and their fight was fixed after coming to a mutual decision. They had a good performance and improving these details could make it even better.

Bertold Brecht: Rough Draft performance reflection

Over the past few weeks we have been working towards creating a short play from the Caucasian Chalk circle using Epic theatre elements. In our group, I had picked play writing, Shubham had picked montage and Noshin had picked gestus and directing. Our theme was religion and all three of us had to act in the play.

During the first week I had to write the script for the play and to do this i picked a scene from the play which portrayed our topic, religion. I used the same structure the scene had used to create the script. I kept in mind that in epic theatre requires the play to cut out the emotion and to make it more straight forward, mostly like a show such as CSI where they just give us facts and we chose what emotion we should feel. The montage was created by Shubham and he chose to use animals locked up in cages to portray Mina being raped and neglected. Noshin helped us set the stage also helping us do the gestus while acting. Shubham was also the chorus, which is another epic theatre element. It was not necessary for us to use a chorus but it made the scene much better and more Brechtian. 

Today we had our rough draft performances and the overall feedback of the performance given by our peers and Ms Kimi was satisfactory. The group worked accordingly and we knew what was planned. I finished writing my script last Thursday and the group had read it . We made changes accordingly and practiced the scenes on Sunday. Shubham had made the montage and Noshin helped direct the staging as well as gestus.

Together as a group we worked well and helped each other with our elements.

We had our montage ready, our lines were 80% memorized and there were no blocking in the scenes. The staging was good since the audience members could see all our faces. We were loud and our chorus narrated the beginning and the end of the story.  

There were things which did not work well in our performance. Firstly, the chorus, which was Shubham, did improvise some of the segments and since he is quite sentimental, he made the scene emotional. Epic Theater does not want the performance to be emotional therefore we need to change that. Secondly, we need to add a few more bits to our performance to make it even better such as showing disgust when Mina (Noshin) tells her parents that she was raped. During that time we sat on the chair and was surprised but that scene could definitely be improved by showing gestus and adding a few extra lines.  The montage was good but it was a little short on time, therefore adding more pictures of the same context could make it better. Noshin had a constant character during the performance and it could be seen by her gestus as she kept her head down during the performance and expressed her lines in the script well. 

I realized where our group was facing the problems. We knew what epic theatre elements are and what it requires but it was quite challenging for us to apply these elements since we are used to implementing illusion and emotion during a performance. I had minimal amount of lines during the performance since I was the mother but as I mentioned above, our performance could definitely be improved by cutting the emotion in the scenes and adding a few extra lines in specific areas to grasp the audience attention. 


The first group which had performed today had Vanessa, Umar and Ryan in their group. Their theme was ownership and their performance was good. Some things they could improve on is definitely their staging. The Epic theatre elements were not visible in their scene since there was lack of gestus and there was no chorus or montage. If they improve upon these, their performance would be great since they have a good script. 

The second group we saw included Hamza, Ulugbek, Ayat and Armin. I felt that their group was not well prepared and none of them had their lines memorized. Ulugbek was supposed to do the montage but he failed to do so. Musanna was the singer and she read al her lines from the script which looked under done for their scene. The epic theatre elements were not properly portrayed in their scene and if they improve upon this, then their final performance will be great.

In the final performance of my group, there are few things which we need to alter in order to make this performance much better. Firstly, make it less emotional and more factual. Secondly, add more gestus during the crucial scenes to add emphasis. Other than that, the performance was good and it can definitely be better. 

The Love of Three Oranges: Audience Reflection

The play “The Love of Three Oranges” was a middle school production, performed by the middle school kids. It was performed at the ISD Auditorium from 7pm-9pm. Ms Kimi produced it but it was originally a French Opera. I attended the play at 7:10pm on Thursday.  

In the play, a Prince has a sickness due to a curse caused by Fata Morgana and the only way to cure it is by making him laugh. In order to do so, the King hires a comedian/performer named Truffaldino. She tries her best to make him laugh by entertaining him but everything fails. Afterwards, she plans on having a party where everyone gathers around including Fata Morgana, who’s in disguise. During one of the games, Fata Morgana falls down and the Prince finally laughs. Due to this, Fata Morgana curses the Prince to fall in love with 3 oranges. Immediately the prince and truffaldino start to search for these oranges. On their journey, they face a lot of strange things such as the Witch comes forth and tells them how water should be near when they find the oranges. At the end, the oranges are found but two of them die due to Truffaldinos mistake. The prince falls in love with the last orange and they soon wish to be wed. Fata Moragana does not want this to happen therefore she curses the orange and substitutes her with Smereldina. Later on, the witch and Fata Morgana have a show down where the witch wins and unveils the curse from the orange. The prince and the orange, which is a princess, live happily ever after.

The acting was very good and it was better than I had expected. Their lines were fully memorized and even if a mistake was made, it wasn’t understandable since their expression did not give it away. The characterization was great and so was the character development. They had great energy and all of them were fully enthusiastic. The skills that were evident in the play were their voice. There were no microphones used and the voice could have been heard from the back of the auditorium. They had great movements and gestures with perfect body language. Even though it was not improvsional, none of the characters blocked the other and helped the scene grow as a whole.

The set was made very well since there was the platform on the stage, which gave it dimension. The performers could interchange and make it interesting rather than flat stage. The props and the set were very simple. During the scenes in the castle, the backdrop of the deck of cards was given. When they were in the forest, the helpers brought in the black trees and when the evil woman’s castle came there was a different backdrop. It was simple and it gave the idea of where they were. The costumes and makeup was brilliant. The evil characters had dark dresses with dark makeup and the good characters had light colored clothing and simple makeup. The costumes fit them well and they were comfortable in them. They used the space in the stage well and the lighting was great. The first thing, which could have been improved, was the background music. Since there were no microphones used, the music was too loud and the dialogues could not be heard. The lighting was great and it was on the right characters at the right time. The second thing, which could be changed, was when the stage directors and helpers were changing the props, the lights should have been much dimmer to make it less obvious.

Altogether, I enjoyed the play a lot. It had humor and it was cute. I loved how enthusiastic the characters were and their acting was great. The performance was much better than I had expected. The cast, crew, director and the technical crew did a great job in bringing the play together.