Brecht on Performance: Messingkauf and Modelbooks
312
Brecht on Performance: Messingkauf and Modelbooks
312eBook
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Overview
The volume is in two parts. The first features an entirely new commentated edition of Brecht's dialogues and essays about the practice of theatre, known as the Messingkauf, or Buying Brass, including the 'Practice Pieces' for actors (rehearsal scenes for classics by Shakespeare and Schiller). The second contains rehearsal and production records from Brecht's work on productions of Life of Galileo, Antigone, Mother Courage and others.
Edited by an international team of Brecht scholars and including an essay by director and teacher Di Trevis examining the practical application of these texts for theatres and actors today, Brecht on Performance is a wonderfully rich resource. The text is illustrated with over 30 photographs from the Modelbooks.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781408159507 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Bloomsbury Publishing |
| Publication date: | 11/20/2014 |
| Series: | Performance Books |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 312 |
| File size: | 8 MB |
About the Author
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) is acknowledged as one of the great dramatists whose plays, work with the Berliner Ensemble and critical writings have had a considerable influence on the theatre. His landmark plays include The Threepenny Opera, Fear and Misery of the Third Reich, The Life of Galileo, Mother Courage and Her Children and The Caucasian Chalk Circle.
Tom Kuhn is Professor of 20th century German Literature at St Hugh's College, University of Oxford, UK, and General Editor of Bloomsbury Methuen Drama's Brecht publications.
Marc Silberman is Professor of German at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, USA. He is the co-editor of the completely revised and updated third edition of Brecht on Theatre and of Brecht on Performance (both 2014), and editor of Brecht on Film&Radio.
Steve Giles is Professor Emeritus of German Studies and Critical Theory at the University of Nottingham, UK. He has contributed to Brecht on Art and Politics (Methuen Drama, 2003) as well as authoring books on Modern European Drama and Critical Theory.
John Willett (1917-2002) was the greatest English language authority on Brecht the writer and man of the theatre. The foremost translator and editor of Brecht's drama, poetry, letters, diaries, theatrical essays and fiction, Willett produced a dozen volumes for Methuen Drama on the greatest modern German writer.
Table of Contents
Picture Credits ix
General Introduction 1
Part 1 Messingkauf, or Buying Brass 7
Introduction 9
Preamble 19
The First Night 21
(i) Setting the Scene 21
(ii) Naturalism, Realism, Empathy 38
(iii) Tragedy; Learning, Science, Marxism 44
The Second Night 52
(i) Intoxication, Empathy, V-effect 52
(ii) Acting, Performance 56
(iii) Science, Social Class, Learning 59
(iv) Elizabethan Theatre, Shakespeare 64
(v) The Augsburger, Piscator 68
The Third Night 71
(i) The Fourth Wall, Emotion; V-effect, Acting 71
(ii) The Augsburger, Piscator, Weigel 77
(iii) Social Science and Art 83
(iv) 'Extreme Situations' 86
The Fourth Night 88
(i) The Nature of Art 88
(ii) Emotion, Critique, Representation 91
(iii) The Augsburger 95
(iv) Shakespeare 96
(v) Finale 100
Miscellaneous Texts 104
(i) Illusionism, Realism, Naturalism; Social Function of Theatre; Empathy 104
(ii) Acting 109
(iii) Thaëter, Piscator, Neher 115
Plans and Appendices 127
(i) Plans 127
(ii) Appendices 129
Practice Pieces for Actors 134
(i) Parallel Scenes 134
The Murder in the Porter's Lodge (Parallel Scene to Shakespeare's Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2) 134
The Fishwives' Quarrel (Parallel to Schiller's Mary Stuart, Act 3) 137
(ii) Intercalary Scenes 142
Ferry Scene (To be played between Scenes 3 and 4, Act 4 of Shakespeare's Hamlet) 143
The Servants (To be played between Scenes 1 and 2, Act 2 of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet) 145
(iii) Circular Poems 149
Part 2 Modelbooks 151
Introduction 153
On Life of Galileo (1947-8) from Constructing a Role: Laughton's Galileo 162
Foreword 165
A Sequence from Scene 1: Rotation of the Earth and Rotation of the Brain 172
Background to the Performance 174
On The Antigone of Sophocles (1947-8) from Antigone Model 1948 176
Foreword 178
Ruth Berlau's Prefatory Note 185
Prelude and Bridge to Scene 1 186
Neher's Second Design for the Antigone Stage 194
On Mother Courage and Her Children (1949-51) from Courage Model 1949 195
Opening Remarks 197
Notes and Scene-Photos for the Prologue, Scenes 1 and 2 202
Details from Scene 3 222
Variations in Berlin and Munich 229
Concluding Texts from the Model: Scene 12 233
From Theatre Work (1952) 238
Some Remarks on My Discipline 240
Bertolt Brecht's Stage Direction 241
Phases of a Stage Direction 245
Five Notes on Acting 247
The Berliner Ensemble Models 250
Theatre Photography 252
Does Use of the Model Restrict Artistic Freedom? 253
How Erich Engel Uses the Model 257
How the Director Brecht Uses His Own Model 259
From the Correspondence of the Berliner Ensemble about the Model 259
Creative Evaluation of Models 262
From the Katzgraben Notes 1953 263
Epic Theatre 266
Rehearsal Methods 267
Scenery 268
Crises and Conflicts 269
Politics in the Theatre 271
III, 2 Constructing a Hero 271
Is Katzgraben a Proselytizing Play? 273
The Verse Form 273
Verfremdung 274
II, 3 Revelation and Justification 276
Empathy 277
The New Farmer, the Medium Farmer, the Big Farmer 279
What Are Our Actors Actually Doing? 280
The Positive Hero 283
Second Dress Rehearsal 284
Criticism of Elli and Criticism of Elli 2 285
New Content - New Form 286
'Acting is Not Theoretical' by Di Trevis 293
Select Bibliography 303
Index 305