Practical work on Character-Chaplain and Research about that era

Brecht is a very inspirational man who created a whole different technique for the acting field. This technique contains grotesque, enormous expressions and that is what we are focusing on now.
In preparion for Brecht, we did a small scene  from the Brecht play The resistable Rise of Arturo Ui.

We did a court scene from scene eight, where we used props, costumes and a set. I played a bodyguard. Even though I didnt have any dialogue, I had to be fully engaged and involved in the piece in order for my part to be fulfilled. I had to show grotesque face expressions and movements, even when I am just standing there. Here are some pictures to show the costumes, set and props we had.




































While working on Brecht, I find it particularly difficult, to get into my character. Reason being that, what i noticed about the script that i am using, including other plays i have read, The lines each character has are plentiful. There are so much dialogue to be spoken by one actor. As a result, i find it difficult to maintain that level of characteristics in which i should portray on stage.





My Character-The Chaplain

My character in Mother Courage and Her Three Children is the chaplain. 

According to http://chaplain.askdefine.com/, A chaplain is typically a priest, pastor, ordained deacon or other member of the clergy serving a group of people who are not organized as a mission or church, or who are unable to attend church for various reasons; such as health, confinement, or military or civil duties; lay chaplains are also found in other settings such as universities. Ffor example a chaplain is often attached to a military unit (often known as padre), a private chapel, a ship, a prison, a hospital, a high school, college or especially boarding school, even a parliamentary assembly and so on. In recent years many non-ordained persons have received professional training in chaplaincy and are now appointed as chaplains in schools, hospitals, universities, prisons and elsewhere to work alongside or instead of ordained chaplains. 

In my case, my character is the Chaplain of the Protestants who are fighting against the Catholics.

My character, the Chaplain, is known as Mother Courage's feedbag because he is really dependant on her. He is appears as a cynical (Believing that people are motivated by self-interest; distrustful of human sincerity or integrity), wooden character. He is a protestant and remains loyal to the swedish monarchy. Reading further in the play, I have seen that he also has sympathetic qualities, particularly when he defies Courage and attempts to save the local peasants at the Battle of Magdeburg. At Magdeburg, the Model Book shows him recalling a sense of his former importance and understanding himself as someone oppressed by the war. Indeed, as he will tell the Cook, his life as a tramp makes it impossible for him to be a priest again and all its attendant beliefs.

Also, I  really find it difficult to understand my character and the text, for example; How my character would respond and overall the meaning of the text in itself. Therefore, in order to understand the text, I have to dig deep in the script to really analyse and understand it. At times, I will get a good understanding, but at other times, I have to get information from a teacher, (Sean and Yusuf), to really get my understanding of the text amd character in full detail.

Also, when working with my character, I had the idea that my character is a more and spoke in a northern accent. I wasnt really getting the understanding on my character when I did this, and because it is Brecht, I found it really difficult to get humour in my character with this decision.

On Friday, I realised how my character can be funny, I changed my whole idea of my character. I knew that the way i portrayed my character was boring and not as interesting i thought it could be. So I decided to convey my character as a stereotypical preacher that speaks in a loud voice and always refer to a spiritual force when speaking. To top it all, I Nick liked what I have done with my character and also made my character as a Caribbean pastor, which makes it more exciting because I have the opportunity to show how Caribbean preachers are really portrayed.

Concerning my character, I have been working on the walk he has. My character walks with a slight drag and his body stature is upright. He talks in a low tone and occasionally goes back into the preaching tone.

Creating the Cart For Mother Courage

Today has been a very fun experience for me. Today, Charles, Shabill, Penny, Simone, Nick, Yusuf and I, had the privilege to create Mother Courage's Cart. After finding a base at the bins made of metal and two wheels, we decided to use it. We then got pieces of wood and ply to create the card. Our beautiful rehearsal space, the drama studio, became a carpenter's workshop. We had saws, pencil, wood and a whole tool kit with different tools for different purposes. I sawed wood into size, assisted others in doing so as well, drilling the wood together and now we have the frame of the cart. We made the cart our selves like proper work men and the cart as been  made by students and teachers. We have done a good days job on that cart, and it continues tomorrow.  Continuing on the cart, we added a little roof on the cart and a door, and also placed cushions in the cart.

Rehearsal Process

Rehearsals in the first week of our piece has been hectic. Mother Courage was absent a lot because she does another subject that clashes with our rehearsal schedule.  We tried so hard to go through it without her, even though it was difficult, we had other people playing her role in rehearsals. Well, learning my lines was the easiest aspect of the rehearsal process for me. Because I learned my lines a long time before we actually did a good rehearsals, playing my character got a lot easier for me. Also, it helped me to focus more on the character rather than on the script.

Weeks into rehearsals got more and more devastating and I got more worried about the piece on a whole because Mother Courage did not learn her lines.  She struggled on stage with her script for weeks and I got more worried as time flew by. We actually decided to just sit and do lines runs in order for the actors who doesn't know their lines to get accustomed to them.  

After a while, Mother Courage, started to get her lines known by heart and rehearsals got much easier and i got less worried, even though I was still concerned about how the show altogether will turn out.

In a week before the final performance, we started to gather props that we needed to bring in ourselves. 

Cristal and Claudia made the protestant, while Shabill and I made the ''we are catholic'' flag. We also gathered cups, plates, pans, and utensils that we needed. Also sorting out our costumes. We had to get what we are meant to wear by ourselves and turn it into our costumes. 

On the final week, we had to make sure that our lines and acting technique was on point.

Also in the final week, we also worked with the crew to sort out the technical aspects of the piece, like lighting. In the lighting rehearsals, we were asked by the director (Nick), to move and stand on the stage and the crew will just place light wherever we move about on the stage. Then when this is done, they save the lighting that Nickl decides work perfectly with the piece.

 

As it can be seen in the picture, we just had a simple set for Mother Courage. Pierce and I are in the positions that we are in before I start preaching to the audience.

 

 

 

 

In the picture, we are in the position at meal time before we sit at the bench and eat.

We were told to basically told to stand in order for the light to hit our face.

This picture was taken when we were told to move into positon in order for the lighht to hit our face.