Can anyone help me with Brecht questions? He is a drama practitioner?

Question

I need to know where he vivsted after leaving germany? What he meant by the alienation effect? Help would be much appreciated!!!! I will give points for best answer!

Answer 1

bertold brecht was a communist and was forced to leave nazi germany in 1939.

he went to denmark first, then on to finland in 1940. and a year later reached the u.s.a., through russia.

he was hauled up before the house committee of un-american activities in 1947, and though he managed to talk himself out of trouble, he left america, firstly for switzerland, then back to germany (in 1949) where he died in 1956.

he founded the berliner ensemble, in what was then communist east berlin (part of the d.d.r.). the theatre is still there, and regularly performs brecht's plays.

brecht was concerned with encouraging audiences to think rather than becoming too involved in the story line and to identify with the characters. In this process he used alienation effects (A Effekts). he developed a form of drama called epic theatre in which ideas or didactic lessons are important.

"In order to produce A Effects the actor has to discard whatever means he has learned of persuading the audience to identify itself with the characters which he plays. Aiming not to put his audience into a trance, he must not go into a trance himself. His muscles must remain loose, for a turn of the head, e.g., with tautened neck muscles, will "magically" lead the spectators' eyes and even their heads to turn with it, and this can only detract from any speculation or reaction which the gestures may bring about. His way of speaking has to be free from ecclesiastical singsong and from all those cadences which lull the spectator so that the sense gets lost." (from A Short Organum for the Theatre, 1948)

he was influenced by greek theatre, which was stylized rather than "naturalistic". his concept of the Verfremdungseffekt, or V-Effekt (sometimes translated as 'alienation effect') centered on the idea of "making strange" and thereby making poetic. he aimed to take emotion out of the production, persuade the audience to distance from the make believe characters and urge actors to dissociate from their roles. his aim was to get the audience to think about the play, not to get completely involved with the action.

to detach and alienate the audience, he used a number of devices, for example,

setting stories in unfamiliar places, in different times.

(e.g. the caucasian chalk circle, mother courage, the good woman of szechwan)

the use of a chorus to sing parts of the story (as in greek theatre) or a narrator, who is completely out of the action, to comment on, or tell the story.

(example. in the caucasian chalk circle, when grusche is deciding whether or not to rescue the abandoned baby, her thought are sung by a chorus, whilst she acts in silence. this is called "distancing".)

stylization - the use of masks, unrealistic speech patterns.

the use of music, both as part of the action or outside the action (this is called diagetic and non-diagetic music).

the musicians were often sat on stage with the actors, and would be introduced to the audience.

the use of slides projected at the back of the stage to provide a montage of pictures.

visible stage machinery, stagehands walking about the stage, adjusting the scenery and props.

the use of written signs to summarise the action of the scenes.

no elaborate props.

use of placards with instructions written on them.

having the actors sit in the audience when they were not involved in the action on stage.

having the actors talk directly to the audience.

(example, galileo's long speech to the audience, followed by the statement "now i must eat", where the actor joins in the action on the stage.)

"breaking down the fourth wall", the audience were not meant to be just spectators, but they should think about and question what they were seeing.

no mood lighting, all scenes should be brightly lit at all times.

exaggeration. (remember: the audience is supposed to be aware that they are only watching a play at all times). in a scene involving an argument, for example, the audience is aware of the argument; however, the actor’s movements resemble a dance. at the same time, the actor’s project their voices in a way that helps the audience to understand who is successful.

http://courses.essex.ac.uk/lt/lt204/brechtnotes.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alienation_effect

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/brecht.htm

hope this helps!

Answer 2

when brecht had to get out of germany on the run from the nazis he 'visited' all sorts of places, but ended up in the united states where he sheltered for most of the war. (brecht and his composer friend kurt weil wrote several english language songs - including 'alabama song' which the doors later recorded - and even large parts of a musical together).

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Verfremdungseffekt (some people call this 'alienation') is a term brecht used in a quarrel he had with the ideas of the drama theorist stanislavski. basically stanislavski followed the theories of coleridge and said that a playwright ought to try to convince the audience that what they see in the theatre is real (what coleridge termed a 'suspension of disbelief'). brecht disagreed with this: he thought a good playwright will remind his audience that they are in a theatre and what they are watching is make-bellieve. every so often in a brecht play brecht will do something deliberately false or outrageous to remind the audience that what they are watching is a made-up story, and not true. he called this 'stranging' or 'foreigning' [Verfremdung] from which we get the term Verfremdungseffekt.

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oh, and at the end of his life he retired to the german democratic republic (the communist part of post-wwii germany).


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i notice that there are a few errors in some of your other answers.

brecht left germany in 1933 (not 1939), after the burning of the reichstag. he wasn't stupid.

'the beggars' opera' is indeed the original of 'dreigroschenoper'; but it is by gay, not by sheridan.

Answer 3

Brecht went where his staunchly leftist (communistic) art was tolerated and his talent recognized, which was mostly the USA.
His contribution to theater arts was especially the V-effect (In German Verfremdungseffekt) which in English has been translated to the "alienation effect." The idea here is that the players onstage are most effective when alienated in the sense that there is no interaction or connection with the audience, to the extent that a "fourth wall" theoretically exists between the two.
The purpose of this is that no personal, or emotional familiarity between the audience (learners) and the actors (teachers) is to interfere with the message of the play itself (usually moral and political).
In a sense it is related to the concept of "aesthetic distance" whereby the art is to be analyzed in a kind of pure realm, as a thing in itself, unrelated as much as possible to the prejudice of artistic and cultural conventions.
Brecht's most famous play here in the US is probably his Three Penny Opera (a remake of Sheridan's the Beggar's Opera) the most famous song of which is "Mackie Messer" or as Bobby Darrin sang it, "Mack the Knife."

Answer 4

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Answer 5

You have excellent answers. I studied with Brecht's foremost American disciple, Mordecai Gorelik. The combined answers of your first two repliers makes an excellent response to your questions. If you need more info about Brecht, please do not hesitate to contact me.