If we work on the basis that realism and naturalism were two distinct theatre movements and not to be used as interchangeable terms, then maybe hyper-realism is referring to what others call naturalism in the theatre?  Or is it something different, again?

Any readers willing to shed some light on this, I’d love to hear your comments below.

Update: Here’s an article in The New York Times about a new adaptation of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler set in a Manhattan town house. Interesting….

Well, this year I struggled with actually delivering my topic to my students. It is such a heavy topic laden with responsibility, that I dumped the idea and went on the Plan B for a while, only to eventually give my students the option of two ensemble topics. They chose my first idea, so here it is below.

It is unquestionably the heaviest drama ensemble topic I have given students in many years of teaching. I have a small class this year, so they have formed one single ensemble group for this play. It will be in the vicinity of 45 minutes duration and the development and rehearsal time line (including research) is about 8 weeks of good working time, on a 10 week time line, with a two week holiday break in the middle.

I believe, with a topic such as this, all the planets need to align in order to pull it off successfully. The elements were there from the beginning. A small group of passionate, highly motivated, mature students, half of them school leaders in various areas such as College Captain, Drama Captains, Arts Captain, Public Speaking Captain etc. While not necessarily best friends, they are a close-knit group that is bonding further through the process of developing this ensemble performance. The stakes are high. It will either be a huge success that will no doubt bring audience members to tears, or it may miss the mark, altogether. My students know the risks and are prepared to take on the challenge.

We borrowed our performance title, Terror in Mumbai,  from a BBC documentary of the same name on the Dispatches program. My goal, as teacher, is to see how a group of 17-year old girls can tackle such a serious topic with sensitivity and maturity. Below is the task details I gave my students:

Terror In Mumbai

Background For several days in November 2008, ten gunmen terrorised India’s most populated city. Recruited by leaders of the militant organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba, the men quickly created panic and hysteria among the people of Mumbai.

In constant communication with their controllers in Pakistan during the event, the gunmen shot people in the streets, set off fires in hotels and detonated grenades in taxis and crowded cafes. As the world watched from afar, Mumbai’s antiquated police force was virtually helpless in trying to stop the pandemonium and carnage back home. By the time it was all over, nearly 200 people were killed and over 300 lay wounded.

How did ten gunmen control the city of Mumbai for so long? What was the background behind such a well organised and planned attack on one of the world’s biggest cities? What repercussions do the Mumbai killings have for other major cities of the world today?

Prescribed Performance Styles Theatre of Cruelty (Antonin Artaud), Epic Theatre (Bertolt Brecht).

Prescribed Theatrical Conventions Transformation of character, transformation of place, transformation of object, disjointed time sequences, pathos.

Prescribed Dramatic Elements Contrast, symbol, language.

Prescribed Stagecraft Elements Costume, props, multimedia, sound.

Plot The following plot ideas should be included in the ensemble performance. Other ideas and/or scenes may be added as necessary. At least one example of scenes out of chronological order must occur in order to satisfy the prescribed theatrical convention of disjointed time sequences. The performance must end with a message(s) for the spectator (audience).

• Back story
  • The relationship between India and Pakistan
  • Previous terrorist attacks in Mumbai
  • Religious ideology of the militant organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba
  • The training of the Mumbai gunmen in Pakistan with Lashkar-e-Taiba

• The event
  • Leopold café bombing
  • Taxi bombings
  • Taj Mahal Hotel and Oberoi Trident blasts and fires
  • Nariman House (Jewish Outreach Centre) siege
  • Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (train station) shootings
  • Response to the disaster by the Mumbai police force
  • Response to the disaster from the Indian government
  • Response to the disaster by Indian soldiers, marines and commandos
  • Media involvement and reporting of the events from within India and abroad

• The aftermath
  • Victims stories
  • Interrogation by Indian police of captured gunman Ajmal Kasab
  • Public reaction to the events from the world’s media and political leaders
  • Lessons to be learned from the Mumbai attacks and repercussions for the future

The Story of Slapstick covers various masters of the genre, but from a refreshing British perspective. Naturally, short video clips are in abundant supply in this documentary, something that will no doubt please those Drama students of yours hungry for the visual entertainment their generation knows all too well.

Artists/characters/comedy teams featured include Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, Rowan Atkinson as Mr Bean, Monty Python, The Goodies, Michael Crawford in Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, The Young Ones, Morcambe and Wise, Vic and Bob, and French and Saunders.

This documentary interviews several well-known British comedians, young and old, and covers many of slapstick’s vital ingredients such as violence and the innocence of the characters. The Story of Slapstick also dismisses slapstick’s stigma as being an unsophisticated form and interestingly highlights its additional success on the radio (The Goon Show) and its transition today out of formal scripted sketches into our own living rooms, with everyday slapstick caught on camera then posted on popular websites like YouTube etc.

Worth a watch.

Torrent (.avi, 60 mins, 553mb)

Why? Well, the stage version of Chicago has:

• numerous examples of direct character address to the audience
• narration of upcoming action
• virtually no set defining location or environment for various scenes
• the show band in all its glory on stage for the audience to see
• dialogue interaction between characters in the show and the conductor of the band
• offstage cast members onstage, sitting down the sides of the band in full audience view
• lighting trees and instruments in full audience view

Brecht would have loved it!

• narration
• direct address to audience
• placards and signs
• projection
• spoiling dramatic tension in advance of episodes (scenes)
• disjointed time sequences – flash backs and flash forwards – large jumps in time between episodes (scenes)
• historification – setting events in another place and/or time in order to distance the emotional impact, yet enhance the intellectual impact for the spectator (audience)
• fragmentary costumes – single items of clothing representing the entire costume
• fragmentary props – single objects representing a larger picture (or setting)
• song – like parables in the Bible, songs are used to communicate the message or themes of the drama
• demonstration of role – actors are encouraged not to fully become the role, but rather to ‘demonstrate’ the role at arms length, with a sense of detachment
• multiple roles – actors commonly perform more than one character in a drama
• costume changes in full view of the spectator (audience)
• lighting equipment in full view of the spectator (audience)
• open white lighting – due to its emotional impact, colored light on stage is eliminated – instead, the stage is flooded with white light
• alienation technique – a complex term translated differently by scholars from the German “verfremdungseffekt”, involves the use of many of the above conventions, with the ultimate aim of distancing the audience emotionally and increasing their intellectual response to the drama

Boal is best known for his politically influenced Theatre of the Oppressed form, which includes Legislative Theatre, Invisible Theatre, Forum Theatre, Newspaper Theatre and Image Theatre.

The theatre community was shocked in May this year, when it was revealed Boal passed away due to respiratory failure.

Links: The International Theatre of the Oppressed Organisation.

So I thought I’d pop up a post about one of the most influential people in 20th century theatre and maybe it will prove useful for Drama/Theatre teachers out there. If people are interested, I can make it a series of posts.

A collection of fun facts, perhaps!

Where did “Epic”come from? Many argue Brecht did not coin the term “Epic Theatre” himself. Some argue it was fellow German collaborator Erwin Piscator who actually coined the term. Others argue Brecht borrowed the term from the great “epic” poems of literature, such as Milton’s Paradise Lost. Still, others argue the term “Epic Theatre” was already in use in various avant garde theatre circles in Germany by the time Brecht claimed it as his own.

Why “Epic”? Epic implies a narrative, rather than a simple plot. It also implies a story that spans multiple time frames and locations. Many of Brecht’s own plays follow this convention and there are numerous examples that can be easily found. I always try to associate this convention with modern film examples for my senior high school students, so they can relate to it and understand it properly. Epic films with huge narratives of yesteryear include Ben Hur. Today’s examples may be Gladiator (2000) and The Lord of The Rings trilogy of films (2001, 2002, 2003). There are many others.

“Scenes” or “Episodes”? Brecht began writing his plays with no act or scene divisions, which were later added after the work was completed. Publishers may call them “scenes”, but Brecht preferred to name them “episodes”. Once again, I use modern media examples in order for my students to understand the convention, and we then discuss the characterisitics of television “episodes” with a number of contemporary shows. These also differ, depending on the show (daily soap opera, weekly show, mini series etc). “Episode” implies a self-contained unit of action and less of a reliance on the cause and effect relationship between scenes in the theatre of realism … a style of theatre Brecht loathed.

“Audience” or “Spectator”? One of Brecht’s primary goals was to emotionally distance the audience from the action on stage. We will discuss in a future segment in this series on Brecht and his Epic Theatre conventions that he achieved this via a number of alienation techniques. Meanwhile, Brecht labeled the audience “spectators” in his writings on the theatre. In the classroom, I dicusss with students when do we refer to the term “audience” and when do we use the term “spectator”? What are the differences? We always come to the conclusion that cinema and theatre viewers are an “audience”, while large venue, arena and sporting examples (often, but not always outdoors) are “spectators”. In a 100, 000 seat arena, the spectator is physically distanced from the action and feels less involed in the experience. But in the cinema, the audience can be much more involved in the event. “Audience” implies intimacy. “Spectator” implies detachment. On this level, it may simply be semantics, but coupled with Brecht’s techniques, labelling the audience member a “spectator” has much more meaning.

Universally hailed as the best new American play in a generation, August began its life at Letts’ artistic home, the Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago, in June 2007. After a highly successful run, it succeeded in the rare achievement of moving to Broadway’s Imperial Theatre with virtually the entire original Chicago cast in tow (11 of the 13 actors).

Jilted by the theatre stagehand strike in late 2007, August eventually opened to critical acclaim. Such was its commercial success (positive press reviews and strong word of mouth resulting in back to back sold out performances) that the company packed up its three-storey set and moved to the Music Box Theatre (next door) in order to enjoy an open-ended run, where it still plays today.

Known across the globe as the only newspaper capable of closing a theatre show prematurely (ask those connected to the musical Glory Days, whose show closed on Broadway on May 6, 2008 after only one performance), the New York Times raved about August Osage County. It is uncommon to see a New York Times theatre reviewer use superlatives, but on this occasion there were plenty, as Charles Isherwood noted August was:

flat-out, no asterisks and without qualifications, the most exciting new American play Broadway has seen in years.

I saw August Osage County on Broadway in March 2008 on a performing arts tour and walked out of the theatre telling my Drama students that was one of the best lessons in theatre they’ll ever receive. The following month, a few weeks after our return home to Melbourne, the play won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. By June, Deanna Dunagan, who portrayed the play’s protagonist Violet Weston, won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, with the production winning the Tony for Best Play on Broadway that year. And so it was no doubt with pleasure that Melbourne Theatre Company Artistic Director, Simon Phillips, secured the performing rights to this fabulous play for Australian audiences.

Seven genres in one, this is a domestic drama, displaying the trials of an ordinary American family in Oklahoma. We identify with the characters, their lives, their predicaments, and their sorrows. There are elements of tragicomedy in the play, as it swings wildly, but plausibly, from happiness to disaster in the blink of an eye. But there are also pieces of a soap opera weaved neatly into the mix, as the characters are just that bit larger than ordinary citizens, so the audience becomes hooked on the fantasy of their lives. Many would would argue there’s more than a touch of melodrama in August, due to its many subplots and unseen twists. Or is it a modern-day sitcom? To top it all off, this play is very much a black comedy, as we laugh at the many memorable lines at the most inappropriate of times. Add to this, Letts openly admits his play also has a political edge; an allegory for life under the Bush administration.

August Osage County is a paradox. It is a play of yesteryear. Letts has taken so many risks to allow it to sit alongside its contemporaries on the modern stage, because its form belongs to another generation. Yet its content is so strikingly relevant to our own. August follows the tried and tested formula of the well-made play, in this case three acts and nine scenes. Structurally, it is perfect (and ironically conservative) and at three hours long, you won’t look at your watch once. But this is a formula that does not sit comfortably in contemporary theatre. Many of today’s play consist of two acts, a number of smaller scenes and an eclectic mix of performance styles all in the one play. August Osage County, this is not.

This play is also not for the faint-hearted. With sexual misbehaviour, drug addiction and misuse, (unknowing) incest, a fourteen-year-old character smoking pot on stage and a whole lotta swearing (even the “C” word gets a guernsey), August Osage County packs a powerful punch. But it is Letts’ crafty playwriting that allows August to be many things to many people. A play about a dysfunctional American family has been seen many times before. Somehow, though, Lett’s pulls it off. Much of the play is as scary as it is hilarious; the first few times many in the audience don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

This play is about as naturalistic as you can get in mainstream contemporary theatre. And while so many commercial plays today are banal naturalistic dramas with four characters and a minimalistic set, this is an example of good naturalistic theatre with a towering three-storey set by Tony-nominated designer Dale Ferguson and thirteen fully-rounded characters; two to three times the cast of most contemporary mainstream plays.

This design, slightly different to the Broadway set, is impressive indeed, but perhaps a little too ambitious, resulting in a few sight line issues for those against the dress circle walls. The set is as much of a monster as Violet Weston herself, a cut-out house with two staircases, multiple rooms, a front porch and an attention to detail Ibsen and Chekhov would have been proud of.

August Osage County is set in the present day (2007) and follows the life of an Oklahoma family, the Weston’s, who get together for a reunion of sorts, to determine why their father suddenly disappeared for no apparent reason. The acting style is purely naturalistic, complete with backs to the audience on occasions. Nothing is “staged” and everything is real, sometimes too real.

If ever there were a role for Robyn Nevin, Violet Weston, the play’s matriarch and protagonist, has to be it. Violet is addicted to prescription pills and automatically we have comparisons with Mary Tyrone in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, a mother addicted to morphine throughout the play. Violet also has a razor-sharp tongue like you’ve never heard before, publicly devouring those around her that matter most, one by one, until all before her have been defeated. Here we see Letts’ homage to similar characters in the canon of great American plays, such as Martha in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Nevin’s portrayal of Violet, so often stumbling and incoherent on her pills, is a powerful performance. The role, one of the very best in contemporary playwriting, is so meaty and ballsy, you wouldn’t let anyone but the most accomplished of actors go near it. Violet Weston is the female version of a modern-day King Lear, a role so difficult and challenging, one can only sit back and applaud as Nevin nails it on the head in outstanding fashion.

Jane Menelaus convincingly plays Barbara, the eldest of Violet’s three daughters. This is definitely the strongest of the three daughter parts, and Menelaus’ performance as Barbara is impressive. You follow her every movement on stage, eagerly awaiting her next line. But highlighting individual performances in August Osage County is problematic, because this is very much an ensemble play and the Melbourne Theatre Company cast does not let us down. Thirteen fabulous roles are performed with consistent calibre, throughout.

Simon Phillips’ direction of this production is near-flawless. As the black comedy spews out the mouth of many of the characters in nearly all of the play’s nine scenes, it is perfect comic timing and fabulous character reactions on stage that make it all work so well. Letts has accurately observed how the modern family operates and anyone in the audience belonging to a large clan themselves, will have a riot of a time, coupled with more than a few squirmish moments of familiarity.

At the end of the day, August Osage County will almost certainly go down as one of the great American plays of the 21st century. It’s hard to see it as its coming, but this is an unforgettable play in so, so many ways. As in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, when the final act closes with George singing the title song to Martha, who replies “I am”, August Osage County’s exorcism leaves Violet destitute with only her live-in housekeeper, Johnna, as comfort. Violet, a fiercely independent woman, so strong throughout the entire play, now finds herself afraid of the big bad wolf, while Johnna lullabies to her “This is the way the world ends” in the play’s dying moments.

Just whom will we remember from this fabulous play? The role of Violet Weston, a loving mother with the poison of a viper at every turn, is the role you’ll never forget. Actresses will be lining up to play this role for decades to come. August Osage County is one mother of a play. Must see theatre.

(Note for younger audience members: adult themes and frequent coarse swearing)

August Osage County is playing at the Playhouse, Arts Centre until 27 June.

Edit: season extended until 4 July. Grab a ticket if you can!

Baz Lurhmann’s movie Australia is perfect fodder for teaching Drama and Theatre students about genre and style. Partly because the film has about half a dozen plots during the course of its 2 hours and 45 minutes, and partly because it is, well, Baz Lurhmann (need I say more?), the film has been variously referred to as one or more of the following:

• melodrama
• war drama
• romantic drama
• period drama
• epic drama
• cattle drive movie
• fable
• western
• racial story
• revenge story
• mystical story
• business story
• love story
• creation story

To be honest, I’ve had a bit of fun the past few days, scouring the web for reviews of the movie across the globe and counting up the different genres attributed to the film. After all, few film directors understand the art of genre-mashing as well as Lurhmann.

When Australia is released on DVD in 2009, this film could prove very worthwhile in teaching our students about genre and style in the medium they love most. Throw in a handout for them to isolate and document the various genres in the film, determined either by plot/narrative, setting, characters or acting style and then class discussion, followed by an understanding that next time you take these students to live theatre, determining genre and style shouldn’t be that difficult, anymore!

Considering most modern theatre is eclectic in style, sometimes students find it difficult to isolate various styles in performance and then realise how they can often all work well together. I realise I’m using genre and style interchangeably in this example (something I normally loathe doing), but I’m sure it will all work out in the long run, however we refer to things.

A couple of side notes…I don’t know what the criticism is about Nicole Kidman’s acting in this film? Of course it’s declamatory in style, but that’s Lurhmann wanted, and it suits the film. Also, I can’t work out what some reviewers are griping about with David Wenham’s character, too. He’s meant to be two-dimensional! He’s a villain, as in all good melodramas and no, his stripes don’t change, either

From a theatrical perspective, I thought you may enjoy an article about Caroline Martin’s costume designs in the film Australia, plus a slide show of images with her commentary (see below). Note: once archived, these articles in The New York Times will require free registration in order to access them. Enjoy!

The Look of Australia (costume slideshow)

Socks To Blouses, A Film Finds Its Look

Also, check out a fantastic six-minute video about the costumes in the film Australia, featuring Lurhmann and Martin, in the sidebar of this blog. Only about 2,000 costumes made for this film, that’s all

Jukebox Musicals are called so because they centre around an already existing catalogue of well-known published songs.

They have been heavily criticised for lacking substance with thin plots and flaky characters, where scenes have either been written around a single song, or the reverse, where songs have been ‘dumped’ carelessly into the storyline. Broadway producers usually tread cautiously with shows of this genre, as flops are common.

But when a hit arrives, it can run for years. Two of the most successful Jukebox Musicals are Mamma Mia! (using the songs of 70s Swedish pop group ABBA) and Jersey Boys (the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons), both runaway successes playing to millions of people on stages around the world.