Research – Breaking Stories Theatre Company

The Bogus Woman and Epic Theatre

May 29, 2014 Lauren May Richardson

When I first started rehearsing with the actors I started to notice small glimpses of non-naturalistic theatre that I was unknowingly installing into the piece. I realised I was getting the actors to perform using highly exaggerated postures and sometimes even movement, showing that I was taking a lean towards the non-naturalistic style within theatre.

After much thought into this I decided it was the right idea to carry on with the idea of non-naturalistic and take it to a higher level so it was clearly this kind of piece of theatre. Researching Bertolt Brecht and his ideas on Epic Theatre I realised I could use some of his ideas within the performance and they would be very apt. Brecht presented the idea of having fragmented costume and set, which we followed. Our costumes (apart from Fran’s) were the same, showing that the actors were not completely trying to portray their characters. The set was fragmented in that it was not a complete set the audience were perhaps expecting.

From the beginning, as a theatre company we decided we did not want to let the audience sit, relax and enjoy the show. I came to the realisation this was carrying on the idea of epic theatre ‘because Brecht wanted to represent historical process in the theatre and have it judged critically by audiences, he departed from many time honoured theatrical traditions.’ (Barranger, M, 2002, P.122) We ourselves wanted to do as Brecht had done and make the spectators really listen, challenge and question what we were putting on stage for them, as this was a piece that we wanted the audience to thoroughly consider.

I briefly looked at Brecht’s idea of verfremdungseffect, also known as the alienation effect. I discovered that to use this effect ‘the first point at issue is to uncover those conditions, (one could just say: to make them strange). This uncovering (making strange or alienating) of conditions is brought about by the process of being interrupted.’ (Walter, 1998, P.18) I approached this idea during Scene nineteen, which was the Mrs Doughty scene. This scene changed quickly to the young woman being belittled by a check out girl who won’t let her buy sanitary towels. Changing the scene so quickly diverted the audience’s attention to something fresh. Performing this unexpected scene would hopefully keep the audience alert and thinking. Also these enabled actors are able to prompt diverse ideas and situations to the audience quickly and effectively.

Looking at Brecht’s concepts on acting I felt I did not want to imbed the ideas completely. Brecht believed that the actors should not be acting the character; they should just be representing the character. However, I felt for the piece I was directing that each actor had to become the character on the stage to get the full emotion out of the audience that I intended. I did consider and marginally use the idea of the actors remaining emotionally unattached from each other. This was very fitting with our play as I had already decided I did not want the characters to look at the young woman for any length of time. I did this because I wanted to portray that the majority of the characters saw her as a nobody and somebody they thought lower of.

(Scimeca, 2014)

I also liked the idea of having characters facing out to the audience. I felt this helped transport the audience into the piece and see each of the characters expressions so they were really able to get into that characters mind-set.

(Scimeca, 2014)

Brecht and his concepts helped to turn theatre into an implement to prompt the audience into considering big issues, and this is precisely what we wanted our audience to engage with.

Barranger, M. (2000). Theatre. A way of seeing. 7th ed. USA: Cenage Learning .

Scimeca, D. (2014). Univeristy of Lincoln: Lincoln.

Walter, B. (1998 ). Understanding Brecht . New York: Verso .

Simple is key.

May 29, 2014May 29, 2014 Alicia Visram Cipolletta

Overall, the props were kept to a minimal. We were interested in showing the difference in characters through the use of colour; the Solicitor had a red clipboard, the Doctor a blue clipboard, the Judge a black scarf etc. We did not want to break the image that it was the young woman, who was different and ‘the other’. Sourcing these props was fairly simple, yet Faye and I struggled with a few; the hospital bed, and a clear evidence bag. In the end, we went outside the naturalistic stage, and decided to simply put a white sheet on a chair to represent the young woman’s hospital bed. This also made it easier when taking it on and off stage, and made the audience use their imagination.

Are we blinded?

May 27, 2014May 27, 2014 Alicia Visram Cipolletta

Immigration is a globally approached, sensitive topic. On the one hand, we are bombarded with migrants coming into the country for various reasons, and therefore require aspects such as jobs and housing. However, immigration has negative drawbacks for the migrants themselves; they often work longer hours for less money, and are exploited for their human rights by, for example, doing jobs that British people won’t or cannot do. However, due to personally experiencing passport and immigration control when travelling with my step-dad, I can understand the stress and anxiety caused when simply travelling within a multi-cultural family. Therefore, since then, I have had a natural attachment to the female viewpoint of immigration and prejudice.

The Bogus Woman by Kay Adshead takes real stories from female immigrants and combining them all into one powerful story. The female migrant stories are hidden by the media and we are ignorant of the negative impacts formed by the English officials. Yarls Wood Immigration Removal Centre is an immigration detention centre, where refugee families and women can go while their cases are being questioned. Unfortunately, similar to that of the young woman’s experience, there are many complaints of ill treatment;

“In September a former detainee at Yarls Wood immigration removal centre alleged that women held there fell prey to sexual advances and abuse by security guards and other officials. But by the time the claims were examined, two alleged victims had left the detention centre.”

This information would never be headlines in the local newspapers or within the 6pm television news, and we are constantly provided with a one sided negative portrayal of men and especially women who are trying to simply find a potentially safer and happier life for themselves;

“The bulk of the vulnerable women, over 85 percent, said that they had been either raped, or tortured in their home countries, while some 17 percent confessed they simply failed to tell the Home Office everything that had happened to them in their home country because they felt that in their culture it was hard to speak openly about such things”.

Simonyan, M. (2014),Female asylum seekers detained in UK ‘getting second torture'[online]. Available from: http://rt.com/news/female-asylum-seekers-detention-352/ [Accessed 20 May 2014].

Nine Characters… One Girl

May 25, 2014June 2, 2014 Faye Louise Bunclark

‘There are no small parts, there are only small actors’ (Stanislavski, 1952)

Stanislavski famous words helped a great deal in the growth of each individual character I become in the performance. In this particular piece I play nine different characters, some with larger parts than others, yet they are all equally as important.

I found inspiration looking back at pieces I had seen in previous years where actors within a particular performance took upon many different roles. I began thinking of Stephan Berkoff’s performance of Shakespeare’s Villains (2012) that was held in the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre. Berkoff held the stage alone, with an impressive interpretation and analysis of Shakespeare’s most villainous: Iago, the Macbeths, Shylock, and Richard III. His ability to switch characters simultaneously through his posture, speech and characterisation seamlessly was a trait I wanted to accomplish during my performance.

When playing so many different characters it is important to develop them individually. In our performance we have stripped back the setting in order to focus solely on the story and the message therefore the characterisation of each character is my main focus. In rehearsal it is helps to develop characters with the rest of the actors as you are able to adapt each persona to each scene. Willett suggests ‘The actors learns as the other actors are learning and develops his/her character as they are developing theirs. For the smallest social unit is not the single person but two people. In life too we develop together’ (Willett, 1964: 197). This not only allows you to develop alongside your cast but help you create a more in-depth character.

For me to personally to develop as an actor it is the physicality that brings the character to life. Alder suggests ‘the actors must lose his dependency on the words and go to the actions of the play’, because their actions come first and words. Words come out of the actions (Alder, 1988). Therefore developing nine different characters without the use of costume is all in the portrayal of movement and voice. For example to differentiate the interrogator from Mrs. Doughty my posture will have completely changed. The interrogator will have strong, confident movement, whilst Mrs. Doughty will be slower and less defined. These small changes will make the biggest difference.

Alison Hodge. (2000). Twentieth Century Actor Training. Routledge.

Live on The Nicola Gilroy Show

May 25, 2014 Lauren May Richardson

On the 22^nd May I was asked by Diane Dubois to go onto BBC Lincolnshire to promote Breaking Stories Theatre Company up and coming performance. I felt this was a challenge as I had never spoken live on radio, however it was a challenge I was willing to take in my stride!

Upon researching a bit into radio I found some information which shocked me. It stated that ‘women and minorities, namely African Americans, were portrayed according to the prevailing social biases of the time – as radio reflected the cultural status quo. Women were depicted on the air as domestic caregivers-housewives and mothers- and blacks and other minorities were represented as second class citizens to be ignored and stereotyped.’ (Keith, 2008, P.1) Eventually I found it quite ironic that when radio first came out blacks and women had no voice. Yet now in 2014 here I was, a woman about to talk about a foreign female and how there is a typecast around foreign people in our country.

While on the radio Nicola Gilroy asked me many questions on my theatre company and the performance we had produced. Nicola prompting me with all these questions enabled me to remain calm and discuss what I thought was necessary without missing any important factors out. Upon listening back to the broadcast I felt it went a lot better than I at first imagined! I sensed that you could really get a feel for what the play was about and that would hopefully stir up some interest from the listeners.

The listeners were an important factor to me and I wanted to discover what age range I would be communicating with. The receptionist at BBC Lincolnshire said that the listeners were of the older age due to the time of day the show was aired. This type of show worked for the elderly ‘as listeners grow older they graduate from music to speech radio.’(Crisell, 1994, P.204) I felt that targeting the elderly age range was perfect as we had already targeted the younger generation by doing a radio show on siren FM.

Going onto The Nicola Gilroy Show was an excellent idea as it will hopefully draw in a more diverse audience to our showing of The Bogus Woman. It is always hard to give student shows an awareness in the city of Lincoln, and I am hoping that the promotion on BBC Lincolnshire will entice in a few residents within Lincoln.

Crisell, A. (1994). Understanding Radio. 2nd ed. New York : Routledge.

Keith, M. (2008). Radio Cultures. The Sound Medium in American Life. New York : Peter Lang Publishing.