Research Article

Theories of labour: physically scoring Brecht’sMother Courage and Her Childrenwith Stanislavski, viewpoints, and composition

Published: 2020-7-2

Journal: Stanislavski Studies

DOI: 10.1080/20567790.2020.1806617

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay discusses my direction of Tony Kushner’s translation of Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children and the ways in which I transposed my understanding of Stanislavski’s Method of Physical Action and my practice of Viewpoints to work with actors to make tangible the play’s anti-capitalist philosophy: by having them score their scripts with “payment” and “profit” rather than the typical Stanislavskian terms “tactic” and “objective,” and by using Viewpoints to craft character and scenic gestus, a term Brecht used to define physical actions and stage compositions that conveyed social meaning. KEYWORDS: Brecht, Stanislavski, action analysis, Viewpoints, psychophysical, Epic Theatre Disclosure statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. Notes 1. In her introduction to The Routledge Companion to Dramaturgy, Magda Romanska reminds us that the original Greek compound word – dramatourgos – can mean “play maker,” but also “play composer,” as the root word “drama” comes from the Attic verb for “action,” and “tourgos” from the verb for “working together,” which literally translates as “work,” or, significantly, “composition.” Thus, writes Romanska, “originally, dramatourgos meant someone who was able to arrange various dramatic actions in a meaningful and comprehensive order” (1). 2. Zarrilli, Psychophysical Acting, 16. 3. Ibid., 15. 4. Bartow, “Introduction,” xxiv. 5. Carnicke, Stanislavsky in Focus, 58. 6. Zarrilli, Psychophysical Acting, 13. 7. Benedetti, Stanislavski, 66. 8. 0Stanislavski, quoted in Carnicke, Stanislavsky in Focus, 178. 9. Weber, Brecht as Director, 103. 10. See Brecht, Brecht on Theatre. 11. Brecht, quoted in Gordon, “Brechtian Theatre as Political Praxis,” 248. 12. Gordon, “Brechtian Theatre as Political Praxis,” 248. 13. Weber, Brecht as Director, 105. 14. See note 11 above 248. 15. Gordon, “Brechtian Theatre as Political Praxis,” 244, 246. 16. Rouse, quoted in Gordon, “Brechtian Theatre as Political Praxis,” 253. 17. I was trained in Viewpoints and Composition by Maria Porter, Professor of Theatre at the Long Island University-Post. Porter’s training in these techniques began when she was one of Anne Bogart’s students at the University of California. Her work was later influenced by further training at Eugenio Barba’s Odin Teatret in Holstebro, Denmark, where she met Argentinian director Cristina Castrillo; they have worked together extensively over the last twenty-plus years at Teatro delle Radici in Lugano, Switzerland. Porter has said that the techniques I was taught are the manifestation of a marriage of disciplines (Bogart, Odin, Castrillo) within Porter’s personal aesthetic. Thus, my practice is yet another permutation of the form, owing to my experiences with Porter, my separate study of Bogart’s methods, and my own discoveries over the past seventeen years. 18. Bogart and Landau, The Viewpoints Book, 12. Additional information Notes on contributors Matt Saltzberg Matt Saltzberg, MFA/PhD, is a teacher and director of theatre, music theatre, and opera. A member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers’ Society, recent directing credits include: a real-time cinema production of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Everybody; Ben Power’s version of Euripides’ Medea; Dance on Bones, a new work described as an immersive theatre-jazz odyssey; his punk-rock, queer-counterculture adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream; and The Curse of the Wise, his own gender-bent, movement-based work of music-theatre, based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth and created in collaboration with composer Ryan McNeil. Saltzberg holds a PhD in Theatre & Performance Studies from the University of Missouri and an MFA in Directing from Western Illinois University. Additionally, he is an alum of the DirectorsLab Chicago and LaMaMa ETC’s International Symposium for Directors in Spoleto, Italy, and is a recipient of a Meritorious Award for Movement Direction from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. A published scholar, his writing is included in Routledge’s Physical Dramaturgy: Perspectives from the Field. He is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Salisbury University, where he teaches courses in acting, directing, and theatre history.

Faculty Members

  • Matt Saltzberg - Salisbury University

Themes

  • Directorial Approaches
  • Brechtian Theatre
  • Psychophysical Acting
  • Anti-Capitalist Philosophy
  • Integration of Acting Techniques

Categories

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