Bertolt Brecht

“All art forms are in the service of the greatest of all arts: the art of living.” 
― Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director. He was born in 1888 and died 1956. He lived in Germany for most of his life, before he fleed to America, just when Hitler became chancellor. Brecht gathered many different experiences due to working in the War as a medical orderly, gathering supplies and seeing to medical injuries. After working in the first world war and being out of Germany during the second world war, Brecht had created unforgettable memories, and therefore this enabled him to have a greater understanding of life and death. 

Brecht created the idea of the 'V effect'...distancing or de familiarisation creating an idea that the audience must not forget they are watching a play. The audience would have to do this by not becoming attached to the characters. The actors would swap around and multi role to prove to the audience, and helping them to focus on the meaning of the play, rather than the characters. Brecht had many techniques in which he would use to encourage the actors on stage to wear placards and announce their stage directions to remind audiences that they were watching a play. Brecht also felt as though audiences should focus on the reason why events in the play happened instead of the final result, often telling an audience what happens at the end so they can do so. We used Brecht's techniques which he would give his actors in our first lesson of Political Theatre. I found this really interesting to know that we can still use his techniques in modern day.Brecht employed techniques such as the actor's direct address to the audience, harsh and bright stage lighting, the use of songs to interrupt the action, explanatory placards, and, in rehearsals, the transposition of text to the third person or past tense.

Brecht once became a pacifist. He found himself looking beyond what else was happening that could apose that so he becomes interested in communism opposed to naturalism... unlike Stanislavsky who believed in a truthful performance. Brecht was a German intellect and soon aligned himself to be involved with communism, because in Germany it was the only that was available. This allowed both parties to be fully aware of each other. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkiqGxD4CZ8
 A clip from YouTube of an example of Brecht's political views which I found interesting and helpful in my understanding.