Epic theatre - wikipedia Epic theatre Bertolt Brecht in 1954 Epic theatre ( German : episches Theater ) is a theatrical movement arising in the early to mid-20th century from the theories and practice of a number of theatre practitioners who responded to the political climate of the time through the creation of a new political theatre. These practitioners included Erwin Piscator, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold and, most famously, Bertolt Brecht. The term `` epic theatre '' comes from Erwin Piscator who coined it during his first year as director of Berlin 's Volksbühne ( 1924 -- 27 ). Piscator aimed to encourage playwrights to address issues related to `` contemporary existence. '' This new subject matter would then be staged by means of documentary effects, audience interaction, and strategies to cultivate an objective response. The epic form describes both a type of written drama and a methodological approach to the production of plays : `` Its qualities of clear description and reporting and its use of choruses and projections as a means of commentary earned it the name ' epic '. '' Epic theatre incorporates a mode of acting that utilises what Brecht calls gestus. One of Brecht 's most - important aesthetic innovations prioritised function over the sterile opposition between form and content. Brecht discussed the priorities and approach of epic theatre in his work `` A Short Organum for the Theatre ''. Although many of the concepts and practices involved in Brechtian epic theatre had been around for years, even centuries, Brecht unified them, developed the approach, and popularised it. Near the end of his career, Brecht preferred the term `` dialectical theatre '' to describe the kind of theatre he pioneered. From his later perspective, the term `` epic theatre '' had become too formal a concept to be of use anymore. According to Manfred Wekwerth, one of Brecht 's directors at the Berliner Ensemble at the time, the term refers to the `` ' dialecticising ' of events '' that this approach to theatre - making produces. Epic theatre is distinct from other forms of theatre, particularly the early naturalistic approach and later `` psychological realism '' developed by Konstantin Stanislavski. Like Stanislavski, Brecht disliked the shallow spectacle, manipulative plots, and heightened emotion of melodrama ; but where Stanislavski attempted to engender real human behaviour in acting through the techniques of Stanislavski 's system and to absorb the audience completely in the fictional world of the play, Brecht saw this type of theatre as escapist. Brecht 's own social and political focus was distinct, too, from surrealism and the Theatre of Cruelty, as developed in the writings and dramaturgy of Antonin Artaud, who sought to affect audiences viscerally, psychologically, physically, and irrationally. While both produced ' shock ' in the audience, epic theatre practices would also include a subsequent moment of understanding and comprehension. Contents 1 Techniques 2 See also 3 References 4 Sources 5 External links Techniques This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( August 2016 ) While not invented by Brecht, the Verfremdungseffekt, known in English as the `` estrangement effect '' or the `` alienation effect, '' was made popular by Brecht and is one of the most significant characteristics of Epic theatre. Brecht sought to `` re-create the relationship between the actor and audience as dialectic '' so that the audience would not longer `` willingly suspend disbelief. '' The Verfremdungseffekt makes the audience feel detached from the action of the play, so they do not become immersed in the fictional reality of the stage or become overly empathetic of the characters with the hope that Epic theatre will turn `` the spectator into an observer '' and arouse `` his capacity for action, force ( ing ) him to take decisions. '' The distance created by the alienation effect not only encourages the spectator to remain distant from the work, but also `` puncture ( s ) the complacent acceptance of character, motive, narrative, incident or resolution as ' fixed ' and ' unchanging ' or ' obvious ' and ' inevitable. ' '' To that end, Brechtian epic theatre attempts to encourage critical engagement and `` heighten the spectator 's participation, (... ) in an intellectual way. ''. Some of the ways the Verfremdungseffekt can be achieved is by having actors play multiple characters, rearrange the set in full view of the audience, and `` break the fourth wall '' by speaking to the audience. Lighting can also be used to emulate the effect. For example, flooding the theatre with bright lights ( not just the stage ) and placing lighting equipment on stage can encourage the audience to understand that the production is merely a production instead of reality. As with the principle of dramatic construction involved in the epic form of spoken drama amalgamated or what Brecht calls `` non-Aristotelian drama '', the epic approach to play production utilizes a montage technique of fragmentation, contrast and contradiction, and interruptions. While the French playwright Jean Genet articulates a very different world view in his dramas from that found in Brecht 's, in a letter to the director Roger Blin on the most appropriate approach to staging his The Screens in 1966, he advises an epic approach to its production : `` Each scene, and each section within a scene, must be perfected and played as rigorously and with as much discipline as if it were a short play, complete in itself. Without any smudges. And without there being the slightest suggestion that another scene, or section within a scene, is to follow those that have gone before. '' Brecht, too, advised treating each element of a play independently, like a music hall turn that is able to stand on its own. Common production techniques in epic theatre include a simplified, non-realistic scenic design offset against a selective realism in costuming and props, as well as announcements or visual captions that interrupt and summarize the action. Brecht used comedy to distance his audiences from the depicted events and was heavily influenced by musicals and fairground performers, putting music and song in his plays. Acting in epic theatre requires actors to play characters believably without convincing either the audience or themselves that they have `` become '' the characters. Actors frequently address the audience directly out of character ( `` breaking the fourth wall '' ) and play multiple roles. Brecht thought it was important that the choices the characters made were explicit, and tried to develop a style of acting wherein it was evident that the characters were choosing one action over another. For example, a character could say, `` I could have stayed at home, but instead I went to the shops. '' This he called `` fixing the Not / But element. '' See also 7 : 84 Augusto Boal Bertolt Brecht Howard Brenton Caryl Churchill Distancing effect David Edgar ( playwright ) Experimental theatre Dario Fo Gestus Joan Littlewood Vladimir Mayakovsky John McGrath ( playwright ) Modernism Erwin Piscator Political theatre Franca Rame Theatre of the Oppressed Theatre Workshop References Jump up ^ Wiles ( 1980 ). Jump up ^ Innes ( 1972 ). Jump up ^ Bertolt ( 1964, 121 ). Jump up ^ Willett ( 1964 ) 281. Jump up ^ Brecht ( 1949, 276 ). Jump up ^ Quoted by Willett ( 1964 ) 282. Jump up ^ Schall, Ekkehard ( 2015 ). The Craft of Theatre : Seminars and Discussions in Brechtian Theatre. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 205. ISBN 9781474243308. Jump up ^ Monaco, James ( 1981 ). How to Read a Film : The Art, Technology, Language, History, and Theory of Film and Media. Oxford University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780195028027. Jump up ^ Monaco, James ( 1981 ). How to Read a Film : The Art, Technology, Language, History, and Theory of Film and Media. Oxford University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780195028027. Jump up ^ Taylor, Millie ( 2016 ). Musical Theatre, Realism and Entertainment. Routledge. p. 76. ISBN 9781317091363. Jump up ^ Monaco, James ( 1981 ). How to Read a Film : The Art, Technology, Language, History, and Theory of Film and Media. Oxford University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780195028027. Jump up ^ Genet ( 1966, 25 ). Sources Brecht, Bertolt. 1949. `` A Short Organum for the Theatre ''. Trans. John Willett. In Brecht ( 1964, 179 - 205 ). Brecht, Bertolt. 1964. Brecht on Theatre : The Development of an Aesthetic. Ed. and trans. John Willett. British edition. London : Methuen. ISBN 0 - 413 - 38800 - X. USA edition. New York : Hill and Wang. ISBN 0 - 8090 - 3100 - 0. Brecht, Bertolt. 1965. The Messingkauf Dialogues. Trans. John Willett. Bertolt Brecht : Plays, Poetry, Prose Ser. London : Methuen, 1985. ISBN 0 - 413 - 38890 - 5. Genet, Jean. 1966. Letters to Roger Blin. In Reflections on the Theatre and Other Writings. Trans. Richard Seaver. London : Faber, 1972. 7 -- 60. ISBN 0 - 571 - 09104 - 0. Innes, Christopher. 1972. Erwin Piscator 's Political Theatre : The Development of Modern German Drama. New edition. Cambridge : Cambridge UP, 1977. ISBN 0 - 521 - 29196 - 8. Squiers, Anthony. 2014. An Introduction to the Social and Political Philosophy of Bertolt Brecht : Revolution and Aesthetics. Amsterdam : Rodopi. ISBN 978 - 9042038998. Wiles, Timothy. 1980. The Theatre Event. Chicago : Chicago University Press. ISBN 0 - 226 - 89801 - 6. Willett, John. 1964. Editorial notes. In Brecht on Theatre : The Development of an Aesthetic, by Bertolt Brecht. London : Methuen. ISBN 0 - 413 - 38800 - X. New York : Hill and Wang. ISBN 0 - 8090 - 3100 - 0. External links Epic Theatre -- University of Southern Queensland Artsworx Resources on The Good Woman of Setzuan. Bertolt Brecht Plays Baal Drums in the Night A Wedding Driving Out a Devil Lux in Tenebris Mysteries of a Barbershop In the Jungle of Cities Edward II Man Equals Man Downfall of the Egotist Johann Fatzer The Elephant Calf Little Mahagonny The Threepenny Opera The Flight Across the Ocean The Baden - Baden Lesson on Consent Happy End Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny Der Jasager / Der Neinsager The Decision Saint Joan of the Stockyards The Exception and the Rule The Mother Kuhle Wampe The Seven Deadly Sins Round Heads and Pointed Heads The Horatians and the Curiatians Fear and Misery of the Third Reich Señora Carrar 's Rifles Life of Galileo How Much Is Your Iron ? Dansen Mother Courage and Her Children The Trial of Lucullus Mr Puntila and his Man Matti The Good Person of Szechwan The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui Hangmen Also Die ! The Visions of Simone Machard The Duchess of Malfi Schweyk in the Second World War The Caucasian Chalk Circle Antigone The Days of the Commune The Tutor Die Verurteilung des Lukullus Report from Herrnburg Coriolanus The Trial of Joan of Arc of Proven, 1431 Turandot Don Juan Trumpets and Drums Theories and techniques Epic theatre Non-Aristotelian drama Lehrstücke Fabel Gestus Defamiliarization Demonstration Not / But Historicization Refunctioning Separation of the elements Interruptions Complex seeing The Modern Theatre Is the Epic Theatre The Street Scene A Short Organum for the Theatre Messingkauf Dialogues Avant - garde movements Visual art Abstract expressionism Art Nouveau Conceptual art Constructivism Cubism Proto - Cubism Cubo - Futurism De Stijl Devětsil Divisionism Fauvism Impressionism Neo-Impressionism Post-Impressionism Color Field Incoherents Lyrical Abstraction Mail art Minimalism Mir iskusstva Neue Slowenische Kunst Nonconformism Pop art Rayonism Suprematism Vorticism Nouveau réalisme Literature and poetry Acmeism Angry Penguins Asemic writing Cyberpunk Ego - Futurism Experimental literature Flarf poetry Hungry generation Imaginism Language poets Neoteric Nouveau roman Oberiu Oulipo Ultraísmo Visual poetry Zaum Music By style Jazz Metal Pop Rock Prog Punk Others Aleatoric music Ars subtilior Atonal music Drone music Electroacoustic music Electronic music Experimental pop Free jazz Futurism ( music ) Industrial music Microtonal music Minimal music Musique concrète New Complexity No wave Noise music Post-rock Rock in Opposition Second Viennese School Serialism Spectral music Stochastic music Textural music Totalism Twelve - tone technique Cinema and theatre Cinéma pur Dogme 95 Drop Art Epic theatre Remodernist film Structural film Theatre of the Absurd Theatre of Cruelty General Bauhaus Constructivism Dada Expressionism Fluxus Futurism Lettrism Modernism Minimalism Postminimalism Neo-minimalism Neo-Dada Neoism Postmodernism Late modernism Primitivism Russian Futurism Russian symbolism Situationist International Social realism Socialist realism Surrealism Symbolism Book GND : 4015051 - 3 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Epic_theatre&oldid=808903078 '' Categories : Bertolt Brecht theories and techniques Metafictional techniques Modernist theatre Political theatre forms Hidden categories : Use dmy dates from August 2016 Use British English from August 2016 Articles containing German - language text Articles needing additional references from August 2016 All articles needing additional references Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Afrikaans Bân - lâm - gú Беларуская Català Čeština Deutsch Eesti Español فارسی Français Galego Íslenska Italiano עברית Latviešu Nederlands Norsk ਪੰਜਾਬੀ Português Русский Slovenčina Suomi Svenska தமிழ் Türkçe Українська Zazaki Edit links This page was last edited on 5 November 2017, at 22 : 42. 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Question: who developed a method of acting to reproduce real human behavior on the stage
Answer: Stanislavski