My characters

ALWINE DOLLFUSS
I have been cast as Mr Dullfeets wife Betty Dullfeet for the whole of the play.

Dollfuss pictured with his two children and wife

I have researched into who Betty Dullfeet represents, and have found it difficult to find a lot of information.
What I have found out through research is Ignatius Dullfeet, who is her husband, represents ENGELBERT DOLLFUSS who was an Austrian Christian social statesmen. Which makes sense to me as Dullfeet is seen as a "news paper reporter" in the play, and the last names are very similar. Brecht has made it very clear that the play is a satire of Hitlers rise, and clearly wanted everybody to know this, it is very obvious as all the characters have very similar names and characteristics.
Dollfuss was assasinated in 1934 by ten Austrian Nazi's, he was only 41 when he died, and Hitler disliked him very much for what he believed in.
It makes sense to me now why Dullfeet is very short in the play, as Dollfuss stood at only 4"11. From my research Dollfuss came from an honest and modest background, and was a brave officer in WW1 and was generally seen as a likable and well intentioned man.  Clearly the opposite of Hitler, and I feel Dollfuss was quite weak minded and was definitely bullied and manipulated by the Nazi's, just like in the play, Dullfeet is very disliked by Ui, but Dullfeet is not very phased by this, but is warned by Betty that if he does not keep his mouth shut he will be killed by Ui's gangsters, and he was. 

Alwine Dollfuss was his wife, and they had two children together. Information about her is very limited, she died in 1973, and is buried alongside Dollfuss in Vienna.When Dollfuss was murdered, she was in Italy with Benito Mussolini, and hurried back on his private plane back to Austria.
Benito Mussolini was was an Italian Politician, I am unsure why she was with the Italian Journalist and Politician, maybe it was to do with work? An affair possibly? It is unclear, there are little facts about Alwine, I feel she kept herself very private after his death, seeing as she died 40 years after him, since then, there is no information about her at all. But I will keep researching and will try to find out some more background information.

Dollfuss

To succeed with this character, I need to find a "quotable gest"  which Brecht urged all his actors to find, as this is a movement which sums up the character to the audience and can be used throughout the play. I feel Betty Dullfeet is a smart lady, and is not the sort of woman who will be left on the back seat, and she is always kept up to date with her husband. So I feel her physicality would be very strong and grounded. Having said this, in the end she does give into Arturo Ui, and joins him on his side. I feel this happened becasue he blackmailed and threatened her. 
Hitler used to push his beliefs onto people, and if thye did not agree or join him,he would simply have them murdered or sent to a gas chamber. Betty Dullfeet did not want to die, she probably wanted to live on in honour of her husband, so I feel she gave into Ui, purely because she wanted to live and experience life, she did not want to die young. And she probably felt very intimidated by him, and Ui caught Betty at a VERY vulnerable stage, having just lost her husband, she was very alone and distressed, and he was probably offering her a "shoulder to cry on" when really he just wanted her on his side. But even though she weakened towards the end, I feel her gest should still be strong and up right.

"THE QUOTABLE GEST"
This is a technique which actors using Brechtian techniques use in order to find a set physicality for their character(S)
The characters I have been cast as other than Betty Dullfeet are:

• SHEET: Sheet portrays no real life person, he is a fictional character and owns a dockyard or shipyard. He is part of the Cauliflower trust and is determined to find a loan to help them out. I am playing him in Scene 1B. He enters the stage very quickly, and automatically brings the energy into the scene. I am going to enter the stage as Sheet very energetically and quickly, and begin talking in a very out of breath way. As Sheet has been "running from pillar to post"all day trying to find a loan from a bank. The gest for Sheet I have in my head is quite comical, I feel Sheet is not a very intimidating character and is quite funny, so I think the gest I will use for Sheet will be, standing up straight, with hands on hips, looking up to the sky, seeming like in deep thought- as he does TRY and is always busy doing something, but I feel in my interpretation of Sheet he is very hit and miss, so my gest for him fits my interpration perfectly, as he seems a "nice guy" but he is quite dodgy, but also quite ditsy and all over the place.So my gest portrays "the loveable gangster"
• DOCKDAISY: Dockdaisy is seen as a drunk, common and bad mouthed young woman. She is the mistress of Givola, who portrays Joseph Goebbels, who in real life was described as a "womaniser" and had six children with his wife. Dockdaisy is very drunk in the scene I play her in, and when playing her I am sitting up on the bar, swaying and hiccuping and swigging a pint of beer and smoking a cigarette. Not a very classy lady at all, and she is very fun to play! She does not seem very phased by what Ui and Roma are talking about, until the mention Givola, and then she begins to listen and pipe up, shouting abuse at Ragg as he talks disrespectfully about Givola. The gest I have used for her is quite simply, a drunken sway. It can be used when I am sitting at the bar, when I am standing and when I am walking. I get the feeling she is not very smart and is quite impressionable. She is not important to anyone really, and in another scene which I am not playing her in, she is seen lying for Ui in court and given falss evidence, in order to increase Ui's public status. The gest I have for her sums her up as a character, she is a drunk, silly, young and carefree woman who just sways through life, and is happy to be Givola's bit on the side, and kind of does not belong anywhere.

23.04.15

Goebbels with all of his children

Today I have been researching into my character,Betty Dullfeet(this is in a separate post)and also the other characters featured, and who they were in real life.
Most of the characters are based upon German aristocrats and associates of Hitler, and this is very apparent throughout the play.

Arturo Ui: Quite clearly, a caricature of Adolf Hitler. Arturo's journey within the play is based upon the real life events of Hitlers rise to power. Brecht has comically made Ui look similar to Hitler with the silly moustache and his hair. This adds comedy to the character, but his dark rise to power is the main link between Ui and Hitler. The play is a satire of Hitler's life, from when he became noticed and to when he rose to power. The play does not show Hitler's downfall and his death, it finishes when Ui is unstoppable and has Betty DullFeet on his side. He manipulates the characters into joining sides with him, and if they do not, the will be killed. Ui is very powerful, passionate and intense, exactly like Hitler was. 
Dogsborough: This character is a parody of German aristocrat Paul Von Hindenburg, he was Polish. He wanted to be the leader of a government Anti Nazi party, but Hitler would not allow this, and insisted on being the chancellor of every government party,  but an agreement was made between the two men, Hindeburg's policies irritated the Nazi's and Hitler slowly gained power unlimited policital power, and was always publicly "respectful" towards Hindenburg, though I believe they were enemies, but Hitler wanted to keep him close. In his late years, Hindenburg became heavily influenced by those around him, including his son(YOUNG DOGSBOROUGH) and was manipulated into things he did not believe in, very similar to Dogsborough. He disliked Hitler as he was from the wrong social class, but was " forced" to appoint him as chancellor. Hindenburg died of lung cancer in 1934, and Hitler continued to rise further.

Ernst Rohm

Roma: Ernesto Rohm. He was a German officer and then became the leader of the nazi party. He was influential over Hitler, and he was rumoured to be homosexual. But Hitler had no problem with this and accepted him, which is very ironic seeing as Hitler was strongly against homosexuality.

Givola: Joseph Goebbels, he was a German politician and Reich minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany. He was Hitlers minister of Propaganda. Died in 1947 by shooting himself and his wife, along with poisoning his six children, due to Russia invading Germany and Hitler losing his power. Goebbels was a womaniser, and was told by Hitler to change his ways. He was a massive fan of Hitler and was almost like a shadow of him, he looked up to Hitler and did everything he asked for. Hitler denied him the right to divorce his wife as it would set a "bad example" to the German public, as Goebbels had always preached family values to the Germans. Givola and Arturo are very close, and Givola is like his second hand man, always doing everything he wants and he is very powerful and intimidating, similar to Arturo.

Dullfeet: Engelbert Dollfus, was an Austrian Christian social and Patriotic front statesman. Betty Dullfet(Alwine Dollfus) was his wife, who is the character I am playing. Dollfus was a small man of 4"11, hence the reference to his height in the play. And he was generally a well liked man, who had good morals and beliefs. in 1933, he banned the Austrian Nazi party and assumed dictator powers. He was a dictator of Austria and a chancellor. He was not liked by Hitler as he had different views and beliefs, and did not like the Nazi party at all. Similar to the play where dullfeet expresses his dislike for Ui and his gangsters. He was assasinated by 10 Austrian Nazi's, due to Hitler's dislike for him and his beliefs.

Characters
Dogsborough → Paul von Hindenburg
Arturo Ui → Adolf Hitler
Giri → Hermann Göring
Roma → Ernst Röhm
Givola → Joseph Goebbels
Dullfeet → Engelbert Dollfuß
Karfioltrust → Junker, the Industrial trust
Gangsters → Fascists
Fish → Marinus van der Lubbe
Sheet (Shipyard Owner)
The different places cited in the text:
Chicago → Germany
Cicero → Austria
Dockshilfeskandal → East Aid Scandal

27.4.15

Today we filmed Sophie & Greta's scene from Atonement in the painting and decorating rooms.

I really enjoyed today's filming and felt the crew and cast all worked so well together and everything ran really smoothly! I was really impressed with both girls as I felt they worked really hard and everything they were saying had emotions and meaning. The acting was very subtle and soft, which I felt made the scene very naturalistic and it did not seem forced at all.

They took direction very well and improved with every shot. We only had to re do one shot with 2 takes, and the rest were all done in 1 take! In total there was 11 shots.

We got some really lovely camera angles and some really nice stills, the setting was great for this scene.

I was in charge of marking each scene, and I gave some input on direction, along side Sav who was the director for today's filming. 

For the next one I volunteered myself to be Director as I have so far done marking and script continuity and I feel I want to challenge myself and I like to direct and help others improve. 

What I liked the most about today was the TEAMWORK. As a group we all work really well on the whole, but today I feel was great and we were all really involved, maybe because the scenes were running smoothly and we did not have to keep stopping and starting, as it was fairly straight forward, complete contrast to mine and Sav's scene last week!

I don't really have anything to say about improvements, as I was really impressed with the acting, the emotions, the teamwork and the girl's efforts.

Sorry guys had to put this one up!!

24.04.15

Today we started the prologue scene which is our opening scene, which features the announcer speech and a dance we have choreographed today. Our lesson was very productive today and we completed the whole prologue, and divided it into sections so each person has a few lines to say, instead of us all reading the prologue in unison or just 1 person taking the role of the announcer.

We decided to stage the scene quite simply and using all of the space. We first begin backstage and enter the stage, running with small steps in a 1930's cabaret show girl style, and we form the shape of an arrow on the stage >

Sophie then opens the scene with the announcers speech, and we choreographed movements to link with her speech, the whole style is very 1920-1930's cabaret speak easy style. We are using music in this scene as well, we decided on these songs to be featured in the opening scene...

Louis Armstrong and his hot five- Fireworks(1928)

Gershwin plays Gershwin rhapsody in blue(1927)

And then we are going to use a sound effect of Tommy gun's which I found on youtube to be played at the same time as the second song, after we have finished the prologue and the lights have gone down. It adds to the gangster effect of the play and it adds a good atmosphere, and is quite alarming, which is what we want.

We recorded our dance after a couple of rehearsals and this will be uploaded very soon. I think for our first ever rehearsal lesson for this play, today went really well and we created a great opening scene, and the dance moves look really good, and are definitely 1920s-30's cabaret style movements, we incorporated the Charleston and leg kicks and quick foot movements. I am really happy with this scene and we all worked great together.
I feel now to make this scene stronger we just need to keep running it and making sure the dance moves are very sharp, and we are quick with our lines in the prologue.
We have all said that we will learn our lines in time for Tuesday's rehearsal so that we are able to act to our best abilities and we will become more confident with the show the earlier we know our lines.
I feel a good way to maintain the dance moves is to use this dance piece as our WARM UP every lesson! That way we will be constantly rehearsing it, it will give us energy at the start of our lessons and it is fun, I feel after we choreographed the dance I felt so much more awake and lively, because the style of the dance is very upbeat and fast.
Here is a video I found which gives a feel to the dance and look we have created..

The movement they use at 1:15 in the exact same dance step we use in our scene.

First rehearsal of OUR dance

20.04.2015

Today was the filming of Mine and Sav's scene from Girl Interrupted. We filmed it in the old canteen, which is a massive open space with lots of junk, which was perfect for this scene as the setting in the film is inside an old boiler room filled with abadoned items.
This scene was probably the hardest scene to film so far as it took 8-9 shots with more than 1 take everytime! So it took a long time to film, and was very stop start due to the positions and movements in our scene. Compared to the other 2 scenes we have already filmed, this was the most complex due to our characters not sitting down in the same position together, we were constantly moving positions in the scenes and it was quite hard to find a flow, but after rehearsing and the first couple of shots we got more into the scene, it was just difficult for me as I kept getting my lines muddled up, as we had to keep picking up scenes and I would get lost with my lines! But I felt we worked really hard and I felt tired after the filming, which to me proves that I was trying really hard and so was Sav. I am proud of our scene and cannot wait to watch it once it has been edited.

Challenges..
 I feel the most challenging parts of the filming was the pick ups. As we would have to cut in the middle of a line, and then change posistions and then pick up again from the same line, and this did get quite confusing, but everyone there helped me with the lines and I got there in the end! I had a lot more lines than Sav, and quite a lot of my lines were very similar so I did get muddled up in parts. I feel if me and Sav had rehearsed more in the style of FILMING rather than stage I would of been much more prepared for just how stop start it really was. I did not anticipate just how hard it would be! I felt frustrated at myself because I am usually good at learning lines but it was just difficult to remember them when we kept stopping and starting. But in future I will make sure I am prepared for filming and to know my lines a lot better so then I would'nt have to stop because I forgot my line, but this experience has taught me a lot and I feel more confident now than I did before the filming.
What went well?
The ending scene went really well I felt and knew all my lines and there was no stop start, it flowed very well. The only problem with this scene was that the camera ran out of battery mid scene! So we had to pick it up from the middle, but this scene went really well. It is the most emotional part of the scene as the two characters become upset with each other, and my character expresses how she feels neglected by everyone and her parents, and Sav's character portrays her anger towards Lisa and how she finds her pathetic. This is definitely the climax of the whole scene, and I feel it went really well. The emotions were clear and the acting was strong. This is my favourite part of the filming. I feel the passion throughout the scene was always portrayed, and Sav and I focused really hard on what we were saying and REACTING to each other! After being told that I needed to react to Sav more, I took this note on board and really pushed myself to react using my body language, facial expressions and my acting skills.
I really enjoyed today, it was very tiring and stressful but we did it, and everybody helped out.

17.04.2015

In today's lesson we all went through the play in three groups and each group analysed the scenes. My group analysed scenes 10-15 and then we all came together and shared our summaries, high lighting the main points of the scenes and which characters are featured. We only got to scene 3, as we were discussing the venue we want to use and the audience styles we want.

We then had a discussion about which venue we should use for our performance, The One Church or Pelham. The majority of us prefer Pelham as the acoustics are MUCH better and it is a more versatile venue. As the one church is very traditional and quite bohemian, it suited Shakespeare really well, but I do not think it would suit a Brechtian performance, it just does not have the edge needed for this performance. So I think we have decided to use Pelham as it is nore open and we can do more with it than the church.

An idea came up that we could make the audience into a Cabaret style audience, with round tables for the audience to sit as, rather than having the audience end on or proscenium arch, creating a Cabaret style for the audience will suit the performance very well since we are using 1930's music throughout the performance to be played in the background. We want to create a very edgy, gangster and swing scene. I want the audience to feel as though they are in an underground cabaret club watching a performance in the 1930's.

We also spoke about having the cast sitting at the tables as well, in order to make sure the audience realise this is a performance and it is not real, a Brechtian techique he uses in all his plays.

We also spoke about having a bar set up at the back, like we did for the christmas cabaret, but with a 1930's theme. Although Brecht always had the lights up very bright in order to keep audiences in the reality and not drift off, I feel having dim lights would set the mood of an underground cabaret club much better, but this is something I will have to share with my classmates, as they might feel sticking to all the Brecht styles is best.

13.04.15

 Filming the second scene: swingers 

Yunis & Harry 

Today we all helped with and watched Harry and Yunis' scene from swingers. The scene is about two boys, Rob and Mike who are best friends and Mike has broken up with his girlfriend and is still madly in love with her and secretly wants to get Back together with her, Rob is very against this and wants Mike to stay away from his ex as he feels he should move on. The scene is very funny and has a lot of subtle gags throughout. It is funny to watch Yunis' reactions to Harry(Mike) as he is so fed up with hearing the same stories over and over again and Mike just doesn't realise what he's saying and just wants rob to say to him that he should talk to his ex girlfriend. 

What went well? 

I feel both Harry and Yunis did really well with maintaining the naturalism. The scene always seemed very real and easy to watch. They also both used good facial expressions, which is important in film as you can use your face more when you act, especially in the close ups. They were both clear and easily heard throughout and didn't complicate the scene by moving around, fiddling with things or coughing/sniffing. It was a good scene to watch. 

What could of been improved? 

I feel the main weakness of this scene was the lines. The two boys got the order of the lines muddled up and Harry struggled at the beginning with the first 3 lines. I helped with this as I was in charge of continuity and had the script to hand. I feel if the two boys, particularly Harry, were more relaxed and not so focused on messing the lines up, the lines would of just came naturally. Because I think they were both a little bit anxious about the lines. But they did really well and proud iced a great scene in the end. Yunis always seemed very relaxed throughout, it was just at times he seemed a little bit on edge.