Introduction To Rehearsal Blogs

            UNIT 9 PROJECT: ‘The Tragic Tale of Melissa Mchiney Mcnormous Mcwhale.’

This term myself and my class have created a ten-minute devised piece which investigates the themes and issues of persecution. The play is based on 'The Tragic Tale of Melissa Mchiney Mcnormous Mcwhale.' A one-act play based in Las Vegas by Walter Wykes (an American playwright and actor).

 The play is about a woman named Melissa who lives in Las Vegas, Melissa is mocked and teased by everyone around her because she has a large bum. Melissa unknowingly laps in the attention from everyone, believing that she is being celebrated. She quickly and cruelly learns that, that in fact is not the case and everyone has been blatantly laughing at her. She begins to feel isolated and self-aware, until one day she meets a man, that has abnormally large features like herself and they bond over that and form a relationship. Soon they start a family and when everyone hears of the happiness Melissa has found, they become unhappy with how they look and want to be just like her.

The primary focus of the play is the persecution of Melissa and how society forces and implements change. In this modern day, realistically the outcome could have played out much differently, for obvious reasons, Melissa is a character in a play with emotions we are supposed to find funny and we have real feelings which affect us not just emotionally but mentally and physically. In my opinion society is both the victim and the oppressor. In this case, society ridicules Melissa for not having the image society refers to as ‘normal’ and they try to coax her into physically changing herself to be like them. Then suddenly when society is ready to accept difference, the table turns, and they subject the same abuse towards those who have not changed or adapted with society. I believe this play is symbolic to the hierarchy of todays society. People who have fame are trolled every moment of everyday and feel as though they need to change themselves in order to keep their fame. So, they get surgery and use unorthodox dietary plans and then present themselves to the world as natural. So, then those who uplift them and aspire to be like them believe they need to look like them, however they do not have the money to do so, so they improve and substitute. This creates depression, anxiety, danger, and eating disorders. 

Persecution is found  everywhere in different aspects, whether its ;subliminal, small, substantial or in modern day or history. In relation to The Tale of Melissa Mchiney Mcnormous Mcwhale, a slave called Sarah Baartman,was a poor African slave who was abused by unashamed Europeans for her massive bottom and used as a circus animal. Sarah was persecuted for her race and figure.

The reason was that Baartman, also known as Sara or Saartjie, had what was called "steatopygia", resulting in extremely protuberant buttocks due to a build-up of fat.

These made her a cause of fascination when she was exhibited at a venue in London's Piccadilly Circus after her arrival. "You have to remember that, at the time, it was highly fashionable and desirable for women to have large bottoms, so lots of people envied what she had naturally, without having to accentuate her figure," says Rachel Holmes, author of The Hottentot Venus: The Life and Death of Saartjie Baartman.

On stage she wore skin-tight, flesh-coloured clothing, as well as beads and feathers, and smoked a pipe. Wealthy customers could pay for private demonstrations in their homes, with their guests allowed to touch her.

( research from :https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35240987)

The reason I am also talking about this because now it links to cultural appropriation and whitewashing. An on going topic which is sometimes political but has more recently become comical on social media is cultural appropriation. A popular conversation is who did it first and what is deemed as acceptable for another race/ethnicity or culture to appreciate. People say having a big bum is predominantly a black or latin feature, however they are wrong It is a natural feature for anyone. But now having big assets is a trend, a necessity of a lady and is more than accepted, its praise - only if it's natural.

Brecht and Epic Theatre Research

Brechtian and Epic Theatre Portfolio

“Art is not a mirror with which to reflect reality but a hammer with which to shape it.’’- Bertolt Brecht

Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht was born in 1898 Augsburg, Bavaria. Brecht had a very strong opinion on political based issues which occurred around him. Growing up at the time of the First World War Brecht was faced with very hostile judgement and propaganda, which he opposed against in 1915 in a school essay which he was nearly expelled for. Brecht’s argument was that – ‘only an empty-headed person could be persuaded to die for their country.

’After the death of his mother in the year 1920, In pursuit of a career in theatre Brecht went to Munich and then Berlin, after serving as a medical orderly in the first world war. In 1933 the second war began, lead by Adolf Hitler. In fear of persecution Brecht fled Nazi Germany, with his second wife and family. The Nazi’s formally removed his citizenship, so he was a stateless citizen and for several years during this period Brecht wrote one of his most famous plays ' Mother Courage and her Children' in which he expressed his opposition to the National socialist and Fascists movements; in response to the invasion of Poland by the Nazi Armies. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWApVvqM-W0



In 1949 Brecht co-founded a theatre company called The Berliner Ensemble with his second wife Helene Weigel (who also played as a leading actress and co-director). Brecht’s company was originated as a branch of The Deutsches Theatre and then went on to becoming and independent state theatre in 1954 as a theatre of its own.


Brecht had very different ideas about how drama should be executed in comparison to other practitioners. He used various techniques, one of them being ‘Gestus’. Gestus is a mixture of non-realistic and realistic character gesture used by the actor to capture a moment instead of attaching an emotion to the character. Character Gestus is influenced by Marxists principles (Marxist believes that capitalism can only flourish on the exploitation of working class). By using gestures, it informs the audience about part of the story quickly in a generic way so Gestus enhances the gestures by combining attitude into them to give the gesture depth.


The fourth wall is a theatrical metaphor shared between the actors and the audience. The idea is that there is a transparent barrier between the actors and the audience and the actors are unaware that the audience are watching them. This fourth wall is broken when the actor directly talks to the audience. This is different from a monologue in classical theatre (e.g., Shakespeare), when the character shares something that we can hear but the other performers can’t. By contrast, these devices traditionally keep the performer within the universe of the play. Many kinds of theatrical performance get rid of the fourth wall entirely. But in realistic drama, breaking the fourth wall can be entertaining and comedic. A character might confide in the audience by letting you in on a joke or sharing a piece of knowledge that the other characters don’t have. Brecht’s ideology of breaking the fourth wall was to pulverize naturalistic conventions, he wanted highlight the relationship between the stage and the audience by making the actors invade the privacy and comfortability of the audience in order to provoke extreme emotions that will keep them thinking throughout the duration of the play and encourage them to reflect on the issues raised.

The difference between Epic and Dramatic theatre is that in Epic theatre Brecht prefers to view his audience as spectators, the aim is to present ideas with a clear argument that shares various viewpoints. Since the audience is only a spectator, the audience is kept at an emotional distance from the action therefore the audience is always aware that they are watching a play. The main purpose is to not imitate reality.

On the other hand Dramatic theatre is more inclusive towards its audience and aims to make the audience feel emotionally involved. the audience is made to feel a part of the play by putting them into the action thus embedding  emotion in them .It makes the audience very involved in the play and what’s happening to the extent that it doesn’t give them a chance to look at the play from a distance and reflect.in dramatic theatre scenes are linked together whereas epic theatre  can be more randomized -by linking scenes together it presents you with the world as it is so the audience leaves the theatre believing that life is unchangeable and inevitable. Dramatic theatre allows the audience to see a representation of reality encouraging us to accept it without thinking so that’s why it gives you a sense of inevitability and fate. The audience identifies with the characters through terror and pity.

The idea of verfremdungseffek, also known as the ‘v-effect’ or the alienation effect is designed to keep the audience from becoming emotionally invested by jolting reminders using Brecht techniques that what is being seen is not real. Otherwise Brecht’s message would be lost. Brecht deliberately used unrealistic techniques such as placards or illustrations projected on a screen; actors stepping out of character to lecture, summarize, or sing songs; and stage designs that do not represent any locality but that, by exposing the lights and ropes, keep the spectators aware of being in a theatre. This always reminds the audience that this is not even close to reality and that they are watching a play. Brecht wanted actors to make a balance between “being” their characters and showing the audience that the character is “being played”. The actor must always remember that he is an actor and that he is only portraying the feelings and emotions of his character.

Multi-roling is when an actor plays more than one character onstage. The differences in character are marked by changing voice, movement, gesture and body language but the audience can clearly see that the same actor has taken on more than one role. This means the audience are more aware of the fact that they are watching a play. Sometimes it is used to denote roles of specific individuals (rather than more generic roles such as “journalist” or “scientist”).

 In a Brechtian play lighting and sound would be very minimal and simple, to avoid any emotional connection with the audience. Brecht would use; screen projection used to reinforce play’s theme/s (to garner an intellectual response, not emotional), open white light only (as colour would generate an emotional response from the audience) if the house lights were left on during a performance, open white light also allowed for the spectators and performers to share a single same-lit space. Lighting instruments in full view of audience (no attempt to hide them, but rather remind the audience they were watching a play) and music and song used to express the play’s themes independent of the main spoken text in the play (in parable scenes) - music was used to neutralise emotion, rather than intensify it (opposite to a modern-day musical).

Brecht used this style of theatre because he wanted to reach ultimate objectivity from the audience’s side instead of identifying with the characters. This way the audience will learn the reality of their society and world. Brecht believed that theatre should not play with the audience’s feelings but should appeal and influence his reason/mind. It should encourage the audience to have a more critical attitude to what’s happening on stage and grasp their attention by making them feel uncomfortable with how abstract and unfiltered it is. Brecht refuses to assume that the audience could only be reached through their emotion but through their minds so he doesn’t want the audience to relate to the characters and become emotionally involved with them (breaking empathy for characters) at all but make them think about their own life and this is where change will come.