Characters reveiled and Gestus

In today's lesson we learnt a new exercise that explained much more clearer the work of Brecht. This exercise started off with people getting characters with weird names or names that would almost tell the character's life before they could present themseleves to the play. Name's such as Harry Bumptious the Yuppin or Cedric Hore Hore the car salesman, already presents the identity of the character and by doing this, Brecht shows that stereotypical way of giving an actor a character with a name and presenting what kind of individual they are. I learnt that by doing this, an actor can present a character in many ways just by knowing the name.

I also learnt that being a character like Harry Bumptious could have a two way effect on the audience. Inviting them and also dividing them as the characters' name already tells them who they are and this doesn't get the audience emotionally attached. What this does is let the audience question things such as 'Why is this happening?' or 'Why is the character like that?'

To continue, we also worked on the exercise of' 'Gestus' which is the combination of gestures and attitudes, meaning if a character can do a gesture that shows the audience what kind of attitude they have towards someone or something. For example, the character of a soldier, firstly showing his gesture of marching and saluting which automatically makes the audience know he's a soldier. Then the picture of dead bodies and the soldier's new gesture of kicking the dead bodies shows his attitudes to the death of people at war, showing that he shows no remorse and doesn't care at all. From doing this exercise I realised that the little hints your character makes can determine how the audience view you and what their perception of you is and I feel this is a strong way for you and the audience to communicate mentally.