Avente Garde Theater - Essay Example

115103 AVANT GARDE THEATRE Avente Garde, a word of French origin, meaning unconventional, or to give a more sensitive meaning, 'a group active inthe invention of new art', which could be of painting, theoretical experimentation or any other art form, had been used as a stylish word in English language for a long time. "Avant-Garde has become a rubbery term which is applied to art that is considered to be anti-traditional or new. At its most basic level, it is a descriptive term for what is new at any given time," http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/staffhome/deryan/web2004/mod_drama_dada.htm One of the main characteristics of avant garde that individual creativity and concept of theatre, however trivial it might look, should not be discarded in favor of the established norms and rules. It is also art or theatre at its most radical form, hostile to other artistic or conventional forms. It rejects the accepted social values and beliefs and condemn traditionally accepted artistic forms, ridicule the social order for which the society is used to and to put it succinctly, it believes in shocking its viewers. It is always searching for new arenas, and never satisfied with what is already accepted. "However, beneath this diversity there is a clearly identifiable unity of purpose and interest (at least in the theatre) which has all the characteristics of a coherent trend, since its principles can be shown to be shared quite independent of direct influence," Innes (1993, pp2-3). Avant garde is recognized with the postmodern theatre. Postmodern theatre is considered to be the recent phenomenon in the theatre world, connected with the European post-modern philosophy of the 1960s, naturally, which created many radical movements almost in every field. "The radical movement of the sixties constitute one of the most interesting social phenomena of this century; by insiders and outsiders, and what emerges is a confused picture in which elements of pacifism, civil rights agitation, anti-Vietnam sentiments, sexual liberation, feminism, and other forms of antiauthoritarianism are chaotically thrown together," Erwin (1988, p.15). It is different, revolutionary, unprecedented, a movement away from everything that is already established in the theatre. It has completely unconventional and subverted ways of seeing and portraying the world, and each performance becomes a dramatic spectacle of the so called Chaos Theory, and audience invariably find themselves participating in it, improvising it and bettering the dialogues. This can be called the avant-garde theatre movement of our times, far removed from the usual mainstream theatre. Postmodernists would be horrified at any such suggestions that they are even remotely connected with it! The aesthetic experience of the theatre, even though it is avant garde, does not diminish, only for the simple reason that it is unconventional. It has the power of holding the attention of its audience, and many times, the audience directly participate in it, creating an unreal situation, where they are transported into another era and back to the present era with a rude jerk and this way their experience is more authentic, compared to the one they would have had as mere spectators. It is impossible to believe that as ordinary spectators, they could have experienced the total identity with the play any better. Theatre, under postmodernism, is neither objective nor passive. It is crying for the audience participation and new experiences as part of the play. One such ensemble, the Wooster Group, consisting of modern artists working with Elizabeth LeCompte as their director, have cultivated new forms of production, presentation, and theatrical expression, dance and movement, and has created many pieces of production, which have earned appreciation, though not initially. It has also shown that however outrageous the new forms look in the beginning, slowly, it would create an audience of its own, and the new generation, whether they have logical reasons for appreciating it or not, recognize themselves as part of it, mostly to be trendy, and eventually, the new form of performance or art does receive recognition. Bertolt Brecht, a German dramatist and stage director had an influential theory of avant garde theatre, called the Epic Theatre, "wherein a play should not cause the spectator to emotionally identify with the action before him or her, but should instead provoke rational self-reflection and a critical view of the actions on the stage," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht He created a kind of stagecraft that was confusing and innovative both, and his techniques created a surreal reality, unnatural and hard-hitting stage lighting, bursting into songs at unexpected moments, actors conversing at high pitched voices with the audience, holding their attention in a rather crude way, and holding up explanatory placards in an unpredictable way ('Don't stare so romantically!') His theory and practical way of theaterising became very common and was accepted as gospel of postmodern theatre. Later it came to be referred to as political theatre and he had many experiments to his credit, like incorporation of multimedia into the semiotics of theatre. He was popularly against standard-Aristolian theatre and catharsis, empathy and all forms of imitation. It is one of the most difficult theatres to create; it produced historical realism, epistemology, and dialectical methodology. He said Shakespeare's plays are not effective any more, a statement that shocked the world. Some of his writings and songs were equally appalling: "Oh! Moon of Alabama We now must say good-bye We've lost our good old mama And must have whiskey Oh, you know why!" (from Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, 1931, 'Alabama Song') http://www.biblion.com/litweb/biogs/brecht_bertolt.html Considered to be one of the most provocative Western playwrights, wrote an essay called "Alienation effects in Chinese Acting" in 1936, where he explains many acts of 'alienation' by citing the Chinese ways of acting. "He says Chinese actor rejects complete conversion of himself into the character he is playing; he expresses his awareness of being watched and he observes himself consciouslythe effect of this kind of self-conscious performance on an audience is very different from what the Western realistic theatre strives for," http://www.totse.com/en/ego/literary_genius/peking2.html Here even though the subject is recognized, it still remains unfamiliar, creating a half-reality of disbelief. His Epic theatre went on to create a shock of realization to the spectator. His earlier works were influenced by German Expressionism. His admiration for Marxism and his belief that men and societies could be intellectually analyzed led to the creation of "epic theatre" where he held up the idea that theatre is not for recreation, but for creating a kind of conscience and awaken the reasoning in the audience. He was unconcerned about the spectator's feelings, but was more concerned about provoking a social change. According to him the realistic theatre was an illusion, targeting on the emotions of the spectator, feeling satisfied with a very short-term effect. He hoped that his audience would develop a more critical attitude towards his plays, he used the above-mentioned 'alienation effect', meant to be disillusioning technique by removing all props of realism, and adding all the disturbing factors that would bring the audience to their present world, while watching a piece of play. This gave the audience a more objective perspective on the action by keeping them in their present practical life, without having any kind of involvement in the play being acted in front of them on the stage. Popularization and public acceptance came slowly to him. His play Mother Courage was a great success with hard-hitting reality. The mother, who kept a wagon as a way of earning her livelihood, kept losing one child after another to the all-pervading war; but refused to part with the wagon till the end. The period was the religious war, called Thirty Years' War and the ordinary woman who uses her canteen wagon for selling the food and other needed goods to the soldiers during this war, pulling the wagon with her children, following the Swedish regiments to wherever the war took them. The mother is shown as the epitome of hopelessness, courage and human nature of stubborn determination and it is still counted as one of his best plays. This is an anti-war play, showing the helplessness of the people who are caught in the middle of a war, for no particular reason, other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. One can see a similarity between this play and the current ongoing war of Iraq where people die every day, not because they are fighting for their country or religion; but are caught in the crossfire, that is making their lives miserable and uncertain. Most of the Iraqis are dying because they belong to a particular sect of Islam and the terrorists belong to some other sect. American and British soldiers are dying not because their freedom or countries are threatened in any way; but there were some misreading by the intelligence and they are paying for the wrong decisions made by their leaders, with their lives. When Mother Courage was staged by Wooster Group, they made the entire audience to participate in the play, by swathing the audience in bright white light, making them part of the Swedish marching soldiers, making them buyers of the goodies kept in the wagon, using all unconventional methods and forcing them to participate in every moment of the play. It was a roaring success. Brecht, Woosters and Avant Garde, all of them do the same work; instead of providing answers to the audience, they make the audience to sit up and think and come out with a possible solution. They pass the responsibility of thinking or deciding to the audience and the actors do not do it for the spectators. What they really make the audience to do is ask themselves unending questions about the play and its characters. They force the audience to assess and value the play and they hit the conscience of the people with the play using every possible, rather crude methods. By disturbing the viewer, they all try to build up a public conscience against or for a certain point they would like to make through the play. Hence avant garde is not a mere rebellion, but has its own creative abundance in it, that might not be obvious immediately. "Its members are linked by a specific attitude to western society, a particular aesthetic approach, and the aim of transforming the nature of theatrical performance: all of which add up to a distinctive ideology," Innes (P.4). Avant garde does not materialize itself from thin air. It has to be formed in a creative way. Avant garde theatre is the result of continuous hard work, considered to be out of place at that given time, but going to be accepted at a later date. "An avant garde is a concrete cultural phenomenon that is realized in terms of identifiable (though never predetermined) practices and representations through which it constitutes for itself a relationship to, and a distance from the overall cultural patterns of the time," Orton and Pollock (1996, p.141 Even though the effect created is a bit garish, the theatre provides a great, unprecedented aesthetic experience to the viewer, influencing his thoughts for a long time to come. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Erven, Van (1988), Radical People's Theatre, Indiana University Press, Bloomington. Innes, Christopher (1993). Avant Garde Theatre 1892 - 1992), Routledge, London. Orton, Fred and Pollock, Griselda (1996), Avant-Gardes and partisans reviewed, Manchester University Press. ONLINE SOURCES: 1. http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/staffhome/deryan/web2004/mod_drama_dada.htm 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht 3. http://www.biblion.com/litweb/biogs/brecht_bertolt.html 4. http://www.totse.com/en/ego/literary_genius/peking2.html Read More