Week 6.2: Bertolt Brecht & 3 Penny Opera

Although he would later try to pass himself off as having peasant origins, Bertolt Brecht was born to a conventionally middle class family in Bavaria in 1898. When World War I broke out, Brecht avoided service until he was eventually drafted. He served as a medical orderly far from the front. In the late 1910s, Brecht began getting involved in the theater, first writing drama reviews, and then directing and writing his first play Baal. He would continue to produce plays in Germany until the Nazis took power when he became an expatriate, eventually settling in the United States and doing some work for Hollywood. During the Cold War, Brecht left the United States and eventually settled in East Berlin. While he continued to write plays, they did not achieve the same notoriety of his earlier work. He died in 1956 of a heart attack.

Brecht was committed to Marxism for most of his adult life and his hope was for his plays to serve Marxist purposes. As such, he wanted his plays to have an instructive quality that would cut through bourgeois ideology. Brecht hopped to accomplish this by what he called "verfremdungseffekt" or "alienation effect." Unlike naturalist theater which tries to sustain the illusion of realism, Brecht attempted to point out to his audience that they were in fact watching a play. The audience is intended to observe themselves watching a play and export this critical skill to the world outside the theater.

Viewing & Reading:
Required: 3 Penny Opera, dir. G. W. Pabst
Screening will be September 30, 5:30 PM. The film is on reserve at the library.
Recommended: Brecht essays on theater (PDF) Reading is in our class packet


Study Question
1. What does the film have to say about society? What was the implicit argument of the film?

2. Bring in three discussion questions about 3 Penny Opera. These questions will be answered by your fellow students in class.

3. Summarize Brecht's main points in the reading for next session. What is the epic theater? What does Brecht want it to do? How might these ideas reflect what Pabst does with his adaptation of Brecht's Three Penny Opera? (3 pts e/c)

Week 7: Clifford Odets, Waiting for Lefty

Clifford Odets (1906-1963) was born to immigrant parents in Philadelphia and was raised in the Bronx. He began his career as a playwright in the Group Theatre, which promoted the American adaptation of method acting. During the 1930s, Odets was a member of the Communist Party and his plays show an intense concern for the working class. Like many others, he was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee during the Red Scare. However, unlike his fellow playwright Arthur Miller who refused to testify,  Odets explained why he had been involved with the Communist Party and cooperated by answering the committee's questions. From the mid-1930s to his death, Odets worked for Hollywood. He worked on other people's screenplays and produced his own original works. In the 1950s he began to produce scripts for television anthologies. His last work appeared on The Richard Boone Show (1963-64).

Study Questions:

Day 1 (Episodes 0-2):
1. What is the effect of placing actors in the audience? Does this produce a distancing effect (like Brecht) or does it merely produce a more inclusive illusion?

2. What is the purpose of episodes one and two? How do they relate to the strike?

POLISHED WORKING DRAFT DUE!

Day 2 (Episodes 3-5):
1. How might episode three relate to episode one (Joe and Edna) and episode two (Lab Assistant Episode)?

2. Why is the medicine episode (episode five) in the play? How might it relate to episode two?

3. What is the effect of the play's ending?  

4. As a work of agitprop, Waiting for Lefty is meant to convey a political point of view and convince its audience. However, the play is only successful if it works as a piece of art. What do you find artistic about the play?