The alienation effect in theater.

1. The V-effekt

2. V-effekt
Alienation effect
A-effect
Distancing effect
Verfremdungseffekt (German)
V-effekt

3. Dramatic theory
-idea central to the idea of German
dramatist-director
Bertolt Brecht
--German poet, playwright,
theater director
--1898-1956
--Augsburg, Germany

4. Works (4 great plays)

5. Works

6. Works

7. What is V-effekt
--involves the use of techniques designed to distance the
audience from emotional involvement in the play through
jolting reminders of the artificiality of the theatrical
performance.

8. Inspired by
--theory of ostranenie (German, making it strange,
defamiliarization)
-as pushed forward by:
G.W.F. Hegel
Karl Marx
Viktor Shklovksy

9. What is it?
--conceived as a specific aesthetic program or alternative
--conceived as a political mission of the theater

10. Examples
-- such techniques include explanatory captions or illustrations
projected on a screen;
--actors stepping out of character to lecture, summarize, or sing
songs
--stage effects that are strange or unusual
--stage designs that are strange and do not represent any locality but
that, by exposing the lights and ropes, keep the spectators aware of
being in a theatre.

11. The Matter of Origins
Liz Lehman Dance Exchange
Mixed medium show of particle physics and cosmology

12. Goals of v-effekt
The audience’s degree of identification with characters and
events is presumably thus controlled, and it can more clearly
perceive the “real” world reflected in the drama.
It helps the audience or viewers understand the complex
nexuses of historical development and societal relationships.

13. End result
intended to assign the audience an active role in the production
by forcing them to ask questions about the artificial
environment and how each individual element related to real-
life events.
In doing so, it was hoped that viewers would distance
themselves emotionally from problems that demanded
intellectual solutions.

15. Personal taste
--detested “Aristotelian” drama and the manner in which it
made the audience identify with the hero without enough
analysis of the hero’s flaws.
-- To him, when such drama produced feelings of terror and pity
and led to an emotional catharsis, the process prevented
audience members from thinking.

16. Personal taste
--(It is the ancient quarrel between philosophers and poets
once again, with another thinker trying to reform poetry.)
Determined to destroy what he considered theatrical illusions,
Brecht made his dreams into realities when he took over the
Berliner Ensemble.
--In one of his early productions, he famously put up signs
which said, "Glotzt nicht so romantisch!" (“Don't stare so
romantically!”)

17. Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGhlmMtBiJY

18. Source(s)
https://www.britannica.com/art/alienation-effect
http://www.gradesaver.com/author/bertolt-brecht