Aristotle’s Categories: Brecht
Brecht takes Aristotle’s categories and shatters them on the stage. It is difficult to form a coherent response to his plays they are so complex. The Indian director of Mother Courage, Dipankar Mukherjee, was brilliant in his push push ensemble direction of Mother Courage and Her Children.
Brecht: A Call to Action!
By Dr Patrick A ODougherty
Bert-hold Brecht is the Leading genius playwright after Shakespeare. He shattered Aristotle’s categories on the stage.
Brecht was indicted by HUAC during the Cold War. Every members of HUAC was a Southerner including Nixon who is a Southern uplander.
America’s major military academies are located in the South including the Citadel.
165 Cities in Germany alone were firebombed to the ground.
Brecht’s plays are ACTS and a call to ACTION.
Here are my notes from the play.
Brecht
Lead to Act
Dance scene climb the wall
Blind mind and the elephant
Lining Against the Wall
Confusion of the human condition
Roy member of HUAC was a minority
Talk about process
In the theater
Music vision
Rehearsals coming
Push us
Dark energy
Original work while the work was going on
On
Present but invisible
Unviable water pushing the boat on top
Subtext but constant presence
Let the actions build higher
Chaotic process
Description of coherent incoherent process
Breathing exercises State epic
Important
Alienation
Sciences of alienation
Swiss cheese carried off in a coffin
Queer cheese
Gays
Katherine organizer and activist
Die for what
Enough martyrs
Big as possible
Process
Mother Couage was difficult
Didn’t like the person
Mistakes cost her children
Director a path
Memorization
Process is ensemble for
Voice work
Symbol work
Sergeant in the beginning machine needs a war to be functioning
State of war
Women on woman—gays black people
Complicity in plastics
No exit
Grids trapped in this place
Pepper the characters
From love
Parroting behaviors
Song
Cart courage
wheat garden in the song
Essence of voice
Sounding pretty
Feeling in the throat and ear
No lines to learn
Mute
Pushing her
Katherine
Physically speak without line
Background
Saying doesn’t make it true
Worthless
disregarded mute
Along side
Creative use of voice
Brother taken off to be shot
Arm behind her back
Body was gestures
Internally outward
Salute with the right hand
Pick this up but it is hurting me
Swiss cheese is dead
Channeling his death
Never knew him and can’t identify the body
Contusion
Politics does affect our body
Generations born during the war
Interns used
Find their own response to war
Sign Language
Body knowledge
Stephanie
Personal places approached this character
Red white dangerous places
Universal experience
Self imposed pressure
Another story that is not theirs
Can’t recognize moment
Aspects bring her truth
Human
Humor in tragedy
Staring to pull
A huge win
Space to be raw and hurt
Serrated memories
Katrina
1635 German wars of religion
Reserved character mute
Scene 1
Not a talker
Body of a woman
History of bodies is written on their body.
What is mother courage
30 years of war
Gruesome tale
Internalized impact
Function to survive
Moment of innocence
Plot Gallup’s along
Silence and doing nothing
War and psyche
Lightness and joy
anti-category
Ensemble
Hard truth
War
Resonance
Pepper