Quick questions on Practitioners and theatre styles: WACE Year 12 Drama Unit 4

Konstantin Stanislavski developed a system for truthful acting. Its conventions include given circumstances, the magic if, objectives and the through line of action, emotion memory, and a focus on belief in the imagined world. The aim is a believable inner life so the audience experiences the character as a real person. Devisers draw on Stanislavski when they want emotional truth and naturalistic detail, building characters from clear wants and specific circumstances.

Bertolt Brecht wanted theatre that made audiences think rather than simply feel. He used the alienation effect, often called making the familiar strange, to stop the audience losing themselves in illusion. His conventions include direct address, narration, placards and titles, song that interrupts the action, multi-roling, visible theatre-making and episodic structure. The purpose is to keep the audience critical and aware that the events on stage could be changed.

Antonin Artaud rejected text-bound, polite theatre in favour of a visceral, sensory experience. His theatre of cruelty seeks to assault the senses and the subconscious through sound, light, movement, ritual and striking images rather than logical plot. The intention is to shock the audience out of complacency and reach them at a primal level. Devisers draw on Artaud when they want a non-naturalistic, immersive and emotionally overwhelming experience.