How do the ideas of major practitioners and theatre styles shape the way contemporary and devised drama is made and performed?
Apply the theories and conventions of selected practitioners and contemporary theatre styles when devising and performing original drama
A focused answer to the WACE Year 12 Drama Unit 4 dot point on practitioners and styles. Stanislavski, Brecht and Artaud, plus contemporary and physical theatre, their conventions, and how devisers apply practitioner ideas to make original work for an audience.
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What this dot point is asking
Unit 4 asks you to use practitioners as working methods, not just to recall facts about them. Examiners reward students who can apply a practitioner's conventions to a devised piece and explain the intended effect on the audience.
Stanislavski: psychological realism
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.
Brecht: epic theatre and critical distance
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. Devisers use Brechtian techniques when they want an audience to analyse a social or political issue rather than just empathise.
Artaud: theatre of cruelty
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.
Physical and contemporary theatre
Contemporary practice often blends these inheritances. Physical theatre tells stories primarily through the body, using ensemble movement, gesture and image, and is associated with companies and methods that build meaning without relying on dialogue. Other contemporary approaches include verbatim theatre, which uses real people's words, and various postdramatic and multimedia forms that loosen plot and character. These styles give devisers flexible, visual and inventive ways to make meaning.
Applying conventions to devised work
In Unit 4 the point is application. A group might use Brechtian narration and multi-roling to frame an issue, Stanislavskian truth in a key emotional scene, and Artaudian sound and image to create a climactic shock, all within one piece, provided the mixture serves a single intention. The skill is deliberate selection and consistency, so the conventions clarify rather than confuse the meaning.
Justifying your choices
You must be able to name the practitioner or style, describe the specific convention, and explain its intended effect on the audience. This links a technique to a purpose, which is what examiners look for. Vague references to a practitioner without a named convention and effect score poorly.
How this maps to the exam
In the written exam you may analyse how a practitioner's conventions create meaning, or explain how you applied a style in your devised work. In performance you may be expected to demonstrate the conventions in practice. Always connect convention to intention to audience effect.