Key Events in Meyerhold and Boal life

Meyerhold and Boal Essay and Notes
Drama HSC Course
Approaches to Acting: Meyerhold and Boal
Bree Smith
Drama practitioners, Vsevolod Meyerhold and Augusto Boal, overlapping in periods of theatrical history, had similar aims to revolutionise the theatre. Both practitioners aimed to transform the theatre through creating a new method of actor training, contradicting previous theatre styles, changing the role of the body in performances and engaging the audience at a greater level. Boal’s Arsenal for Theatre of the Oppressed and Meyerhold’s Biomechanics include games in their actor-training systems that seek to achieve these aims which they felt would have a dramatic effect upon the world of theatre.
Meyerhold was a Russian practitioner born in 1874, and is known for his development of Biomechanics, a contradictory theatre that revealed the unpredictable aspects of life through machine-like movements and clashing scenes. His theatre was a response to the lack of realism taught in teachers Stanslavski and Danchenko’s regimes which he believed was a mediocre attempt at reflecting daily life, belief that theatre should have more depth than repeating the everyday reality one experiences.
Meyerhold had four main aims for his Biomechanics theatre. The first aim being that he wished to establish his own method of actor training; yearning to eliminate Stanislavski’s influence of “The Method,” which relied heavily upon recreating a moment through voice and facial expressions, and very little upon using the body, therefore tying into his other aim, to change the role of the body in performances. Meyerhold felt that Realism had been stripped of body movements that helped to tell the story, as it relied heavily on dialogue and extreme emotion to lead the scenes, so using these as their theatre’s only expressive mediums, the body had lost its impact, therefore he brought the use of the body up to par with the use of voice and facial expressions. His final aim was to engage the audience and eradicate Naturalisms shortcoming actor-audience relationship, which denied audience members the right to imagine and take responsibility, as they were mainly passive and weren’t appreciated.
Meyerhold had much reasoning for his creation of the theatrical style of Biomechanics, firstly he felt that the body of an actor was the most important part of theatre, as it was able to evoke the imagination of the audience and bring them from out of their passive state, yet it was still economical as through his training system actors were able to express emotion through their fluid motions, “Utmost precision, purposefulness and economy.. Movement is the most powerful means of theatrical expression.”
Biomechanics theatre is also a response to communism, Meyerhold viewed the communist government alike to a machine, overly organised, where every person made up the cogs in a machine therefore through his etudes he is able to reveal communism for what he felt it really was, a controlling and oppressive structure which saw its people as no more than an apparatus.
Meyerhold built his Biomechanical theatre in refutation to much of Stanislavski’s conventions, one of the most imperative reasons was that Realism did not provide the audience with the means to think about issues in their society, but just provided them with entertainment for an hour, so Meyerhold created his theatre to entertain as well as be stimulus for thought. Meyerhold was spurred on to create his theatre because of other theatre styles such as Naturalism-which he felt restricted the actors skills as well as vetoed the audience; Commedia Dell’Arte-which influenced much of the movement of actors and satirical characteristics of his plays including the playful nature; as well as Constructivism- which influenced Biomechanics greatly through emphasising machine-like movements.
Meyerhold was able to achieve these aims through his Biomechanics theatre through his games and exercises, called the Etudes, a series of stylised movements which develop the actor through concentrating on the skills of precision, balance, coordination, efficiency, rhythm, expressiveness, responsiveness and playfulness with discipline. Thus, through his training of the Etudes, his actors needed no more than this for successful execution of his Biomechanical theatre. Involved in the etudes is the break-down of movement which is otkas, posil, stoika and tochka, which is respectively the preparation of movement or pre-movement, the action itself, the moment of contact and the rest at the end of the movement. Meyerhold saw these as key to his theatre because it gave form and structure to the movement seen on stage, and discipline to movements yet still lively.
Meyerhold had five etudes that ranged from solo to partnered pieces, an example of a partnered piece is ’The Slap,’ which develops numerous skills that are key to Meyerhold’s theatre.
We are able to see constructivism’s influence through the development of precision in the piece, through repetition of stages such as tap-dancing and the hand-shake, because he saw that his actors could develop precision through repeating movements and becoming more economical in movement.
Balance was developed through precision, as Meyerhold demanded his actors to stand in anomalous positions where their feet were twisted, making it hard for the actor to stay stable. We are able to see this through the person who is administrating the slap’s feet position after coming into contact with the face, where they crouch with arms outstretched.
Co-ordination is required not only within the actor where there are stages when both arms and legs are to be used, but also between actors in their movements, such as in the dactyl, where being in sync is required because of the jump and clapping of hands. This stage also relies heavily on otkas, where both actors must be aware of movement of the arms to communicate when they are about to jump, therefore also incorporating the rhythm of the actors into all facets of his performance.
Efficiency was a major part of Meyerhold’s theatre, as he believed that the body was more economical at expressing itself than the voice or body, and can be observed within ‘The Slap’ where the body does have elongated gestures, but are somewhat sparing as they are smooth and fluid and do not jar erratically, but are organised accurately and efficiently.
Expressiveness is also incorporated into ‘The Slap’ through the immensely prolix movements that express the images without words, such as the retracting after being slapped, so through this, we are able to see the aim of Meyerhold’s theatre clearly through the heavy use of body movement.
Responsiveness is observed in combination with the rhythm of the piece, as the actors have a heightened sensation of movement and awareness of each others bodies. Through the development of responsiveness in his etudes, he believes that in performances, the actor was able to become reflexive to the movements around him, and therefore having the heightened ability of being in sync.
The final Biomechanical stage is playfulness with discipline, and can be observed in all of Meyerhold’s Etudes, as the actions that they execute are almost always playful, yet have discipline incorporated into them, through the machine like movements whilst parading or fluidly jerky movements in the slap.
Meyerhold believed that through the development of these skills in the Etudes, his trainees will able to successfully incorporate all of training techniques into their performances without actually revealing the training regime, as it will be evident through their movements and rhythmic actions.
Meyerhold included use of the Mask and the Grotesque into his style, this was evident throughout his performances, just as the Etudes can be observed as performance building exercises.
Meyerhold used the Mask as a device that could capture the imagination and attention of the audience. The mask could be created by anything ranging from make-up to facial expression, as long as it depicted the character in stipulation with it’s external qualities. The mask is contradictory in nature as it both reveals and conceals opposing forces within the same character, and is able to represent the past yet be in the moment at the same time. The mask is demanding of the actor, as it is able to expose the performers faults through compelling him to use his body to externalise communication , but through the Etudes as building blocks for the actors skill, the actor becomes impartial to yielding to weakness.
The Grotesque genre was used by Meyerhold to keep the attention of his audience, through tactics of shocking and unsettling the spectators. Through influences such as E.T.A. Hoffman, Francisco Goya and Aleksandr Blok, he used this style as it helped to portray incongruities and challenge the perceptions of an audience, which was what he wished to do on such issues of communism and the government at the time, thus helping to fulfil many of the aims that Meyerhold created his theatre for.

Brazilian born Boal, born in 1931, was the founder of Theatre of the Oppressed, a theatre style that was laden with political nature regarding individuals being oppressed within society, as it sought to remove individuals from oppression through drama, although he didn’t seek and was aware that his theatre would not be the grounds for a social revolution, he felt his theatre would “empower people with the tools for change […] which could change reality,” and eventually break the tyranny of an individual’s spirit.
Boal‘s aims for his theatre were dissimilar to those of Meyerhold. Boal created his theatre because he wished to empower people through his games and exercises, which he felt allowed those undertaking them to recreate them on stage, and through this change themselves from spectators in a passive state to ‘SpectActors,’ who are involved in the performance and turned into actors. He wished to change theatre similar to provide his ‘SpectActors’ the opportunity to change social conditions and oppression in their existence, through providing his ’SpectActors’ with content within his performances such as sexual subjugation, and are provided with the opportunity to repair the situation, thus they are provided with the ability to strive en route for societal emancipation in their own existence.
Boal further believed that because of his ‘SpectActors’ oppression in their own lives, their bodies and psyche have also become oppressed and quintessential. Thus, he believed that through his exercises and theatre, he could demechanise their bodies and liberate them of their oppression to display realistic images.
Boal’s main rationale for creating his theatre was to break the chain of oppression, after experiencing it’s harshness in his home country of Brazil from the 1960’s onwards. His theatre was also a response to the Ancient Greek Theatres, through showing tragedy in their oppression, he was able to let this run throughout his performances and let it come to influence much of his foundations for both Arsenal and throughout his theatre in general. Another influence upon him was from that of a political writer - Bertold Brecht, where he wished to educate both actor and audiences experiencing oppression that there is an escape. He was able to achieve combined pedagogy through his SpectActor convention, where audience and actors were on the same level and not bound by performance etiquette where they are alienated from one another.
Boal was able to achieve his aims through his Arsenal, which was seen as his means to demechanise the body, and fight against the oppression of the mind and body The Arsenal of Theatre of the Oppressed is grouped under five headings, feeling what we touch, listening to what we hear, dynamising several senses, seeing what we look at and the memory of the senses. Under each of these headings, there are a diverse range of exercises that are executed by both groups and individuals, which vary in degrees of difficulties, but all come down to the simple aim of demechanising the body as well as the mind. All of these activities are preparation for performers to implement into forum, image and invisible theatre; all of which are Boal’s own form of drama that seek to break oppression.
Boal’s actor-training method for his Arsenal in feeling what we touch contain a series of exercises which he intended for both actors and spectactors to use onstage, and entailed a series of movements and positions that were designed to demechanise the body and mind and allow for the performers to convey meaning through the use of their body. Through the use of certain exercises, performers became aware that touching does not permanently involve hand-to-hand touching but can use other parts of the body to feel, such us leg-to-leg. As well as this, Boal used exercises that changed the performers centre of gravity, so instead of carrying all the weight on feet and legs, Boal challenged his subjects to carry their weight on their face and shoulder, and to use muscles and other parts of the body that are not commonly used and have been forgotten. One exercise, Bear of Postiers, challenged the performer to desensitise the body and control automatic reactions, such as squirming when being tickled etc. This can be linked to Boal’s image theatre, where one has automatic stereotypes about ideas, and they create images that depict this stereotype, but when they have been demechanised, they are able to create an image that has been thought about and is not an automated response to a generalisation.
Image theatre is a device used by Boal where spectactors shape the body, wether one persons or a large group of peoples, and use it as a medium to channel feelings, ideas and relationships that may have aspects of oppression within it. In this theatre, the image of oppression usually begins with an ideal image, such as a bad day at work, which may be represented by a safe, stereotypical image of a worker not being able to meet their employers demands. This image is then manipulated until all agree that it represents a real image, so that then the reason behind the bad-day at work is that they might not be able to have time off to go to a social function. From this, each manipulated statue acts as a character in the real image.
Boal’s other main theatre device was Forum Theatre, which includes an issue of oppression between the protagonist and antagonist, and, like Image theatre, it relies on involvement by the spectactor, who is empowered with the opportunity to change the situation of oppression for the protagonist through revolting against the antagonists. This involves Boal’s other device of ‘The Joker’ who acts as the supervisor of the spectactor and offers guidance and reiterates characterisation etc whilst allowing the spectactor to find a solution to the oppressive situation. The Joker is not a teacher or didactic, but facilitates the thoughts and actions of the spectactor and does not oppress.
Once again, the SpectActor is a major technique used by Boal, as it allows his theatre to become a joint learning experience where oppression can be seen as a joint hurdle, by actors and audience alike. In this combination, solutions to oppression are able to be found and perhaps even translated into the lives of the audience, as was Boal’s aim.
So, through demechanisation of the body through Boal‘s Arsenal, which revolutionises the muscular, sensory, memory, imagination as well as the emotional aspects of the human being, it allows the performer to gain dominance over themselves, as well as to exile the oppression on stage. In forum and invisible theatre, the former being where spectactors are unaware of their role in the theatre, actors are able to go against the grain and perform in a way that is truly demechanised and can react in a way that is not banal. Therefore, throughout the arsenal as well as theatre types created by Boal, actors are able to set in motion a reformation against oppression and it’s presence in their lives.
Consequently, through both Meyerhold and Boal’s exercises and games in their actor-training schemes, they were able to set in motion and achieve their aims for their theatre, which was to change theatre, the role of the body and also empower the audience to become proactive and involved. Through their exercises, they were able to prepare their performers; Meyerhold wished for his performers to become mechanised and aware of their body movements and Boal, while also wanting his performers to become aware of their movements, he wished to do this through a series of exercises which were unorganised and relied on spontaneity. In many ways alike, both were able to achieve their aims through their extensively measured actor-training regimes.

Meyerhold’s Biomechanics Conventions

• Influence of:- Commedia Dell’Arte, Hindu & Oriental theatre, Constructivism, Communist Revolution, Realism, Circus, Chaplin & Einstein.
• Paradox – through words, actions and music.
• The mask
• Stylised movement
• The body to express itself
• Montage
• Music
• The grotesque

Steps of Biomechanics acronym – PER.C.BERP (very effective in memorising stuff)

• Precision
• Efficiency
• Responsiveness
• Co-ordination
• Balance
• Expressiveness
• Rhythm
• Playfulness with discipline

Etude = Exercises, each Etude focuses on: OPST (another acronym, say it to the tune of the OPSM ad)

• Otkas – Preperations the actor makes before any actual action. The pre-movement.
• Posil – The action itself.
• Stoika – Moment of contact.
• Tochka – The rest at the end of movement.

Notes

• Anti-realism – relied too much on face and voice believed body wasn’t used equally. Voice = rhythmic.
• Influenced by realism, contructivism, greek and oriental theory.
• Uprising communism – disrupting people.

Boal’s Arsenal of the Theatre of the Oppressed – These are the games Boal uses to de-mechanise the body. To demechanise the body, Boal grouped exercises/games under five headings.
1. Feeling what we touch
2. Listening to what we hear
3. Dynamising several senses.
4. Seeing what we look at.
5. The memory of the senses

• Life in Brazil prompted him to show people solutions through theatre.
• Felt theatre could change world – challenge peoples views, embed new ideas. Believed theatre was underused.
• Educational theatre
• View of the body; needs to be demechanised.
• Empower audience gives means to escape personal oppression.
• Influenced by Greek Theatre and philosophy and tragedy that came from it. Also influenced by Bertold Brecht – political writer.
• Didactic – presentation of an idea or issue where you are told this is the way to think. A form of brainwashing, believed in role of SpectActor where the role of the people could come through. People are both actors and SpectActors in daily lives.
• To perform they need to demechanise their body and psyche.

Boal’s Conventions

• Unusual performance space. Theatre put you in your place as an audience member people passive, giving power to performances, follow etiquette. Makes audience part of the performance.
• Demechanise the body – fight against automated/standard responses.
• Role of the Spectactor
• The joker – supervisor of Forum theatre
• Rainbow
• Cop-in-the-head
• Image theatre – safe stereotypical image. Not real keep modifying until a real image.
• Forum theatre – provides the means to empower the audiences.
• Invisible theatre.
• Arsenal of the threatre of the oppressed (games) – means, weapons to demechanisation. Fighting against oppression.