Richard Maxwell Project

I too found the the 3rd person rehearsal technique useful on Monday.  Having studied Brecht, it reminded me of some of the things that as a practitioner, he wanted to convey.  He wanted the audience to 'think rather than feel' and I think we can apply this quote to Maxwell's style.  Brecht's plays tended to give issues that needed to be considered carefully by his audience, so he tried to distance them so they didn't get 'bogged down with emotion'.  Maxwell is attempting a similar style as he wants to get rid of emotion.

 

"For me it's a process of removing the things that are encouraging the person to be a performer as opposed to a person." - Maxwell

 

However, there are still the performance elements, like the songs.  Brechts plays also contained songs, and he liked these as they 'educated and entertained'.  Although Maxwell's don't 'educate' particularly', they do entertain us and i'm looking forward to composing a few of our own!

 

I've been reading the New York Times review about 'The end of Reality' and have found a few inneresting quotes in regard to how the actors use/don't use emotion.

 

"The urban security guards and criminals who make up the cast of characters of the play, are beaten bloody and choked and kicked and jumped upon. But their expressions rarely change, and their voices remain calm and neutral, with just a buzz of irritation at their edges."

 

I liked the word 'buzz' as it just implies a slight change of intonation from the monotonous tone that we have so far experienced.

 

All of these things are beginning to make Maxwell's style more clear for me and hopefully will do for you too :-)

 

Helen xx