Historicization
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The principle of 'historicizaton' is a fundamental part of the aesthetic developed by the German modernist theatre practitioner Bertolt Brecht.
In his poem "Speech to Danish working-class actors on the art of observation", Brecht offers a vivid portrait of the attitude he suggested an actor should cultivate:
- Imagine all that is going on around you, all those struggles
- Picturing them just like historical incidents
- For this is how you should go on to portray them on the stage:
- The fight for a job, sweet and bitter conversations
- Between the man and his woman, arguments about books
- Resignation and revolt, attempt and failure
- All these you will go on to portray as historical incidents.
- (Even what is happening here, at this moment, with us, is something you
- Can regard as a picture in this way)".[1]
For the actor, 'historicization' constitutes a fundamental interpretative attitude (what Brecht calls a 'grund-gestus').
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[edit] Works cited
- Brecht, Bertolt. 1964. Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic. Ed. and trans. John Willett. British edition. London: Methuen. ISBN 041338800X. USA edition. New York: Hill and Wang. ISBN 0809031000.
- ---. 2000. Poems: 1913-1956. Ed. John Willett and Ralph Manheim. Bertolt Brecht: Plays, Poetry, Prose Ser. London: Methuen. ISBN 0413152103.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Brecht (2000, 237).
