Using the practitioners

Antonin Artaud

   Artaud was the practitioner that we followed mainly for this unit, studying his 'Theatre of Cruelty' and 'Lancing the Abscess'. He saw that all of us have a double inside of us, the 'perfect version' without any restrictions and taboos set by the society and culture. Abscess is  all these perversions we have inside that we hide or are put to hide because of pressure, which doesn't let us reach our true potential. The theatre of cruelty is his way of lancing the abscess or to help us release the double by creating an extraordinary performance taking the actors and the audience to their limits of understanding. 

   We see this especially in the Act 1, where we used a lot of the chorus, stretching us as actors to our limits by putting our energy at 100% in every single scene, but also making the audience uncomfortable with all these different stimulants going on. Each character also represents well the different parts of Artaud's view, for example Renfield who is the only one truly releasing his trouble, being free from taboos and constrictions made by any authority. On the other hand, Jonathan, and many of the other characters, hides their temptations, in the fear that it will be a sin. These really show the two different sides of Artaud's philosophy. 

   In Act 2 we have focused more in using his techniques, for example rituals in scene 15, where Seward stakes Lucy. Artaud believed, that language constricts us and doesn't tell everything we need to know, creates confusion. So, in this scene we only have line, but a whole ritual to show how Seward is feeling and show the intensity of the scene. 

   By using Antonin Artaud, we haven't only made a scary show, a performance that leaves the audience tired and overwhelmed, full of questions, but also an understanding, even they don't fully internalize. I've seen a lot of class mates open up during this units, when they have been forced to stretch their emotions and energy every single day. It certainly was a roller-coaster, but it also taught us to use ourselves as a whole, and make ourselves uncomfortable to create something beautiful. 

Stanislavski

We've really used Stanislavski's teaching in this play as well. We didn't use him during class, but had him by our side when creating and developing our individual characters at home. I think having Stanislavki's methods as the base to your character and interpreting the play is very important, since it will give you a simple, but round understanding of their objectives, wants and views. We also used naturalism as a contrasting factor in our play, so that all of the scenes would not be full chorus spectacles, probably leaving the audience confused and bored. High energy all of the time can be just as dull as throughout naturalism.

Brecht

Brecht isn't really one of the practitioners that we have been using throughout, but there is sings of him in the play, and so I thought that he would deserve a bit of explanation. Brecht focuses on politics, and in Liz Lochhead's Dracula this is seen with the character Florrie. Florrie isn't a character in the original novel or the movies, but she was created to highlight the position of the Westerman sisters. There is even a scene(Act 1 Scene 8) that is dedicated to show the class difference between these three women and how Lucy and Mina can be somewhat silly with their problems and every day lives.