Practitioner influence on devising

Two groups both say their piece is 'influenced by Brecht'. Group A devised naturalistically and added a narrator and a placard at the end; Group B built the piece as separate episodes, used direct address and gestus throughout, and aimed to make the audience think about a social injustice. Which shows real influence?

1. 01Test the process

   Ask how each piece was devised and performed. Group A worked naturalistically and bolted on Brechtian signs; Group B devised and performed using Brecht's methods from the start - the process, not the label, is the test.

2. 02Test the structure and techniques

   Group B's episodic structure, direct address and gestus are core Brechtian techniques shaping the whole piece; Group A's placard is a surface gesture over a fundamentally naturalistic piece.

3. 03Test the purpose

   Group B pursues Brecht's political intention - provoking the audience to think critically about injustice - while Group A simply tells a story with a Brechtian decoration.

4. 04Judge the influence

   Group B shows genuine influence because Brecht's method and purpose shaped how it was made and what it does; Group A shows only a superficial label, which the assessment would not reward.

Result: Group B demonstrates real practitioner influence - method, structure, style and purpose all Brechtian - while Group A shows only a decorative label, illustrating the difference the assessment cares about.

Your stimulus is a set of real testimonies from people affected by a housing crisis, and you want the audience to leave angry and moved to think about the issue. Which practitioner would you choose and why?

1. 01Read the intention

   You want the audience to think critically and be moved to concern about a social injustice - a political, consciousness-raising intention, not simply an emotional immersion.

2. 02Consider the material

   The material is real testimony about a public issue, which lends itself to an approach that presents an argument and keeps the audience aware of the reality behind the stories.

3. 03Match to a practitioner

   Brecht's epic theatre fits well - episodic scenes, direct address, gestus and the breaking of illusion would present the issue as something to be judged and changed, aligning with your political intention; Boal's forum theatre would be an alternative if you wanted the audience to intervene.

4. 04Check the fit and capability

   Confirm the group can sustain a Brechtian style (deliberately breaking illusion, demonstrating rather than immersing) and that the testimonies suit episodic treatment - if so, Brecht is a coherent, intention-led choice.

Result: Brecht is chosen because his epic-theatre method matches the political intention and the testimony-based material, showing how the choice of practitioner follows from the stimulus and the intended effect on the audience.

Your group has chosen Frantic Assembly's physical, movement-led approach for a piece about pressure and breaking point. How do you turn that methodology into concrete rehearsal techniques?

1. 01State the method's core

   The company's approach builds theatre physically - telling story through movement and the ensemble, developing material from simple physical 'building blocks' rather than from dialogue first.

2. 02Devise physical building blocks

   Begin exploration with movement: create short physical sequences that express pressure (bodies leaning, pushing, holding and releasing weight), then develop and combine these building blocks into longer passages.

3. 03Build duets and lifts

   Use partnered physical work - contact, lifts and counterbalance - to show relationships and the strain between characters, so meaning is carried by the body rather than explained in words.

4. 04Use the technique consistently

   Make movement the primary devising language throughout, layering any text sparingly onto the physical score, so the whole piece is built in the company's style rather than decorated with one movement moment.

Result: The physical methodology becomes a concrete rehearsal plan - building blocks, duets and movement-first devising used throughout - showing how a practitioner's method is turned into the group's actual working technique.

Your group devised through Brecht but a test audience did not notice any particular style - it felt like an ordinary story. How do you make the influence readable?

1. 01Diagnose the gap

   If the piece reads as an ordinary story, the Brechtian devices are probably too faint or too naturalistically played, so the audience is being drawn in rather than kept critically aware.

2. 02Sharpen the structure

   Make the episodic structure explicit - separate and title the scenes, break continuous flow - so the audience sees a series of demonstrated situations rather than one absorbing narrative.

3. 03Foreground the performance devices

   Strengthen direct address, add clear gestus that shows each character's social attitude, and let performers visibly demonstrate rather than fully become their characters, so the acting style signals Brecht.

4. 04Expose the theatricality

   Reveal the making of the theatre - visible costume changes, exposed staging, placards - so the audience is reminded they are watching a constructed argument, and re-test to confirm the style now reads.

Result: Sharpening structure, foregrounding gestus and direct address, and exposing the theatricality make the Brechtian method visible, showing how a group ensures the practitioner's influence is genuinely readable in the finished piece.

A group's piece is meant to be influenced by Artaud, but in practice it is a naturalistic drama with some loud sound effects and red lighting added. How would you diagnose and fix the problem?

1. 01Name the pitfall

   This is decorative use: the Artaudian elements (loud sound, red light) are surface additions to a naturalistic piece, not a method shaping how the piece works on the audience.

2. 02Return to Artaud's purpose

   Artaud's theatre of cruelty aims to overwhelm the senses and reach the audience below rational thought, through ritual, rhythm, sound, light and non-verbal action - so the whole experience, not one effect, must serve this.

3. 03Rebuild through the method

   Re-devise the piece as a sensory, ritualistic experience: replace naturalistic dialogue scenes with rhythmic, physical, image-driven action, and integrate the sound and light as constant, immersive forces rather than occasional effects.

4. 04Check coherence and fit

   Confirm the intention genuinely suits an Artaudian assault (a nightmarish, visceral subject rather than a domestic story); if it does, the rebuilt piece now embodies the method rather than decorating a mismatched style.

Result: The decorative use is diagnosed and fixed by returning to Artaud's purpose and rebuilding the whole piece through his sensory method - the disciplined, genuine application that avoids the most common pitfall.