Innovations and predecessors Essay Example for Free

Innovations and predecessors Essay At a first glance, this seems a very spiritual statement from Brook, but through reading it again it shows him trying to replace honesty (from the character) with words spoken with deep meaning (from the actor). Although this is only my personal interpretation. Throughout this chapter in The Shifting Point, I noticed that he is constantly asking us, the reader, questions about acting and the theatre. At times he answers with his ideas, telling us his methods and ideas, when he does answer you can almost hear him shouting, preaching the answers to the reader, which just shows how passionate he is about his theatre. Grotowski is unique. Why? Because no one else in the world, to my knowledge, no one since Stanislavsky, has investigated the nature of acting, its phenomenon, its meaning, the nature and science of its mental-physical-emotional processes as deeply and completely as Grotowski. (Brook, 1987:37) This extract shows that although Brook has much in common theatrically with Stanislavsky, he has now met someone who uses similar methods but in Brooks eyes, uses these methods in a better way. Brook goes on to explain that both his and Grotowskis work has points of contact and with these they came together. They both need a crowd on stage and off stage, on stage actors showing their most intimate truths to the crowd (audience) off stage, to share an experience with them. In The Shifting Point, Brook remembers that Grotowski left behind a daily challenge with the intensity, the honesty and the precision of his work. This practitioner is obviously one that Brook looked up to and shared his knowledge with. Grotowski was infamous for retreating from theatre and creating a space for an exhaustive investigation of the basic, physical truths of acting (The Guardian, 2004:4. 10. 2003) Perhaps the most significant development influenced by Artaud was the ensemble theatre movement of the 1960s. Exemplified by the Polish Laboratory Theatre of Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Brooks Theatre of Cruelty Workshop (Drama and Dramatic Arts, Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2004) These productions, which usually came out of months of work, relied on physical movement, unclear language and sound, and often unusual arrangements of space. The Theatre of Cruelty derived from the work of the French actor, poet and theoretician, Antonin Artaud. Artaud was a member of the Surrealist movement and had a vision of art as a means of galvanising society and effecting social change. (Halfyard, 2000:http://www. maxopus. com/essays/8songs_m. htm) Artaud used the word cruelty not to evoke sadism, but to call us toward a theatre more rigorous, or even, if we could follow him that far, pitiless to us all. (Brook, 1987:56) The vision of changing society and effecting social change leads to another practitioner who has inspired Peter Brooks theatre, Bertolt Brecht. Brecht felt that drama could instruct and change society; therefore, it should be political. He believed that effective theatre should bring the audience to the point of decision and action. No one seriously concerned with the theatre can by-pass Brecht, Brecht is the key figure of our time, and all theatre work today at some point starts or returns to his statements and achievement. (Brook, 1968:71-72) Brecht wanted a type of theatre in which the audience could focus on a plays themes rather than becoming emotionally involved with its characters. With this, he developed the ground-breaking epic theatre, where his actors would read their lines without emotion, allowing the audience to concentrate on the planned moral messages of the play. For Brechts actors, their aim was to create a response from the audience, the alienation that Brecht created. Alienation is cutting, interrupting, holding something up to the light, making us look again. Alienation is above all an appeal to the spectator to work for himself (Brook, 1968:72) Going against Stanislavsky and Grotowski, Brecht introduced the idea that fully did not mean lifelike for him, Brecht wanted every actor to go with the action of the play, but understand the true purpose from the authors point of view; to the needs of the changing world. Brook is less inclined to believe that it is possible to change things merely by pointing things out to people. (Mitter, 1992:64) Brecht desires the outcome to be social change, whereas Brook wants the end product to go beyond alienation and reveal what we, as a society, want to forget. Brook requires his actors at once to be their characters, and then not to be their characters. Confusing as it may sound, we must recognise that Brook wants his actors to play their characters, but not lose themselves in the action so it seems untrue to real life; he needs a sense of reality, their own personalities to come through. It must be conceded that in Brook this is achieved by the fact that his actors are represented in their drama not by their opinions merely as in Brecht, but by their courageous portrayal of their every evasion, hypocrisy and untruth. (Mitter, 1992:76-77) Brook does get his inspiration from all of the above practitioners, as well as Meyerhold and Reinhardt through researching Brooks Theatre of Cruelty. I noticed that Brook has more similarities in relation to his theatre to Jerzy Grotowski, they have the same objectives but differing methods in reaching them. Perhaps because this was a close friendship as described in The Shifting Point: Grotowskis work and ours have parallels and points of contact. Through these, through sympathy, through respect, we came together. (Brook, 1987:38) Brook utilises various methods from Stanislavsky and Brecht, but there are also disagreements with their methods: There is so much of Brechts work I admire, so much of his work with which I disagree totally. (Brook, 1987:26-27) Like anybody who has a passion for something, whether it is art, sport or theatre, Brook has looked to his passion, theatre, and its innovations and predecessors. Brook has took the essential elements from these practitioners and made them his own. The way Brook regularly asks the questions in his books to the reader, does bring the whole text to life as if he is testing the reader on what they have just read; you could even compare it to an exam revision textbook. Obviously this is not what the genres of his books are about, both The Shifting Point and The Empty Space are autobiographies of his life in theatre; part of the title of The Shifting Point even says forty years of theatrical exploration. I feel all of his works in text are learning resources, not just for drama students, but also for anybody who enjoys the theatre to show them the hidden depth of performance, not just linked with the acting- all the elements that make an ideal, true-to-life or alienating performance.

Oscar Wildes The Importance of Being Earnest Essay -- Oscar Wilde Imp

Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest Webster’s dictionary defines earnest as â€Å"characterized by or proceeding from an intense and serious state of mind.† This definition is subject to total upheaval by Oscar Wilde in The Importance of Being Earnest. The title suggests a treatise on the value of solemnity in everyday life. However, Wilde presents us with an ironic play that leaves us with the opposite lesson. None of the characters benefit from propriety. The least serious characters, Algernon and Jack are rewarded in the end for their frivolous behavior throughout the play, implying that there is very little, if any, importance to being earnest, excepting that you give the appearance of such, for example the name. In several instances, even indirectly, Wilde draws back the curtain of convention in the Victorian age and shows us the ridiculousness of such a passionate attachment to gravity. Before the name or adjective is even used the reader is presented with two men, Algernon (the purveyor of un-earnestness) and Jack, his protà ©gà © in deceit and jocularity. The discussion on their alternate personas’ escapades introduces us to the irony of the title. â€Å"You have always told me it was Ernest. I have introduced you to everyone as Ernest. You answer to the name of Ernest. You look as if your name was Ernest. You are the most earnest-looking person I ever saw in my life. It is perfectly absurd your saying that you name isn’t Ernest.† (Act I p. 14) Not only does Wilde put the concept of â€Å"being earnest† into question throughout the play but he doubles the irony by adding such importance to the name itself. For Algernon to tell Jack he is being ridiculous by asserting he has been lying about his name and... ... on Victorian culture, the modern day reader is left with disdain for the earnest ideal. The characters rely on it only superficially. Through the play the meaning of the word is manipulated until its meaning is lost and the remaining value of the word is to essentially mask the true natures of the people who use the word (or name) too freely. The implication is that the characters in the play are silly as well as hypocritical, and as representatives of Victorian culture, Wilde is leading the reader to the conclusion that much of the decorum expounded by society is just as silly and hypocritical. Luckily for the proponents of the stiff propriety in the Victorian age, the blow of this conclusion is softened immensely by the comical nature of the play, and we are left with the lesson that there is really no importance in being earnest, but merely being named Ernest.

Criminal Profiling Questions Essay

1. Analyze inductive/deductive reasoning. Inductive criminal investigative assessments: The inductive approach to profiling is a based on the simple premise that â€Å"If certain crimes committed by different people are similar, then the offenders must also share some type of personality traits. (Holmes & Holmes, 2009)† Inductive reasoning seems to be the more â€Å"scientific† of the two as it is strictly based on criminals that have committed the same or same type of crime. It is much quicker as it is strictly based upon statistics and easily conducted (with the proper databases) searches based on the types of crimes. When you combine the simplicity and the speed at which it can be done, it would seem it would be a foregone conclusion that this is the technique to use. However, inductive assessments are not completely reliable due to no connection to the current crime and strictly relegated to using similar facts and types of crimes to aid in creating a profile. Deductive criminal investigative assessments: â€Å"From a thorough analysis of the crime scene and the evidence left at the crime scene, the profiler is able to construct a mental picture of the unknown offender. (Holmes & Holmes, 2009). Deductive profiling is based upon the artistic ability of putting together the available information and picturing the events that occurred and the offenders that committed these events. Deductive profiling is more complex and takes longer to conduct a thorough enough investigation to begin putting the pieces together to form the entire puzzle. Deductive profiling is much more reliable as it is based on information pertinent to the specific crime committed and not simply based upon similar types of crime that are typically not in any way related to the current crime being investigated. The most popular form of profiling is a combined inductive/deductive profiling. Using inductive profiling, you would compile statistics about similar crimes and use the similarities between the multiple offenders and begin to form the outline of your profile. Using the crime scene information, you would then begin to evaluate from a perspective that is specific to your crime scene and not based on similarities in crimes. Upon completion of using your criminal database to build you outline, you would then apply the specific data derived from the crime scene and begin to apply the details of the offender to complete your profile. Holmes, R. and Holmes, S. (2009). Profiling Violent Crimes, an Investigative Tool (4th Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. 2. Goals of criminal profiling 1. Provide the Criminal Justice system with a social and psychological assessment of the offender. Goal 1 is to provide a detailed assessment of the offender which should include specifics (i.e. race, gender, employment, age range, etc.) that narrows the possibilities in which law enforcement can focus their efforts and reduce the scope of the investigation. 2. Provide the Criminal Justice systems with a Psychological evaluation of belongings found in the possession of the offender. Goal 2 is specific to the physical evidence and relevant information in a case and how it relates to the specific offender’s psychological profile. This will help in the case by adding to the offender’s profile and by helping derive locations, times, etc.. 3. Provide interviewing suggestions and strategies. Goal 3 is to help investigators get to the ground truth, through different methods, during the interrogation process. Different types of people respond to different stimulus, therefore different strategies must be emplaced based upon multiple categories your offender falls into.

The Invention Of The Automobile - 1751 Words

Contrary to popular belief Henry Ford did not invent the automobile, or the assembly line. More than any other individual he was responsible for transforming the automobile from an Invention of unknown utility into an innovation that profoundly shaped the 20th century and still To this day continues to affects our live. Innovators change things, they take their own ideas, And sometimes other people’s, and develop and promote those ideas until it has become accepted As part of our daily lives. Innovation requires self-confidence a test for taking risks leadership Ability and a vision of what the future should be. Henry Ford had all these characteristics, but it took him many years to fully develop all of them. Fords beginnings were perfectly normal. He was born on his Fathers farm on July 30, 1863 in what is now Dearborn Michigan. Early on ford demonstrated some of the characteristics that would make him powerful, famous, and successful. He organized other boys to build rudimentary, water wheels and steam engines by becoming friends with the man who ran them he taught himself to fix watches, delight thus young ford demonstrated mechanical ability, a Faculty for leadership and ability a facility for leaning by trail- and- error. Ford could have followed his Father and become a farmer but, young Henry was fascinate by machines and was willing to Take big risks to pursue that fascination .In 1879 ford left the farm to become an apprentice at the Michigan Company a manufactherShow MoreRelatedThe Invention Of The Automobile2373 Words   |  10 PagesAutomobiles are arguably one of the most important inventions in the history of the world. Not only have they allowed us to get from point A to point B in a faster fashion than walking but they have also aided us in new inventions that will greatly benefit the world. 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