1. 3 p.m. Groups Ryan, Travis, Alexis, Rikki Kati, Kassam, Kolton, Yuwei
Kristen, Ralitsa, Brandon
Aksel, Ernesto, Leslie, An
Esme, Gabriela, Raymond

2. 4:30 p.m. Groups Yulissa, Dexter, William
Mindy, Sarah, Thanawat, Julie
Jason, John, Carmen, Samantha
Maria, Matt, Keith, Shirley
Natalie, Jessica, Siddharth, Meiling

3. Today’s Goals… Lecture Review and Film Discussion
“Made ness” of The Theater of War (genre of essay film/epic theater, intertextuality, witnessing and “staging” war)
Review of Epic Theater vs Dramatic Theater
Video Clip from Brecht’s “The Three Penny Opera”
Small Group Discussion and Presentation – M.C.

4. Let’s watch a scene from “The Three Penny Opera”
The dramatic theater's spectator says: Yes, I have felt like that too-- Just like me--It's only natural-- It'll never change--The sufferings of this man appall me, because they are inescapable--That's great art; it all seems the most obvious thing in the world--I weep when they weep, I laugh when they laugh. (Bertolt Brecht)
The epic theater's spectator says: I'd never have thought it -- That's not the way -- That's extraordinary, hardly believable -- It's got to stop -- The sufferings of this man appall me, because they are unnecessary -- That's great art; nothing obvious in it -- I laugh when they weep, I weep when they laugh. (Bertolt Brecht)
Let’s watch a scene from “The Three Penny Opera”
Which elements of Epic Theater do you recognize?

5. Warm Up Discussion
Marx’s Political/Philosophical Theory of Alienation:
How is agency (political agency) in Brecht’s text different from the kind of agency operating in The Iliad or in Simplicimus Simplicissimus?
What role does “agency” play for the individual, the collective, the audience, the “cultural worker”?
What does the Military Industrial Complex refer to, and how does it contribute to a claim that “war feeds itself” in Mother Courage?

6. According to Cantor and Kushner(Pay Attention to the talking heads)…On Marx
We are made by others. I am reminded each day by my work that my personality doesn’t matter. As you produce objects, you produce yourself. How you work and for whom you work informs who you are. I am made and remade by my work for the interests and profits of others. (Cantor)
When asked if Brecht makes sense outside of Marx, Kushner initially answered no. He claimed that people are malleable enough to be made into soldiers. We suffer our making, but if we participate in our making, it would be our greatest joy. (Kushner)

7. Multiple Perspectives Open Dialogue
Later, Kushner amends his earlier claim. Brecht’s main message is that without some large cooperative action, we’re doomed. We’ll all die unless we act together.
The reason Brecht has the notion of a fatal virtue is to show us that he doesn’t blame the characters. It isn’t their fault. It’s not the characters that have to change. It’s the society they’re in. That’s what we have to look at to change. We have to change the context in which these people make their decisions. (Oscar Eustis)

8. Warm-Up Discussion
What does it mean that war has become naturalized and Brecht seeks to denaturalize war with his text?
Explain how the double meaning created by the title “Theater of War” shapes meaning for the audience. (How does it get us thinking?)
How would you characterize and apply these terms in the context of our current unit?
Alienation Irony Didactic
Witnessing War Representing War Intertextuality
Montage Cultural Worker Manifesto

9. Warm-Up Discussion Let’s watch the opening scene and apply…

10. How does Brecht himself “perform” his “political” theater in the HUAC Hearings and in East Berlin? To what end?
“He was a very slippery man, who lived in times when a certain degree of slipperiness was necessary to survive” (Kushner)
“That old fake!...If you answer badly you can’t be asked that much” (Barbara Brecht)

11. How do specific filmic techniques “mediate,” teach and “witness”?
(color, doubling, temporal juxtaposition, editing, montage, narration, intertexts,)
Where is (political) agency located in the Essay Film? In epic theater?
How do the “witnesses” in the film teach and perform political theater?
Five Acts about War…
Children Art Politics Brecht Theater Death Courage

12. Blog 4:  Choose A or B
A. Choose a scene from M.C.: How does this scene use the conventions of epic theatre to make an argument about war? - How is it didactic?
B. Think about how Theater of War makes use of Brechtian techniques in its essay film genre to make an argument about war – to be didactic
Irony - to denaturalize war, to instruct, to provoke
Focus on how individual agency is utilized, problematized…
Consider how individuals made or unmade through their labor
To what extent do individuals in the scene have power to perform their labor, power over how they sell labor/to whom
Examine to what extent an individual rendered alienated from his/her humanity through relationship to labor
think about names (talking heads), fatal virtues, role of irony, etc.

13. Brecht Scene Analysis (Group 1 – Scene 1, etc.)
Identify & explain references to economic conditions in a time of war? What kinds of economic exchanges do you see in the passage?
Individual identity determined, formed, constructed by the labor s/he does
Human Agency in this context allows for characters to retain their humanity only in so far as they have power over how they sell their labor and to whom they sell it. How does a scene reflect how characters sell their labor (self-interest, costs of war, ironized)?
How does self-interest operate in the context of the business of war or in the context of transactions or interactions between individuals in the scene? Does anyone act with “agency” under this definition?
How does Brecht “stage” or “perform” this? To what didactic end?
Is this scene a representation of a particular virtue (compassion, empathy, courage)?
As Brecht’s characters are undoubtedly aware of the truth of war they are, ironically, “ensnared, even crushed by it all the same” (Newman) How does irony or other Brechtian features operate in the scene to challenge us, as audience, to think and react? Identify specifics from the text(read a line of text, point to stage direction, etc.) and then explain HOW that “evidence” shows your claims?

14. According to Streep…(in the opening/ending scenes)
An act of bravery is a thing that continues the carnage. What’s the final result…bones in the landscape.
I’m the voice of dead people. I’m the interpreter between the audience who will hear it (in the language they will understand) and the author who wrote it years ago.
How do these thoughts inform Streep’s understanding of her character Mother Courage? Her role as actor?
Is she performing Brechtian Epic Theater? Does it matter?
How is she (as human/as woman/as actor) “witnessing” war?

15. Mother Courage’s Choice in Scene 4
Explain the following claim: In scene 4 Mother Courage is faced with a morally impossible choice.
What are her two choices?
What choice does she make?
Why is this a morally impossible choice?
What message about the “costs of war” does this send to the audience?