Brecht on Performance - (Performance Books) by Bertolt Brecht (Paperback)

About the Book

"A selection of Brecht's principal writings for directors and theatre practitioners"--Page 4 of cover.

Book Synopsis

Brecht on Performance: Messingkauf and Modelbooks presents a selection of Brecht's principal writings for directors and theatre practitioners, and is suitable for acting schools, directors, actors, students and teachers of Theatre Studies. Through these texts Brecht provides a general practical approach to acting and to realising texts for the stage that crystallises and makes concrete many of the more theoretical aspects of his other writing.

The volume is in two parts. The first features an entirely new commentated edition of Brecht's dialogues and essays about the practice of theatre, known as the Messingkauf, or Buying Brass, including the 'Practice Pieces' for actors (rehearsal scenes for classics by Shakespeare and Schiller). The second contains rehearsal and production records from Brecht's work on productions of Life of Galileo, Antigone, Mother Courage and others.

Edited by an international team of Brecht scholars and including an essay by director and teacher Di Trevis examining the practical application of these texts for theatres and actors today, Brecht on Performance is a wonderfully rich resource. The text is illustrated with over 30 photographs from the Modelbooks.

Review Quotes

Brecht on Performanceis a companion volume and has two parts. The first is an overhaul of what Willett previously called the Messingkauf Dialogues. 'Buying Brass' - the more literal translation of Messingkauf- assembles more of the fragmentary material and includes Brecht's 'Practice Pieces for Actors', revealing that the 'dialogues' were only one, albeit major, element in the overall project. The editing of the fragments is exemplary ... The second part includes writings and images from three of Brecht's 'modelbooks', as well as essays from the Berliner Ensemble's documentation Theatre Workand the 'Katzgraben' Notes. Taken together, the extracts presented here form a rich collection that includes significant work from when Brecht returned to theatre-making in 1948. These two volumes represent an excellent extension of Brecht's writings in English. The editors draw on contemporary scholarship, apply high editorial standards, and offer a readability that opens up Brecht's theories and practices for a new generation.
New Theatre Quarterly

An excellent complement to Brecht in Practice. ... These theoretical essays concern the practice of theatre (known as Messingkauf, or "buying brass") and explore the way actors should interpret and perform a text.
American Theatre

Combined with Brecht in Practice, [Brecht on Performance] makes a compelling contribution to the anglophone understanding of Brecht and may indeed breathe new life into how we do theatre in the twenty-first century.
Modern Language Review

About the Author

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) is acknowledged as one of the great dramatists whose plays, work with the Berliner Ensemble and writing have had a considerable influence on the theatre. His landmark plays include The Threepenny Opera and, while exiled from Germany and living in the USA, such masterpieces as The Life of Galileo, Mother Courage and The Caucasian Chalk Circle.