Rationale
We have been looking at and exploring the genre Agitprop theatre, which is a form of propaganda introduced by the Russians to galvanise anger, awareness and motivates the audience to take action and make a difference on a particular issue. This is done through protesting. When we were first introduced to it I wanted to protest about how unbalanced the education system is and how it has an impact on the children with different abilities are given the same things as the ones who are ‘smarter’. This makes these kids feel like idiots, dumb or stupid as they cannot get to those standards.
As a group we decided that we were going to focus our protest on black history as the curriculums in schools are. They are practically white and this prevents us blacks from learning and gaining knowledge on our own history. We being part of the slave trade aren’t the only thing about us. In my group so far I have contributed quite a few ideas like when a the teacher is explaining the same old history in school, she will then go on mute and mine while the rest of the actresses in the group deliver their thoughts out loud together. I’ve also contributed that we have a scene where use strong vocabulary while talking to the teachers and to as well have freeze-frames.
I believe our final idea was the best choice for agitprop theatre because it’s an easy and understanding issue and many people feel the way we feel about and they are able to relate to it as we will galvanise and attract a huge amount of people.
Our theme of black history links with the stimulus. Our stimulus is the song ‘paint it black’ by the rolling stones. The first thing you notice is that the title of the song links to our idea as my group wants to promote better understanding of black history instead of a white-washed version of history which is taught in schools every year.
The aims for our performance is to persuade the audience to protest with us and to make the demand to learn as well as to be taught about their past, not only the negative but the good things like the achievements many black unknown people have done for us to where we all are today. In our performance we will include a variety of different techniques like short scenes, interaction with the audience maybe some humour and facts and figures to be precise.
On October 16th we went to see a play called ‘rhetorical’ by Mpumelelo Paul at Stratford circus. It was about nelson Mandela’s successor Thabo Mbeki and his inability to lead his people properly as he was just as he wasn’t a man of true words and actions, He was just about the show. From this play we took short scenes, people playing various roles and using some stereotypical characters. The use of humour and the direct address in ‘rhetorical’ was strongest at the beginning. For example when the union rep spoke to the audience it was an effective, it also was engaging the audience making them listen and explaining the situation in south Africa. They also had a very effective scene to show how aids were spending back then, they did by using a red scarf to symbolise the disease and a prostitute wearing red dress giving a guy the disease. This was done in an exceptional way, to show sexual intercourse the used the