Berkoff

Berkoff focuses on straying from the norm- he puts emphasis on non-naturalistic style. His pieces of theatre are not meant to be realistic or naturalistic, and his plays focuses on the physicality of the characters in the plays. Berkoff's work is otherwise known as 'Total Theatre' and he uses many conventions to create a performance that lacks naturalism, yet is full of interesting physical theatre and mime sections. Berkoff believes that an actor should use the entirety of their body to portray a character, and he also uses several other techniques to do so. For example, although he believes in externalization, he also thinks that an actors voice should be exaggerated and used to enhance the piece. Other techniques he uses include:

• Massive extension of limbs and huge physicality of a character. 
• Exaggerated facial expressions. 
• Episodic structure. 

Throughout this lesson, we decided to use Berkoff's techniques to make a short piece in the style of Total Theatre. To do this, we all gave ideas on what we did in the morning to get ready for school. Our ideas were:

• Getting out of bed.
• Eating breakfast.
• Brushing our teeth.
• Getting dressed.
• Packing and picking up our bag. 
• Running for the bus. 

We did all of these movements in a seemingly ordinary way. However, then we decided to make them really Berkoff. To do this, we did everything hugely exaggerated, and in slow motion. For example, instead of only brushing our teeth, we basically brushed our whole faces and had our mouths hugely widely open.
Also, to add another Berkoff twist, we decided to take our movements and do them backwards. Instead of waking up first, we ran for the bus. Moreover, we did this as a chorus and all moved at the same time. We lined up in a 'V' formation and all acted at the same time. Finally, to make the piece more interesting, we added some music in. The music was upbeat and a rather funny twist to our performance.