mother courage

I thought this was the best video we've watched this semester. The crypt in Melnik was crazy! I don't quite understand why they would stack skulls beneath a church, but it was very intense and it set a good tone for the rest of the video. Meryl Streep was great. I liked what she had to say about an actor does, the whole "I'm the voice of the dead people. I'm the singer of lost songs" thing. I feel like she is a very important actor for American theater because she can draw an audience that normally would not spend their friday night at a theater.
I thought it was great that the video showed the steps it takes to produce a play. I don't think a lot of people really understand how much work goes into getting ready to perform a play as complicated as Mother Courage and Her Children. Plus, we got to see a lot of great actors in action, which is always great.
I thought it was very telling that Bertolt Brecht would laugh as a sign of approval, even for gut-wrenching scenes. It makes sense if you consider that he viewed his actors as workers; it showed his respect for their ability to throw themselves into their work. Brecht was a very interesting and fantastic character. His love for Marxism is very apparent both in his life as well as his plays, and it was very clear that he loved his trade.