Performance and Design
Pete Brooks

Pete Brooks started the lecture by showing us sequences of films, starting with his first production in 1984 and ending with one from last years MA-students.
He told us that he was especially interested in telling stories with his work.
Furthermore he compared the theater to the cinema. It is far easier to get lost in the story of a film and even from time to time start crying, which is seldom the case when watching a theatre play. The reason why we don‘t get that emotional is because through Brecht we tend to think more critical about the content of a play and don‘t just lie back and let us overwhelm with emotions.
Also, theater plays tend to tell more intellectual stories than most of the mainstream films do.
Pete Brooks wants to use the digital technology in a narrative context. He gave us an example by showing us a sequence of the performance of "Hotel Methusela". There you could see the actors on stage and in the background you saw a close up of the current situation on stage as a video projection. It was very impressive to see how differently I reacted to the different outputs of the same performance. The video projection made it seem more real for me and I felt closer to what they were saying, even if it was the same performance at the same time. Your eyes where guided to the most important part of the scene and it was even a blown up close-up, it therefore made it easier to follow the piece.
I think it is very important to involve the new technology when it is adequate to the piece you are performing. I wouldn't recommend to use it at any time. It can also be an overload sometimes. Digital technology should support the play and should not cover the real performance.