Woza Albert!

Question 1

What is the structure of the play?

Answer 1

Episodic
scenes bound together by recurring themes linked using music
smooth transitions of scenes and is fast-paced high energy

Question 2

What examples in the play showcase the playwrights strenghts?

Answer 2

What examples in the play showcase the playwrights strenghts?

Question 3

Name the five steps of this Process and what they intail.

Answer 3

1.Idea- which the performance is developed and this is decided by members of the group
2.Observation- Reading materials, interviewing people, observing people and personal experiences
3.Improvisation- Watched by directors and audience in order to critic- elements of Grotowski also creates room for spontaneity
4.Selection- Picking the parts that work and taking out the ones that don’t to polish theatrical performance.
5.Recording- Repeating scenes till set, taking notes and using audio or visual recording

Question 4

What is ”Agitprop”?

Answer 4

An attem to propagate a message and agitate for action on the part of the oppressed to change the situation

Question 5

What Style is Woza Albert?

Answer 5

Protest theatre - created through a workshop process
-protest against the contemporary social order Apartheid

-protest for equal rights and wants black people to stand up for themselves and fight against the oppressive regime

-mobilisation intention to challenge the audience to mobolize by making fighters resurrect in the audience

Question 6

What Genre is Woza Albert

Answer 6

Political Satire

Question 7

What are the playwrights intentions?

Answer 7

Protest against the way Black South Africans were treated
Create change
Remind us what the fallen hero’s had done for us

Question 8

What is the process of “playmaking”?

Answer 8

The Workshopping Process

Question 9

What is the background of the Play?

Answer 9

Apartheid and racial segregation
1948 the National party came into power new policy called apartheid aim to secure white domination
Bantu education act used to keep Black students uneducated
1960 Sharpville massacre
1970 Soweto Uprising

Question 10

What are the influences of Woza Albert?

Answer 10

Brecht- Epic Theatre alienation demonstrating roles rather than being involved in characterisation
Grotowski- Spiritual, physical, ritualistic aspects of theatre, implying the use of idiophones, Actor training
Religion- Country professing to be a largely Christian however endorsing apartheid
Oral tradition- Performing certain words To reinforce meaning and brings it to life

Question 11

What is Protest Theatre? Who is the creater of Protest theatre? And aims of Protest Theatre

Answer 11

Zakes Mda.
Theatre for change and is concenerned with social problems, political abuse and conservations issue.
Its aims to reflect the political needs of its audiences and actors and using acting to evoke a emotional response and to show the oppressor the result of their oppression and mobilise the oppressed.

Question 12

Who are the playwrights?
What are their backgrounds?

Answer 12

Percy Mtwa- Danger, Singer and Musician
Mbongeni Ngema- Guitarist, was also cast in plays

Question 13

What symbolism is seen in the play?

Answer 13

The pink noses which represent white people insinuating they are clown like characters because their oppression comes across as ridiculous and bizarre

Question 14

Name some advantages of plays that were made through this process

Answer 14

It’s affordable because props, lighting and costumes are kept to a minimum
No need for a special venue
Their is not one director for collaborative creativity that is experiential

Question 15

What type of actor training did Grorowski use?

Answer 15

Exercise Plastiques
-having full control of ones body rotation of elbows, wrists, chest etc
Exercise Corporals
- need to suppleness in the spine
Vocal and Resperitoray work
- Unblocking a physical and psychological condition

Question 16

What are the themes seen in Woza Albert!

Answer 16

Systemic Injustice and oppression- black characters are oppressed, ridiculed, and verbally abused, we see how characters need to survive in this cruel world where they are dehumanised with demoralising outcomes. Bulldozing of the 76 uprising group barber shop.

Resisting oppression with religious faith- hypocritical because the apartheid government is a self-proclaimed Christian nation but institutionalised racism and systemic oppression was…

Question 17

Comment on the representation of race and class in woza albert!

Answer 17

for dramatic purposes, white/black men are portrayed as stereotypes.
the characters in authority (white) are figures of mockery the guards in prison are comedic characters.
percieve themselves as higher but are represented wearing clown noses because their acts of oppression are ridiculous and bizarre
black people are lower class but portrayed as more human-like and these humanized characters break the racist narrative of the apartheid government which is an act of defiance

Question 18

What symbols are seen in woza albert?

Answer 18

Morena is a symbol of hope and freedom

Clown’s nose

Title- intention is to mobilise and call on the freedom fighters

Question 19

What is the structure of the play?

Answer 19

Episodic
scenes bound together by recurring themes linked using music
smooth transitions of scenes and is fast-paced high energy

Question 20

What examples in the play showcase the playwrights strenghts?

Answer 20

Opening scene where the music and the sound of instruments was created using their mouths and vocal characterisation.