20.3.

   Today we started to read the play together in class. I have already read the play on my own, but I feel that it is always useful to read the play multiple times, but also with the group so that we can discuss the individual scenes and perhaps find out things about the play we wouldn't have realized by just reading it at home on ourselves. It also brings more life into the play having different people reading for different roles.

   We also got the chance to try out our 'Chicago accents', which were mostly terrible. I have lived in USA for year, so I feel if I start paying attention to it, I could do a North-West American accent quite easily, but Cicago accent is a different deal. The easiest way to learn it would probably be just watch old gangster movies and mimic the sounds they make. It seems that the r sounds are only said when before a vowel and they also have the tendency to run their words together, which is shows in the play by the translator by actually creating words from sentences that are stereotypical Chicagoan, such as "fuhgettaboutit". Arturo Ui also talks about being from the Bronx, which is an area in the northern parts of New York City. So, I also watched THIS video about New York accents, which were also common in the old gangster movies.  I will be definitely exploring the 'gangster accent' and way of speaking more in it's own post, since I feel I need to try out these techniques on some of the lines in the play.

   While reading the play, there was also some things that came up, words or references that were unknown to us and I thought I should probably talks about those a little bit too and do some research on them.

• Commodity Exchange
• markets across the world(imports and exports) trading essentials. A very useful term in the play, since it is about the vegetable business and trade being taken over by gangsters
• Larceny
• unlawful taking of another persons property. Old term, has since been broken up to more specific term such as burglary, robbery, fraud and theft
• Scene Six
• In scene six, where Arturo Ui is trained by an actor to walk, stand, sit and talk in a more presentable way to make him more believable and approachable by the common people. We had an interesting discussion in class how politicians in real life do this as well, training their voice to sound better to them attract people more to their side. Some might change their entire accents to become more approachable or believable, and Siou pointed out that especially female politicians go through multiple lessons with actors so that they can bring attention to them over so many aggressive male politicians, who often have naturally louder voices.  
• In this scene Ui reads a part of Mark Antony's speech from Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar. This speech is one of Shakespeare's most famous ones, and it has been often compared to speeches of politicians of today and known political figures of recent history(e.g. Hitler). It is a speech which goal is to rally people and win over a large crowd. This is a scary connection to Hitler and smart use of known theatre pieces to create political connections with the audience by Brecht. 
• In the scene, the Actor talks about how he wasn't seen 'fit' for Ibsen with his Shakespearean style of acting. Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th century Norwegian playwright who is often seen as the father of realism. He is one of the founders of modernism in theatre.  
• "Ah, the poor gangster struts and frets his hour upon the stage and is heard no more. ..."
• This is part of Ragg's speech in scene three and a reference to the "All the world's a stage" speech from the Shakespeare's play As You Like it. This speech talks about how the life of a man is like a play, divided into seven ages; infant, school boy, lover, soldier, justice, Pantalone and old age. It could also be a reference to Richard Edwarde's play Damon and Pythias, which contains the line "Pythagoras said that this world was like a stage / Whereon many play their parts; the lookers-on, the sage" Ragg in his speech talks about the development of a gangster and how, how ever much evil he does to others, over time time it is all forgotten by the people. Everything has its course, which Ui is extremely scared about; he doesn't want to be forgotten. 

   Today's lesson brought up subject that I really want to go into more detail with research, for example Brecht's use of Shakespeare's characters in this particular play, language used in the play and shadows in theatre. I will definitely be researching all of these topics and giving each subject their own posts soon.