Brecht-fast Club
coffee. comradery. socialist aesthetics.
Once a month on Saturdays, poor players productions hosts a potluck breakfast focused on the work and legacy of Bertolt Brecht and his project to create a socialist theatre. At these meetings we’ll have some coffee, some tasty bites, and we’ll hash out what exactly a socialist theatre is and what it might look like. Each session will focus on a different question. Such as:
Should audiences think or feel after they see a play, and can the artist do anything about that?
How should an actor create a character, taking into account social, not just psychological, truths?
How do you historicize a play, in the Marxist sense?
It will be casual, fun, no longer than about 90 min. We’ll provide some menu items, but feel free to bring something of you own, if you wish (from each according to their ability, to each according to their need).
Whether you’re on the activist end of things or the artistic end of things, we hope that this can serve as a source for inspiration for your own projects and practice!
RSVP to receive address information.
Saturday, October 31, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. | Hybrid
An Epic Theatre Cast Study: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
In this month’s Brecht-fast Club, we’ll read aloud seven scenes from Bertolt Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, using it as an opportunity to explore the episodic structure of epic theatre and how it highlights the power of human agency in shaping historical events.
What choices are made by those in power to bring about certain outcomes?
Was the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany inevitable, or was another path possible?
What, in our own time, are we told is inevitable — and is it really?