Protocol V: 1 Powerful Epic Theatre App For Students

Stop acting. Start demonstrating.

If you are currently studying Senior Drama, you have probably spent years being told to “feel” the character, to “become” the role, and to make the audience cry. That is the way of Naturalism. It is a hypnosis. It puts the audience to sleep.

But Bertolt Brecht and Erwin Piscator didn’t want the audience to sleep. They wanted them to wake up, judge the world, and change it.

Join the Resistance: A Student’s Guide to Cracking the Code of Epic Theatre

Welcome to Protocol V. This isn’t just a study guide; it is a digital headquarters for the theatre resistance. If you are struggling to wrap your head around the Verfremdungseffekt (V-Effect), Gestus, or Spass, this app is your tactical toolkit.

Here is how you can use the app to master the art of Epic Theatre.

The Intel Files and Mission Logs

Before you can break the rules, you have to know them. The Resistance HQ is your starting point. Inside the Intel Files, you won’t find boring textbook definitions. You will find “Declassified” breakdowns of every key convention—from Spass to Not/But—written in language that actually makes sense.

Once you know the terms, head to the Mission Logs. Here, we have cracked open the archives of some of Brecht’s greatest plays, like Mother Courage and The Threepenny Opera. We analyse the specific tactics Brecht used in famous scenes, giving you concrete examples to use in your essays, exams and classroom exercises.

The Acting Simulators: Persona and Detachment

Acting in Epic Theatre is notoriously difficult because it goes against your instincts. You naturally want to emote. Protocol V provides two specific labs to break that habit.

First, enter the Persona Lab. This module generates a “Gestus”—a physical attitude that reveals social status. You input a role (like a Soldier or a Merchant) and a context, and the app generates a precise physical profile for you to embody. It stops you from playing “feelings” and starts you playing “status”, instead.

Next, visit the Detachment Chamber. This is a digital rehearsal room for the V-Effect. You type in an emotional line of dialogue (like “I love you” or “I hate you”), and the machine rewrites it using Brecht’s three rehearsal exercises: Third Person, Past Tense, and Spoken Directions. It is the fastest way to learn how to distance yourself from the character.

The Piscator Unit: Machinery and Multimedia

Epic Theatre wasn’t just about acting; it was about technology. Erwin Piscator, the co-founder of the movement, turned the stage into a machine.

In the Projection Booth, you can see how multimedia is used to contradict the action on stage.

You select a dramatic scene, and the app generates a documentary clip to project behind it, creating that essential “Piscatorian Clash” between art and reality.

Then, explore the Conveyor Belt. This visualises Piscator’s most famous stage device. Whether it’s a soldier marching to nowhere or a refugee running against the wind, this feature animates the structural meaning of the treadmill on stage.

Staging the Revolution: Propaganda and Agitprop

How do you design a set that doesn’t look “real”? The Propaganda Dept (Stage Architecture) allows you to draft blueprints in the style of Caspar Neher (Brecht’s scenic designer). You input a scene concept, and it generates a lighting plan, a placard text, and a minimalist set design that treats the stage like a laboratory.

For those moments when you need to hit the audience hard with facts, the Agitprop Press is your weapon. Type in a sentimental action (like a hero dying), and the press will print a newspaper headline that undercuts the emotion with a cold, hard statistic. It teaches you the art of Juxtaposition.

Rewriting the Narrative

Brecht loathed linear stories where the ending feels inevitable. Protocol V offers four powerful tools to help you structure your own devised pieces:

The Montage Room: Input a linear story, and this tool slices it into episodic “beads on a string,” inserting interruptions to break the flow.
Temporal Displacement: Struggling with Brecht’s Historification technique? Type in a modern headline (like “AI taking jobs”), and this tool transports the issue to a historical era (like the Industrial Revolution) so you can critique it objectively.
The Dialectic Machine: Input a social issue, and this engine identifies the Thesis and Antithesis, creating a frozen Tableau description that deliberately leaves the problem unresolved for the audience.
The Fable Factory: Based on Brecht’s concept of Lehrstücke (Learning Plays), this turns complex political problems into simple fables with clear teaching points.

The Marxist Lens and The Collective Voice

To truly get top marks, you need to understand the politics beneath the plays. The Red Lens allows you to scan classic plays like Romeo & Juliet or Hamlet through a Marxist perspective, as Brecht himself did, revealing the economic struggles hidden behind the poetry.

Meanwhile, The Collective Voice module helps you write Chorus work. It takes a piece of propaganda (e.g., “We are all in this together”) and splits it into the conflicting voices of the rich and poor, showing you how to write dialogue that highlights class struggle.

Signal Corps and Field Tests

Finally, no Brechtian unit is complete without music. The Signal Corps helps you write songs in the style of Kurt Weill (Brecht’s composer). You select a topic and a tone (e.g., “Satirical” or “Aggressive”), and it generates lyrics and audio suggestions that conflict with the text.

Ready to prove you’re prepared for the exam? Enter the Field Test arena to take a quiz on what you’ve learned navigating the app.

Protocol V is not just an app; it’s a manifesto. Stop trying to be a “good” actor. Be a critical one.