Commedia dell'arte is a form of theatre originating from Italy. It was performed right next to the audience, usually in marketplaces and other busy areas, and to draw attention, but also make it clearer for people far away, the actors would use masks to show different stock characters. It was also very important for the actors to be completely physical to connect with the audience. The stories are focused on the relationships between masters and servants, where everyone is credulous and cunning, motivated by money, sex/love, and food/drink.
For class, Siou had brought us some of the masks to explore some of the different characters, and later we were introduced to this graph, about the ranking of the different characters:
- 'the master of masters'
- eagle like physicality
- when Magnifico dies, a new one appears immediately
- large presence, takes space
2&3. 1st Actor&Actress
- no mask
- take space
- mysterious, might have dead spouses in their past etc.
4. The Witch
- supernatural character
- free from class
5. Pantalone
- master
- first one of the 'old men'
- the old men were like Magnifico, but have then lost their teeth
- womanizer
- miser, needy
- fiddles a lot
6. Doctor
- master
- second 'old man'
- always fighting with Pantalone
- thinks he knows everything
- turkey-like physicality
7. Columbina
- only female servant
- moves like Harlequino, but is clever
8. Prughella
- highest ranking servant
- cunning
- charismatic
9. Harlequino
- non-moral, in the way that he doesn't understand the difference
- pig/monkey physicality
- over-reacting
- stupid
10. The Captain
- pretends to be brave, when is really a coward
- soldier
11. Zanni
- lowest cast
- the servant who comes from the country
- everything is new and exciting
We explored some of these characters, like Harlequino, Pantalone, Columbina and the Doctor more in detail in class, by improv exercises. Siou would give us the scene and a group of people with assigned roles would play it out. We also explored each characters physicality, which was very interesting. This year, I really want to find a balance between naturalistic acting and physical acting, and so this workshop was extremely useful for me. Every exercise really pushed me to use my entire body to create the character, but also to not think so much during improvisation. These improvisation were very heavily focused on the themes that Commedia Dell'arte performances usually were about, such as how to lay a trap to get the girl, to get money, and/or to get food/drink. With these our class really learned what we needed to do in order to achieve these over-the-top characters - to not have ANY barriers. Later we watched a film that showed some drama school student having a workshop in Commedia dell'arte as well, and I could see how every one of them were ready to to just try things and not worry about looking ridiculous. This is something we should all aspire to be like in our acting, and this workshop really gave us the nudge to do so. It will also help us with toggling on with Shakespeare, since he uses a lot of these stock characters as well.
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