Commedia dell'arte (13)

We began this lesson with our normal physical warm up to increase our heart rate and warm up our muscles. We then did a character exercise lead by Charlie. We were told to lie down with our eyes shut and imagine we were on a lino in a swimming pool. We were then told that we had a brick on our ankle and were beginning to drown. We had to imagine how our character would react. I think my character would be annoyed at the brick but would easily find a way to get out. We were then told to walk round the room and the people we walk past are the people who saved us. As my character, I had a fairly guilty but cautious facial expression and nodded my head at them. We were then told that the character who saved us, was also the person who tied the brick to our ankles. This time, when I greeted each character I went up to them square on and looked extremely angrily at them.

We then discussed what scenes we would like to create. We split into pairs and small groups to begin devising the discussed scenes. Charlie and I went together as our characters have a very comical relationship between them. All of our ideas were prop-orientated and required us to have the audience to use. However, we discussed our ideas and what we could include, these ideas are as follows:

• H using an expandable fork to try and pinch food from a plate, B uses an expandable fork to try and stop him. B so focused on the forks that she doesn't realise H pinching food off another plate. 
• H using an extra-long straw to attempt to drink a drink on a different table. B swaps the drink to some cooking oil. 
• H uses a child's "dinosaur grabber" toy to attempt to pinch food of plates. B has a fake hand on a stick which she slaps the dinosaur with.
• B using a fishing rod to pick up a (magnetic) fish from a customer's plate. B uses the fake hand to slap H.

We then decided to group back together as we will all be on stage at the same time so we need to work together. We watched Oliver, Lewis and Rhiannon's scene and all took part in forum theatre. In their scene Doctor introduces Pantalone to his new waitress (Columbina), who takes their orders. This scene consists of many innuendos and shows the stock characters characteristics.

The next scene we developed was between Il Capitano, Columbina and Harlequin. Il Capitano is trying to impress Columbina. She comes in with the order written down, which she gives to Il Capitano who doesn't look at the note, and instead holds it in his other hand out to the side whilst admiring and complimenting Columbina. In this time, unknown to Il Capitano, Harlequin has pinched the paper and has eaten it. Il Capitano turns round to and quickly realises what has happened. Harlequin looks at Il Capitano and pauses, and then dances off.

In this lesson, we progressed in our characterisation, as we got a lot of practice moving as our characters and interacting with others. We also managed to come up with a lot of ideas on what we would like to happen in this piece. Next lesson, we shall continue devising and developing the ideas we have.