Commedia dell'arte (11)

We began this lesson by adding elastic to our masks so we can wear them in our lessons now. We have made a rule: when we are in masks we are in character - if we wish to speak to each other not as our characters then we have to face the wall to take our masks off as to not spoil the illusion. We will use our masks every lesson now to ensure we get a lot of practise in them. The masks completely alter our focus points as our peripheral vision is dramatically decreased when we wear the masks. Although this makes our lives difficult as we have to look directly at what we need to see with our heads (as opposed to using peripheral vision or looking just with our eyes) it does make us look directly at the audience to acknowledge them.

I then ran a physical warm up as to make our risk of injury (for example, pulling a muscle) a lot less. We then did an in depth characterisation exercise to help us with ideas for new scenes. The first section of our characterisation exercise was to move around the room as our characters (so with our masks on), thinking about what part of our bodies we lead from (for example, Zanni leads with his nose and toes, whilst Il Capitano leads with his chest). For the second section of the exercise we had to greet the characters we walked past using Gromalot (or not greet as the case may be depending on status and if we think our character would choose to interact with the character we are walking past). The final section in the exercise was to walk around and see how our characters moved when given different emotions. Below is what I learned from each section of the warmup:
     ((1)) The parts of my body I lead from are my elbows and my ears. I travel with bent knees.
     ((2)) I greeted Pantalone as if I really respected him. I greeted Doctor slyly. I greeted Columbina with contempt. I greeted Harlequin with anger (as his character typically frustrates Brighella). I greeted Il Capitano with sarcasm as I think my character sees him as pathetic. I greeted Zanni by belittling him.
     ((3)) I found the anger and curious emotions were pretty much my character naturally, but I struggled when it came to being told to be "sad". This was because I don't think my character would really be sad about anything and instead would be angry.


Thoughts progression in this lesson:

• Staging - Cabaret style (different, casual and laid back - suits Commedia) - bit like being in a restaurant
• Scene idea - a wedding? - the lovers could get married - not having the lovers so everyone organising - what could go wrong? - something bad could happen to the cake - food - restaurant - restaurant instead of wedding
•  Who's involved at a restaurant - guests, manager, head chef, dishwasher, waiters - who could be who? - guests could be Pantalone and Doctor (as they come as a pair and have high statuses) - dishwasher could be Zanni (as he has a very low status) - head chef could be Il Capitano (as he think he is the best) - manager could be Brighella (as she can watch what everybody is doing and manipulate things) - waiters could be Harlequin and Columbina (Columbina could flirt with the guests, whilst Harlequin can't be trusted in the kitchen so is sent out of the way whilst being watched)

Things that could go wrong in our restaurant / would be funny:

• Il Capitano throwing lettuce about as he is cooking and then a packet of crisps is on the plate to be served
• Zanni running about with a lot of pots of pans piled up which look like they could fall over any minute (but are actually glued together and Zanni actually succeeds with something!)
• Plates crashing to the ground and making a loud noise in a previously calm and quiet restaurant
• Il Capitano claims that he makes everything from scratch and how amazing he is... when in fact he is "cooking" microwaveable meals
• We could have a performer booked for the evening who doesn't turn up, so we get Zanni up to perform. He "sings" (mimes) a song to a track, which is then cut when Harlequin pulls out the plug, leaving Zanni "singing" (squawking)
• Harlequin spilling drinks on people
• Having critics in the restaurant but mistaking them for someone else - thus treating someone else really well and not caring for the critic at all - in fact treating the critic exceptionally bad because they are focussing on who they think is the critic
• Harlequin stealing food off people's plates (as his character is always hungry)
• Kitchen inspection from a health & safety inspector and the most inconvenient time
• Harlequin plays a prank and puts a dead rat in the kitchen
• Timers going off to remind people that a timer is going to go off 
• Fire!