Commedia dell Arte Notes

The Masks of Commedia dell Arte

• 16th century
• Masters of improvisation rooted in physical training
• One stock character per actor (archetypes)
• Improvise around scenarios embellish basic plot outline with physical routines known as lazzi
• Virtuoso linguistic digressions (verbal riffs of standup comedians)
• "A model for improvisatory and movement oriented performance"
• Actor centered theatre (acrobatics, body training, improvisation, ensemble, staging techniques)
• Street psychology
• Through comedy, we can glimpse tragedy (Charlie Chaplin)
• Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, Marx brothers
• Le Jeu of Lecoq
• Driving force is not what to play but how it should be played
• Grammalot

Characters

• Pantalone - chicken - about suspicion
• middle-aged or elderly man; rich, greedy, miserly
• a father who competes romantically with his son
• a husband deceived by a young wife
• an overly-protective father guarding his young daughter from suitors
• turkey, cockerel, chicken
• Dottore - pig
• elderly gentleman
• friend, sometimes rival of Pantalone
• originally a law professor, alter a medical man lacking common sense
• ancestor of absent-minded professor
• master of double talk and jargon, stutterer like priest in Princess Bride
• studies everything; understands nothing
• pretentious
• Arlecchino/Harlequin - monkey - cat
• Zanni
• usually clever persuaders and schemers
• excellent at ad-libbing and acrobatics
• clever pranksters, agile in mind and body
• illiterate
• source of conflict; reactive not proactive; doesn't think about the consequences
• opposite of Pantalone (too hungry, too tired, not too smart)
• curiosity
• disguises
• hoarse voice
• Zanni - group of birds/penguins/fish (zany ones)
• proto clowns
• preverbal
• like animals
• always sleepy or hungry
• Innamorati/Innamoratae - Oratio and Isabella - less creature like
• Beautifully dressed young loves; speak a refined language
• No mask / lead with a chest
• Parody of ballet
• Use breath and points of lightness
• Capitano - peacock - bloodhound - mastiff
• boastful, cowardly Spaniard who brags of battles never fought and romances never experienced
• braggart
• bullheaded; not smart
• Pulcinella
• humpbacked, doltish male character, sometimes pot-bellied; disfigured
• Zanni
• powerful figure in a way; use violence to achieve his goals
• stupid pretending to be clever or vice versa
• likes to quarrel
• sees everything in his own image
• good at imitating animals and inanimate objects
• Pedrolino; pierrot
• Zanni
• a simple, awkward male character; effeminate, tense, OCD, excitable
• Devil Wears Prada - Stanley Tucci
• butt of the jokes
• doesn't seem to have feelings, but he vents when he's alone
• faithful to his master but is a loner
• often cuckholded
• loves Colombina
• Scaramuccia
• Zanni
• a mustached servant; sometimes clever, sometimes cruel
• Senora - no mask
• bossy, bawdy, offers herself in exchange for money or high status
• vain, proud, goes after men
• forever 29 years old
• kinda like a cougar
• Fontesca/Columbina/Clarice - fox
• serving maid; clever and highspirted flirt; often moving
• the maid, often to the Innamoratae
• Often corresponded with Arlecchino
• Ballet-like movements
• Carries a basket or a tamborine
• Scapino -
• Zanni
• falls in love for fun; flits from one love to another
• playboy
• forgetful
• acts on every impulse
• schemes against old men
• Brighella
• Zanni; kind of like the boss
• cunning, corrupt; leads by fear and manipulation
• kind of like Pulchinella
• knows your weak points and uses them against you
• not a victim

Working with the Mask

• Cheat up
• Use the physical characteristics of your mask - if you have a big nose, do it with a lot of rooster
• Make the mask come alive
• Don't touch the mask
• Don't be subtle

Lazzi

• Conversations
• Little comic interludes
• Moments of humor grabbed between scenes/during scenes
• "something foolish, witty, or metaphorical in word or action"
• Stage tricks
• Comic stage business
• Comic routines, planned or unplanned, that could be performed in any one of dozens of plays

Theater Education Programs Are in Demand for Workforce Creativity

I think it's wonderful that theatre programs are increasingly receiving the recognition that they deserve - for far too long they've been shunned in the academic fields as a mere 'accessory' and it was a disappointing, sad fact of the world... but this article's given me new hope.

Theatre inspires so much more than many people give it credit for - not only creativity, but an understanding of the self, of people, of the world that cannot be attained in other ways. Theatre gives you movement, gives you speech, gives you a reflection of souls and the environment and I just feel that everyone can benefit from being exposed to theatre. It gives people confidence and other traits, other skills, that they can apply anywhere in life and living.

TBC

Ya-hoh Counter

I decided to keep track of how many ya-hohs our class needs to do XD (one for every day all the students in our class have been present)

There were two beforehand and...
- March 22, 2013

T'alchum & Commedia dell'Arte

((Student Leader-ing))

T'alchum

• Almost lost during Japanese occupation
• 1960s
• historians and practitioners
• revived 13-15 different kinds of masked dance (from different regions)
• Six Characteristics of Korean Folk Dance
• a spirital base of respect for nature and respect for freedom of expression
• embodiment of feelings of han (deep inner sentiment that is manifested as profound grief or sadness) and sinmyeong (artistic ecstasy or exhilaration that occurs at final dramatic moment when tears turn to laughter, darkness to light.)
• self-expression
• strongly improvisational
• satirizes daily life and wealth
• The Madang (yard/garden)
• used to be performed in everyone's back yards and the village
• nowadays becoming
• Audience Participation
• several hours; people come and go
• all ages and demographics
• characters speak directly to the audience
• questions
• conversations
• audience can call out or stand up
• sit down into the audience
• "Call and Response"
• Ceremony of the Mask
• most masks would be burned once used
• made out of anything; animal fur, gourd, etc.
• except Andong, where they made them out of wood and did not burn them
• symbolic relationship
• shape of the eyes
• the mouth
• the paint
• the curves
• the bumps
• the size
• etc.
• Mask Images
• bride; mouth closed; left eye up; right eye down
• bar maid; mouth open; happier
• More about the performance
• very free in time and space
• no narration
• viewers can jump in
• excellent device for satire

List from the White Board

• Mob psychology
• Revenge
• Loved
• Fire
• After Death
• Death
• Family
• Insanity
• Creation
• Forgiveness
• Moments of Life
• Fulfilling of Goals
• Words of Conformity
• Knowing too much
• Information Wars
• Things that are lost
• Forgotten
• Taken
• Gained
• Loved
• Culture Shock
• Language Barrier
• Cynicism
• Misunderstanding
• Isolationism
• Words of your own
• Lies
• Remember or forget
• Which is more valuable
• Dreams
• Internet's effect on myths/religion
• Sarcasm
• Cross-cultural societies
• Human needs
• Discovery of meaning of life/existence
• Importance of relationships
• Humor of life
• Impossibility of freedom
• Muse
• Sex
• Theories of Life
• Freedom from Organization
• Chaos

Jean-Louis Barrault

Jean-Louis Barrault

• Born on September 8th, 1910 in Le Vésinet, Yvelines
• French Actor
• Acted in nearly 50 movies
• Notable ones:
• Sous les Yeux d’occident
• L’Or dans la Montagne
• French Director
• Directed several films:
• As I Lay Dying
• Les Enfants du Paradis
• Mime Artist
• Portrayed Jean-Gaspard Deburau; Baptiste Debureau; 19th century mime
• Commedia del Arte
• Influenced by:
• Charles Dullin
• Artaud
• Theatre of Cruelty
• ‘Actors are athletes’; particularly relevant to mime
• Advisor
• Married actress Madeleine Renaud in 1940
• Established the Theatre Marigny
• Allowed student protesters use of his theatre in 1968
• Poor response from the government led him to lose his theatre
• Financial backing waned
• Died January 1st, 1994 of heart failure in Paris
• Buried in Cimetiere de Passy

“There is a geographical map of the being in the face. With a mask, you erase it, but at the same time you extend it to the whole body. The mask is a temporary subtraction of the geographical map of the being, but which allows it to be spread over the entire body. It’s enlargement, you see? You have a six-foot face.”

– Jean-Louis Barrault (pg. 57, Theatre of Movement and Gesture)

“In fact, it is the simplest things that are the most tricky to do well. To read, for example. To be able to read exactly what is written without omitting anything that is written and at the same time without adding anything of one’s own. To be able to capture the exact context of the words one is reading. To be able to read!” – Jean-Louis Barrault (Reflections on the Theatre)

“When I wake up in the morning, I want to feel hungry for life. Desire is what drives me. When I go to sleep, I feel I have experienced a small death, so that I can wake up in the morning renewed and reborn.” – Jean-Louis Barrault (Through Parisian eyes: Reflections on the Contemporary French Arts and Culture)

Works Cited:

• http://books.google.co.kr/books?id=SJJKT_-bAjwC&pg=PA56&lpg=PA56&dq=Jean-louis+barrault+masks&source=bl&ots=gRwqlB-nmd&sig=NzjK3LiBTMOVjnMm5fxW1ipqIcU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Z3xKUdOELeSYiAfOi4C4Ag&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Jean-louis%20barrault%20masks&f=false
• http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7149

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0056761/

Masks: Quotes

"There are three masks: the one we think we are, the one we really are, and the one we have in common." Jacques Le Coq

I find this quote fascinating because it's a topic I've thought of frequently. Humans bear many masks, and we wear one every day. Everyone can see the mask you wear, but you can't see the mask. What kind of mask do you wear? Does it match what you believe it is?

Haha, it's something I've thought of for so long that I've actually gone and written a whole roleplay on it...