Commedia D'ell Arte

COMMEDIA D'ELL ARTE

In todays lesson we learned about Commedia D'ell Arte, which originates from Italy. It first came around in the 1600's and Shakespeare was very influenced by it.
Our teacher bought in some leather hand made masks from Venice. Every character in Commedia wore masks, and each mask has its own personal character.

The characters are:
Magnifico- the man with the most power, he is in charge
The first actress/actor- these people do not wear masks, and they are very Shakesperian, they are mysterious and are normally widowed, and do not explain why, which adds an element of evil to their characters

Pantelone- He is an older man, who has a liking for women and money. He is quite creepy and is always wanting something
The Doctor- He is on the same status level as Pantelone, but although he is a doctor, he is actually very stupid. He is always talking about things he knows and methods and stories, but he understands nothing the other characters talk about and he never really holds a conversation with any of them.
Columbina- One of the only FEMALE parts, she never wears a mask and is a maid, but she is clever, witty and smart and all the males fancy her, she is always busy doing something but hears and knows everything. She is cunning and nosey
Brighella- He is a servant, but he is the higher status servant, he tells the other servant what to do and is very serious at all times. He is quite dark and mysterious
Harlequino- He is the other servant, he is of low status and loves to dance around. He is very silly and comical. He is always forgetting to do things and is very funny.
Zanni- This means " servant" in Italian. These people are the lowest of status and are below Harlequino and Brighella.

All the characters in Commedia are all motivated by Money, Sex, Love, Food and Drink. They are always after something and are constantly thinking of ways to trick the other characters into getting what they want. They are all very credulous and cunning, always motivated by a force.
The main theme is Masters and Servants. It is all about status, the different status characters all have their own way of moving, talking and communicating. The masters are very bold and upright, whilst the Zanni are very low and lead with their noses, they move like birds, very fast but clumsy, like pigeons. And the masters move like eagles, very precise and carefully. You can tell the different statuses straightaway by the way they move.
The acting in Commedia is VERY dramatic, everything is always so over the top and is the complete opposite of Naturalistic acting. If they are sad, they are falling on the floor wanting to kill themselves and if they are happy they are jumping around screaming and shouting. It is all so extreme, and I can imagine it is very tiring for the actors!
I really enjoyed beginning Commedia, as it allows you to just let go and be ridiculous, but it looks really good, the more over the top you are the better. It bought everyone out of their comfort zones, but I did not feel embarrassed or self concsious whilst doing this as it is so playful and fun, you just let go completely and it looks really good. It is very physical as well, so beginning this has helped me a lot with acting with my body. It is a great start to Shakespeare, as he was very influenced by Commedia and Shakesperian acting is also very physical and dramatic.
Video of Commedia we watched