Our First
Week of Commedia
Monday 24th,
Wednesday 26th and Thursday 27th November 2014
To begin this
week, concluded our first assignment’s coursework, our lecturer introduced us
to our next assignment’s topic. For
these sessions we were to be given a brief background understanding of
‘Commedia dell’Arte’.
Translated to
the meaning of “Comedy of the Artist”, ‘Commedia’ is a subject of performance
that I was interested to learn and take on board as an aspiring actor.
‘Commedia
dell’Arte’ originated in the mid-1500s, as ‘performers’ had the priority of
performing in the outdoor world to the general public using ‘Masks’. Its sole purpose, for the ‘performers’ was to
attract customer’s attentions in the market street of Venice. The ‘performers’ gave off many
characteristics and emotions, that were all pretend and lies, just to grab the
public’s attention. But it was only a
matter of time until the ‘Masked’ ‘performers’ became a common and traditional
thing within the market’s atmosphere.
Resulting in more of the ‘performer’s’ products being sold, as well as
their being a new form of entertainment for the marketing public. As time passed this type of performing grew
in size and became the centre of attention in public carnivals and festivals,
launching a new type of performance that was entertaining and comedic.
As the performances
developed, there came to be two key words depicting their two key performance
types. Farce and Slapstick. Farce, was a performing strategy used in
theatre, depicting a fast paced comedic performance, involving plot twists and
turns, and producing unlikely, yet hilarious, situations for their
characters. Whereas Slapstick, gave a
more physical aspect, involving more hysterical violence and physical actions
between the characters, all the more engaging their audience members and
bringing a vast amount of laughter.
It was also
the ‘performers’ usage of ‘Masks’ to hide their facial expressions that allowed
them to further express physical reactions towards certain scenarios and give
an extra bit of detail to their performance.
Ensuring the audience gained full understanding and detail to what the
characters were going through mentally and physically.
But throughout
the history of performing arts, ‘Commedia dell’Arte’, and ‘Comedy’ in general,
has had a huge impact towards the ‘performers’ acting abilities and the
audiences love for theatre such as ‘Comedy’.
Actors learn how to truly get an understanding of their characters
inside out. But it is within ‘Commedia
dell’Arte’ that ‘performers’ were introduced to the many types of characters
reflect their current society and bring forth opportunities to test their
abilities as a ‘performer’. These
characters list from:
1) Arlecchino (or Harlequin) – The
loveable clown within ‘Commedia’, that allows ‘performers’ to explore their
physical and verbal abilities to bring forth the true fool within him. An example of ‘Arlecchio’ (‘Harlequin’)
within modern day entertainment would be ‘Joey Tribianni’ from the hit
television show ‘Friends’.
2) Brighella – This character depicts a
crafty servant character. Paired with
‘Arlecchino’, ‘Brighella’ is the servant within the posh house that always does
his best to be the best servant, yet always makes the mistakes and makes a fool
of himself.
3) Pantelone – ‘Pantelone’ is the
character in charge. Depicted as the
character always looking down to his servants, and always keeping a posh
manner. Although there is a sense of elegance
to him, as we discovered that he would need a helping hand if really necessary. An example of ‘Pantelone’ in modern
entertainment would be ‘Basil Fawlty’ from the BBC’s comedy classic ‘Fawlty
Towers’.
4) Il Dottore (the Doctor) – While having
the appearance of an old wise character ‘Il Dottore’ was the lord of the
manners, ‘Pantelone’s’, good friend.
Except one of the key characteristics of ‘Il Dottore’ is that he doesn’t
have a clue. This character allows
actors to show off their abilities to add “plumpness” to their physicality and
bring forth a sense of clumsiness towards every action ‘Il Dottore’ brings to
the performance.
5) The Innamorati (the Lovers: Silvia,
Corallina, Ottavio and Lelio) – It is these four characters that bring
almost realistic interpretations of married or engaged couples. One pair showing off their long lasting
marriage, yet constantly arguing.
Whereas the other shows the pair in the youth, as well as including
difficulties in amongst their day to day actions in the performances.
6) Isabella – The daughter of ‘Pantelone’,
‘Isabella’ is the character that every man falls for. She is also depicted as the young rebellious lady,
always keeping her headstrong and desperately wanting to control her life. This character in particular has key physical
poses and props that really show off her rebellious character traits.
7) Il Capitano (the Captain) – Similarly to
‘Il Dottore’, ‘Il Capitano’ is the perfect example of a cocky show off who
really up himself. ‘Il Capitano’s’
characteristics show that he brings forth a sense of power and loyalty, but if
you were to put a mouse in front of him, he would be nothing but a coward. A perfect example of this character in modern
entertainment would be ‘Gilderoy Lockhart’ from ‘J.K. Rowling’s’ novel ‘Harry
Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’, as this character bring a sense of him
being in love with himself, yet lied to gain popularity and is a coward to near
everything he speaks of.
8) Colombina – The sneaky female servant ‘Colombina’,
with the ability to make the ‘Lovers’ turn on each other, she is a character
you’d have to be careful with.
Physically she has a posh attitude, yet give off an amazing twist when
telling lies to her superiors. An example
of ‘Colombina’ in modern entertainment would be ‘Polly’ from the ‘BBC’s’ comedy
classic ‘Fawlty Towers’.
9) Pierrot – This is the definition of a naive
clown. ‘Pierrot’ comes across as a misunderstood
character. How the physicality of a
really sad person, ‘Pierrot’ will do anything to be welcomed and be laughed at
for being one the entertainer around.
But ‘Pierrot’ always get his tricks wrong and continues to be upset. This character was interesting as it gave us
a chance to express strong emotions such as “happiness” and “sadness”.
10) Pulcinella – Often considered ‘the
Punch’, ‘Pulcinella’ is the character that is stuck in between servant and master. A quite confused character, ‘Pulcinella’ has
the physical traits of being tired and board, bring forth some pure
entertainment involving the many other ‘Commedia’ characters.
I personally found that learning about
these characters was really interesting.
Learning about how much of an impact they have had on modern comedy
theatre/performances. Plus how to
portray these characters in the proper fashion for production work, both
physically and mentally.
One character
in particular that stood out for me during the practical exercises of ‘Commedia
dell’Arte’ was ‘Il Capitano’. I
personally liked the characters personality traits, and particularly how to
present their physical state on stage, enhancing their ability to show off, and
give a cocky attitude to everyone he meets, yet how a strong cowardly outcome to
his actions.
The practical
exercises were extremely entertaining to take part in, and I look forward to
any performance work we might do to bring a Contemporary Physical piece of
production to life.
No comments:
Post a Comment