Teaching and directing

CirComedy training for theatre and circus actors

CirComedy is a physical theatre training system which integrates Commedia dell’ Arte and clown techniques  with  a system of exercises developing physical and emotional awareness and completed  by improvisation sessions fostering  the performer’s creativity. CirComedy  trains  creative, independent, visionary artists   who couple   high technical competences in theatre and circus  arts with a deep understanding  of the styles and expressions of the contemporary performing arts scene: complete artists who can contribute to shape new theatre and circus performance as actors, directors, artists working in the community.

Commedia dell’Arte techniques: the actor and the mask

The  workshop  explores style, techniques, stylistic influences on world theatre, contemporary developments of Commedia dell’ Arte. The rigorous training is based on the traditional techniques and comic repertory of the Italian Commedia: half – mask stock characters, verbal and physical improvisation, lazzi comic routines, creation of scenari (plots),  grammelot , the invented language of the masks , storytelling, solo and ensemble text work. The techniques are combined with a system of exercises developing physical and emotional awareness  as a  major instrument for the development of the actor’s imagination and interpretative skills and  the key to form, style, emotions in contemporary  theatre practice.

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ComiClown: from mask to clown

The workshop blends together  Italian Commedia dell’ Arte mask techniques   with  theatre clown training, integrated  by a system of exercises developing physical and emotional awareness and completed  by improvisation sessions fostering the performer’s creativity. Focus is on work with the  smallest of the character masks  – the “nose  mask” and on the “clown costume – mask”.The clown mask fosters the discovery of  the pleasure of the spotlight and the building of strong relationship with the audience while staying “true and real”. At the same time the workshop teaches solid technical tools and allows the students to achieve technical and artistic goals, creating powerful and poetical characters.

The singing mask: acting in opera and music theatre

Workshop developed at Scuola dell’ Opera Italiana, Teatro dell’Opera Comunale di Bologna
Italian Commedia dell’ Arte  was a form of music theatre, giving way to opera buffa and opera lirica :  a unique fusion of acting and singing demanding a complete and versatile actor singer. The workshop combines the Italian Commedia dell’ Arte acting techniques – masks, character work, vocal improvisation –   with a system of  exercises developing physicality, emotional awareness,  stage presence.   The singer is exposed to  a range of acting techniques and exercises which prepare to be creative actors, competitive in every facet of musical drama and skilled in the articulation of the Italian language.

Brecht: mask, spass, gestus

Masks, narration, direct address to the audience, chorus, music and song, “lazzi” and comic devices, multi role playing, set changes in full view, plays within the play: the  Italian popular theatre form of Commedia  dell’ Arte and Brecht’ s theatre – while been each original and unique –  share many similar acting and presentation devices. The workshop explores style and acting techniques of Commedia dell’ Arte – masks, archetype characters, storytelling, chorus ensemble work, singing, comic devices –  as creative and technical training tools for an introduction to the Brechtian style of acting.

Pirandello Project

The workshop explores the unique acting techniques of the Italian Commedia dell’ Arte popular theatre style  in relation to the acting style and the theatre of Luigi Pirandello. The study of the Commedia theatrical techniques – masked archetype characters , mask and counter-mask, the storytelling mask, the scenic space of Commedia dell’ Arte and the Pirandello scenic space, chorus work – is integrated with the study of dramatic material drawn from the Pirandello plays The man with a flower in his mouth and Six characters in search of an author.

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