Commedia Dell' Arte?

(Notes taking and Research Questions)

6/12/07

Last lesson Steve asked us to divide into group and search for information about Commedia Dell' Arte, so later we can share it with the class. The research assigment is a good practice for our research investigation in the end of this two years course, which is 25% of our final grade in theatre arts. My group was responsible for the Imporvisation in Commedia Dell' Arte.

The research wasn't easy. First we divided the topic to several sub-units, and each one of us brought something out of it, and we made a presentation. I used the Commedia Dell' Arte book as a helper but It didn't really dsecribed what I was looking for, so I went and asked second year theatre arts students about their experiences last year, and it helped me more.

Steve explained why do we take notes and how do we take them:

1. Listen carefuly while taking notes
2. Understand your language better than texts written by others
3. You can memorize and understand it better
4. You select the imoportant information and include it

While taking notes, I tried to follow the 4th reason- selecing the important information. When the notes are to the point and short, you can understand the main idea better.

Notes taken during this class:

Staging:

• wooden platform
• feeling of being in a street
• curtains
• street theatre
• what shown in the back gives an idea of the play
• different zones of the stage

Carnavachi:

• description of stage movement
• feel characters
• different scenarios, like loose, funny (comedy), growse
• dialouge - react to other characters
• think on the spot
• short place
• put the sex in an important position during the play

Improvisation in Commedia Dell' Arte (My group's research):

• actors know their character well
• different companies have different improvisation trainnings
• actors have the plot/basic storyline (scenario)
• good relationship between audience and actors is neccesary
• trust your partner
• actors can do whatever they want, but it has to stick to the story
• bring the scene back to objective (help partners)
• audience affects energy on stage (applause, laughing)

Performing in a mask

• body is a language, we use it with the mask
• masks are characters that we bring alive
• focus on the emotion
• express your mask with your body language
• it can't lie- the body tells the truth and the mask emphesisyes it (not always!)
• you can concentrate on bigger movements and not think on your expression

Lazzi in Commedia Dell' Arte:

• improvisation to fill the play
• it is impro, but because of the experience of the actors, they know the basis outline and ques
• accepting the offer
• person who starts has to end- helps to organize the actions and dialogoues
• comical routine / slapstick moves
• makes the audience laugh

Later on, Steve showed us a general presentation which summarizes all the researches. It helped me to organize my notes better, and made me understand the unclear points which I didn't get. Also, it gave me another prespective to my notes.

After everyone gave their presentations, we all gave feedbacks. I felt that my presentation had a good structure and information though it wasn't creative and interesting enough. I'll try to make my next presentation more active.

I've learned a lot from this lesson, and it made me feel more ready towards our production. Next time we will start searching information for our characters and those skills which I earned will help me to understand my character better.