Contemporay Commedia dell'Arte

CONTEMPORARY COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE WORKSHOP.
The Theatrical Creation Method
An International Course of Comic Theatrical Art conceived and directed by Fabrizio Paladin

The Course, meant for freelance actors will take place at Nordic Black Theatre in Oslo from February 12 to 16, 2024. 

The Course is a collaboration with the Theatre and Norsk Skuespillersenter.

At the end of the course the participant will give a performance open to public.

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The main goal of the workshop is to impart to students the fundamental building blocks for creating and performing Commedia. The recovery of the expressive body as a unique and fundamental scenic instrument, the importance of the art of the actor in scene creation, the respect of the dramatic functions of each character, and the collaboration between the performers on stage, all leading the story through to an organic solution of the conflicts presented.

Commedia dell’Arte has been entertaining audiences or five centuries, and it is my belief that it can go on for another five, if the essence of its indelible characters and the basic rules of this theatrical game are passed on and respected.

Commedia Dell’arte (also known as Improvvisa, Commedia Zannesca or Italiana) began in Italy during the first half of the sixteenth century, and went on to become the primary form of theatre performed by professional actors. Unlike modern theatre, where set lines and cues are set down in a script, most Commedia performances follow what is known as a canovaccio – a kind of outline, or collection of sketches that provides the fundamental framework for the action: the themes, the entrances and exits, etc. Commedia actors improvise, following the structure of the canovaccio and the fixed characteristics of their own characters.

The improvisation techniques of Commedia also differ from more modern styles of improvisation. Commedia improv is not based on quidquid in buccam venit (whatever comes to the mouth), but rather an almost extemporaneous assembly of a plurality of elements which make up the technical repertoire of the actor: the role, the character, the gestures, the monologues, the jests… Because of this, we can see that Commedia is not a style of theatre but a method of theatrical creation
In learning to perform Commedia, the actor, like a jazz musician, must know perfectly his own instrument (in this case, the body and the mask) and he must also know and respect the rules of the game he’s involved in. When the actor can ‘give’ himself generously to his art and to his audience, his own peculiar sensitivities will fill the sketch provided in the canovaccio with color and shade – a process I call “strategic acting”.
Fabrizio Paladin