Monkey Business

What is the right sort of mask to wear? Pleated or cupped? Over ears or back of head? Everyone has their preference (personally, I don’t care so long as it has a nose clip to stop my glasses steaming up). Having spent most of lockdown making masks you think I’d be bored of them by now - Me?! Never! Masks are my livelihood and my passion and finally I am back in the classroom with the masks I will always opt for by preference: #CommediaDellArte!

Sanitised and bagged for transit: Into the Monkey House we go

After an arduous process with my now rather extensive collection of commedia masks - cleaning, stripping out old foam, replacing with closed-cell, non porous pads, sanitising and individually bagging - I was ready to enter the Monkey House: the Covid-safe premises of Fourth Monkey Actor Training in London, to deliver an intensive Commedia dell’Arte training series. It was a sheer joy to see out September and launch into October working with the 2nd year students on the Accelerated Actor Training Programme.

With the year group split into two bubbles, I worked morning with one group, afternoon with another, immersing the students into the Commedia world. In week two we started devising and by the end fo the week, we had not one, but two shows - both nearly an hour long! We proved that live theatre can still happen #theatrelives

We were vigilant throughout, socially distancing, sanitising, re-sanitising, bagging personal props and costumes. I won’t say it wasn’t hard work - it was! - but it really was worth it. The students presented a ‘closed doors’ show to a socially distanced audience of staff and the other half of their year group. Laugh? Our sides were splitting we laughed so much. It was the perfect tonic to the six months of isolation. And the performances were true superb. The photos are from one of the two shows: The Murder of Pantalone (taken by me on my phone so a bit grainy).

Virtual hugs to all the fabulous students @fourthmonkeytc - thank you for my amazing card and the best gift ever: seeing the pleasure that poured from the stage.

Your words touched my heart. Here’s just a few:

“Thank you so much for this wonderful experience! It’s a ray of sunshine in our Covid world!”

“Thank you so much for this amazing experience, it was a pleasure learning from you!”