Commedia Lab: Now Active.

Laboratory: lab·​o·​ra·​to·​ry |  \ ˈla-b(ə-)rə-ˌtȯr-ē  (n)  A room, often containing special equipment and materials, in which students work to enhance skills, remedy deficiencies, in a particular subject, as a foreign language; providing opportunity for experimentation, observation, or practice in a field of study.

A warm shed, a case of masks and four players, ready to enhance skills and remedy our deficiencies, in exploration of the language of commedia… This feels like lab work: experimenting with ingredients, mixing it up and seeing what comes out. 

James as Brighella in a beautiful leather mask crafted by brilliant craftsman, Ninian Kinnier-Wilson

Over the coming months, I’ll be blogging about our rehearsal process and sharing what nuggets of discovery arise. The four of us - Cheryl, Mark, John and I - are launching into our next commedia dell’arte production: devised collaboratively in our studio shed at the bottom of the garden. 

First on the agenda today, a quick warm up and some messing about with games. Funny … I’ve been leading workshops and classes for many years - getting students to do silly things in order to loosen up and ready to play - but I’d almost forgotten what it's like to do it myself! And how refreshing it was. Certainly blew the cob-webs away (and there were several)! 

Muscles and tonsils warmed, we got down to the real work of the day: exploring the less commonly played masks, seeing which ‘spoke’, and to whom. First up: the witch Strega. A 20th century addition to the commedia family, she’s a Magnifico of nature; earthy, powerful and grounded. Beginning with the idea of circular, fluid movement, we explored moving her around the space: keeping rooted to the earth; knees bent, squatted low, then showing her power, rising up (murder on the thighs, I can tell you - especially when, like me, you ain’t no spring chicken!) We brought forth three Strega masks: two almost hawk-like, piercing, slanting eyes; the third more owl, no less intense, but slightly softer. Importantly, two of the masks were white, the other black. This gives her a striking tonal contrast to all of the other masked characters, echoing her separation from their world. They are of the ‘city’, she of ’the country’; outcast perhaps, unless her ‘powers’ are needed - for good or for bad. 

How does that relationship manifest? Two witches toy with a nervous Pantalone; Mark and Cheryl as the Witch, me as an out-of-depth Pantalone! With one witch white, the other black, there was a sense of ying and yang, but together they felt too intense and unfocused. Next we paired one Strega with the awkward, stuttering Tartaglia. This made for a much more interesting combination and certainly one to explore further. We questioned: is Tartaglia foolish or very clever? Is manipulated simply because he can’t get his words out to keep control? Much to explore further here. 

Lunch. I have to admit, I felt a little flat over lunch. Although interesting and with embryonic potential, not to mention a whole lot of fun, nothing massively tangible seemed to have arisen from these first experiments. But that is the nature of experimentation, no? 

The afternoon became planned around a neat canavaccio that John put forward, with Brigella as the central character. Following a similar modus operandi to the morning, we played with physicality, then introduced masks - three different Brigellas this time - and then jumped into John’s scenario. Having a simple outline narrative became a springboard for improvisations, sparking ideas and possibilities. One problem that I’ve always found hard to overcome in impro is knowing when to shut up! To help this, we instigated a rule of three word sentences which was ideal to establish the rhythm in a scene and keep the focus passing fluidly. Three extended impros later, with different combinations of character and Brigella as the pivot, and the day was suddenly over! Time does fly when you're having fun it seems. And we certainly did have loads!

Although only the first rehearsal day, we are starting to develop some useful working practices. One was to have a basket, cards and pens to use while watching others work, to capture thoughts and ideas to be discussed at the end of the day. No idea missed or forgotten, no impros stopped, no flow lost. With a quick debrief, ideas collected and committed to paper, we arrived at an end - not the end. Not even the beginning of the end. It is, perhaps though, the end of the beginning. A most exciting place to be: the dawn of a new show.