Physical Comedy & Storytelling Workshop
Delivered in association with The Actor Rebellion
Cost: £85 (Green Room members 20% off)
Limited places!
This high energy workshop invites you to release the full expressive power of your body, while connecting with your character and audience in a whole new way.
This workshop we will explore the transformative power of Commedia dell’Arte – a tradition that has created a blueprint for character actors for the past five hundred years. You will learn the techniques that enable you to fully embody memorable characters.
“I believe the secret to a compelling performance is vivacity. We need to ignite the spark that breaths real life into the character and sparkles through every gesture, breath, and movement. Commedia dell’arte gives us a rich smorgasbord of life to feast on. By allowing ourselves to play and find pleasure in the detail of breath and gesture, we ignite an energy, that brings life to the entire performance”
“Cheryl delivered an outstanding class generating enthusiasm and engagement amongst a diverse group of students who came away enriched and enthused by her robust and full-blooded approach”
Workshop Content:
Whether acting for stage or screen, commedia dell’arte is an invaluable training tool that allows you to:
Strip away self-consciousness
Make bold, instinctive performance choices
Sustain performance energy with heightened precision
Develop ensemble devising and improvisation skills
Discover techniques to captivate and connect with your audience
Sharpen your awareness and control of gesture, body language, and comic timing
Achieve subtle shifts in movement that shape the way a story is told
Seamlessly transition in and out of roles.
Through improvisation, slapstick, and stock characters, you’ll expand your acting range and break free from habitual patterns, gaining the tools to create performances that feel alive, immediate, and repeatable. This workshop deepens your connection to storytelling, giving you the confidence to move, play, and transform with total freedom.
About Commedia:
Commedia dell’Arte is a 16th century comic style, born in Italy, featuring masked and unmasked characters. Known as the first ‘professional’ acting style, the influence of this important theatrical form can be traced through Elizabethan drama, French farce, opera, ballet, mime, silent movies, slapstick and throughout the history of comedy. Commedia dell’Arte is taught in many drama schools as a movement foundation for all styles of acting. It is a brilliantly inclusive style that will stretch and challenge every student.
About the Workshop Leader:
Cheryl Stapleton is a performer, director, and theatre teacher with over 30 years of expertise in commedia dell'arte and physical comedy. Trained under John Rudlin at Centre Sèlavy, at École Philippe Gaulier and at Antonio Fava's Scuola Internazionale dell’Attore Comico. A Brunel University Drama graduate and trained dancer, Cheryl founded Learning Through Theatre in 2013 and is now internationally recognised for her performance-education to Drama Schools, Universities, and Institutions worldwide.
Photo credits: Marcella Fava