COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE

In addition to working on a big scene analysis, which I turned in this afternoon, thank god, and the marathon technical rehearsals for the show we open tomorrow, Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer, my blogging time this week is also being eaten up by an assignment due Thursday in my acting class. We're currently delving into Commedia dell'arte stuff.

From Wikipedia:

Commedia dell'arte (Italian: "comedy of professional artists" also interpreted as "comedy of humors"), also known as Extemporal Comedy, was a form of improvisational theater which began in the 16th century and was popular until the 18th century, although it is still performed today.

And

Traveling teams of players would set up an outdoor stage and provide amusement in the form of juggling, acrobatics, and, more typically, humorous semi-improvised plays based on a repertoire of established characters and a rough storyline called Canovaccio. Troupes would occasionally perform directly from the back of their traveling wagon, but this is more typical of Carro di Tespi, a kind of travelling theatre that can be traced back to antiquity.

The performances were improvised around a repertory of stock conventional situations, adultery, jealousy, old age, love, some of which can be traced in Roman comedies of Plautus and Terence. These characters included the ancestors of the modern clown. The dialogue and action could easily be made topical and adjusted to satirize local scandals, current events, or regional tastes, mixed with ancient jokes and punchlines. Characters were identified by costume, masks, and even props, such as the slapstick.

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And trust me: this ain't no RenFest bullshit, either; this is some pretty great stuff, on which the majority, perhaps, of all American narrative comedy is based today. Think of the old Warner Brothers cartoons, but with real people, and just as effective. Really, this stuff just pervades the sitcom world, but, unfortunately, it's watered down usually.

Our assignment is to create a compelling 2-3 minute lazzo to be performed in class Thursday. Ah, but what the hell is a lazzo, you ask?

Again from Wikipedia:

Lazzi

Lazzi (from the Italian lazzo, a joke or witticism) is a bit of well-rehearsed comic action used in the Commedia dell'arte. Most English-speaking troupes use the Italian plural "lazzi" as the singular and "lazzis" for the plural.

Click here for the rest.

So we're supposed to play one of the stock Commedia characters, and, using some sort of simple prop, work through several comic bits that ultimately add up to a zany story. I'll be playing Arlecchino, from whom we get the word harlequin (see the Wikipedia article above for more info on him). Here's an old engraving to give you an idea of what he might look like:



Of course, for classroom purposes, I won't be wearing the goofy suit, although I wish I was simply because it's so bizarre, but we will be wearing masks, which always mean good theater fun. I don't want to say much about what I'm going to be doing with my lazzo because I want it to surprise my classmates, who occasionally honor Real Art with their presence, but I will say that it will involve this...



...that's right, a rubber chicken, the most humorous of all objects. I'm really looking forward to this one. I've always wanted to work with a rubber chicken.

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