Duration: 1 week.

Structure: 48 hours in total divided in 8 daily hours. Maximum 25 students.

Teacher: Gigi Ottoni.

Language: Italian (it is possible to have an interpreter for the classes in English).

Output: certificate of attendance, ECTS.

Cost: 450,00 €. The cost is referred only to the workshop lectures. The student will charge: training aid, room and board.

Starting Date: From Monday 6th July to Saturday 11th July.

Objectives: The course is based on the Italian “commedia dell’arte” and the use of the mask. There will be a brief amount of work based on Improvisation techniques as used in the similar form of “farsa giullaresca”(a farce based on the commedia characters). There will be research on the history of comedy and an analysis of the different elements which have characterised the different forms of comic theatre. We will discover a theatre founded on the principle of provocation, which becomes self-inventive, thus creating “An industry of entertainment” exploiting the maximum potential of the playful nature of the stage. This means that the dramatic text as used by actors throughout the 16th century is rejected and transformed in a machine able to produce endless shows without the need of a formal playtext. Commedia dell’Arte encapsulated within itself the fascinating secret of having made comedy actors transcend their own time and therefore being able to survive successfully all the way through to our modern age.

Programme: The first part will focus on the birth of the Commedia:

• Structure of the blank canvas ;
• Construction of the principle characters of the Commedia dell’Arte;
• Mask archetypes;
• Functions, content and acting devices of the “Mask”;
• The mask as the interpreter of a universal language with reference to the characters it represents.

The second part will lead towards identifying :

• The basic moves of the “masked character”. ( eg: head, arms, legs, specific gait, attitudes, etc);
• The structure of a hypothetical stage as developed from the concept of the “Comedians’ cart”;
• Set and technical innovations which were to contribute significantly to the development of proper stage machinery and set.

In the following stages we will experiment with the fundamental principles of the Mask’s movement, not by merely wearing the mask, but transferring the body’s attitudes in all the diverse situations the Mask will have to live in. Physical research will aim at reaching a harmony and coordination touching on basic concepts of acrobatics and juggling. In the final stage, we will analyse the shift towards the “Commedia Nuova”, as developed by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni. At the very end of this intensive workshop, there will be a performance which will not be a proper show, but a demonstration of our consciousness of a world so far from our current one and yet so very near.

It is recommended to wear comfortable clothes for the warm-up and physical exercises.