Commedia dell'Arte Presentation at Sha Tin College

Aim of Task: To have our first Commedia dell' Arte presentation and film our performance so we have a better idea of what we can improve on for Li Po Chun's performance. To share with Sha Tin college and learn about the Kabuki type of theater they presented us.

Description of Task: After several days of rehearsing our Cannovacci, finally we presented it to an audience. All the Theatre Year 1 group went to Sha Tin where we arrived with our customs and props so we could perform to the Theatre students at the School. When we arrived, they were a little bit concerned about the sexual innuendo that our Cannovacci might contain since on past years the sexual content on Canovacci was too much. Our group and I had kept the sexual innuendo and jokes as low as possible because we were aware of the concern on the topic.

The three groups performed. The audience was not very big, it was only the Year 1 theater group which was not very large. Commedia dell' Arte audience, originally, is very varied, given that it was normally performed informally in the markets of Italy. Sometimes there would be a small amount of people and some other time there would be a large group, standing, sitting, crouching... in whatever position the audience pleases. The fact that we had a small audience, therefore, was not any kind of obstacle for our performance.

After all of us performed our Cannovacci; their group performed a kind of Japannese theatre that is called Kabuki theater. Their costumes where rather simple, although they had a makeup similar to the one some of our Commedia dell' Arte characters had. They told the story about and old, homeless man. The interesting thing about this kind of theater is that there are three different kinds of characters, with different characteristics that remain constant throughout different stories; just like in Commedia where you have a few ammount of characters with specific characteristics and costumes which remain constant throughout different stories. At the end of their play they also explained to us the different sounds and gestures that each character should use in Kabuki theater that they had used.

Reflection: I had done things on stage before, but this is the very first time I did a theatrical performance in front of an audience. I really liked it, Commedia is such a fun genre, not only to perform but also it is a lot of fun to prepare the performance. In general, it seemed like our small audience liked it. I think they were really interested and paid lots of attention, as they were always leaning forward in their chairs to look at us. They also laughed, but in general they seemed very entertained, which is the main focus of this kind of theater.

I found it very curious to see that Kabuki theater has a set of characters with specific characteristics, just as Commedia dell' Arte does. They have different objectives though, in Commedia dell' Arte, characters with specific characteristics make each Cannovacci funnier, as humor arises from the reinforcement of the stereotype of each of the actions performed by the characters. However, in my opinion, Kabuki might do this to keep the story simple and make it more understandable for the audience. Each member of the audience might also be able to identify themselves with one of the kind of characters, each time this character appears on stage.

Conclusion: Theatre is extremely wide. While writing this entry I realized that, although Commedia dell' Arte's main objective is to entertain the audience, there is many other kinds of Theatre whose main objective is not to entertain, for example, Theatre of the oppressed. I had not thought about it, but it is indeed very relevant. The most popular kinds of theater are for entertainment, but there is definitely some other kinds of theater that are used for different purposes.

I really enjoyed finally performing something that we had worked for so much. I really liked being able to show it to another school too.

Final touches before presentation at Sha Tin College

Aim of Task: To prepare the cannovacci so that we can present it at Sha Tin College.

Description of Task: Before presenting to Sha Tin College, we need to do some final things to the cannovacci so that we can present it. The play is not very clear in some parts so we decided that we will cut some parts.

• When all of the characters realize that it's apocalypse Pantalone seems preocuppied because he realizes he cannot use money when he is in heaven. A slap by colombina and a heart attack follow. This is not a very funny skit and, since we need to cut down the play, is something that we could easily remove.
• Although IL Dotore and Pantalone agree on exchanging Colombina and Isabella in one scene, there is no scene where the exchange actually happens. We have addesod a scene where the exchange happens and, when IL Dotore gets Colombina and Isabella, he does a little play on words with being "productive, re-productive" before the world ends.
• All the characters die before the world ends, being poisoned by a potion Zanni put into the dinner served to all the characters. There is humor by la Ruffiana saying "Zanni, you couldn't wait until the end of the world to kill us!"
• Speed in Commedia dell' Arte, in general should be pretty fast. Therefore, we have rehearsed on making the speed faster and faster so that it matches Commedia style better. That will also save us time.
  

Reflection: I think it's good that we had to cut scenes, it means we had plenty of material and that we can get rid that the material that is not good enough to present and leave only the good parts.

Conclusion: We might have spent too much time talking about the play at the start. For Commedia dell' Arte, it is mostly about improvising, so it is best to start acting the scenes as soon as possible and keep on improving them.

Performance of the cannovacci to Steve

Aim of Task: To perform all of what we have in the cannovacci to Steve so that he can give us feedback on what we have done and make the performance better before we present it.

Description of Task: After we presented our cannovacci to Steve he told us the play still need some work before it was ready to be presented on stage; which I agree on. Steve mentioned a lot of good things we had done including the fact that Zanni's performance was very good. Then, he told some of us that we were not facing the audience enough. He thinks I need to enunciate my words more. I have a problem with my mask because it's nose covers a big part of my mouth which obstructs whatever I say. However, to make that better, I need to make low-pitched voices so the audience can hear it better and I also need to open my mouth wider whenever I speak. A low-pitch voice is characteristic of Pantalone because his animal is the chicken, a very low-pitch sound animal. Another thing that I really need to improve too, and that Steve mentioned, is that I commonly look down when I am acting; I need to put the mask a little bit more up, at the level of the audience, so the mask can face the audience when I am speaking.

My group and I will keep on meeting so that we can finalize the play and make it ready to present to Sha Tin College.

Reflection: There is still work we have to do on the play. Although we have rehearsed it, there is still some things that sometimes do not make quite much sense. We will keep working on it.

Conclusion: It is always good to have an external opinion, and opinion from somebody who is not in the actors so that these person can tell the actors what goes well and what doesn't. This is what normally a director is for, but since we are not having directors in any of our groups we are not able to do that. I do not know if directors are common in Commedia dell' Arte performances but I think they would definitely be useful for us.

Practicing what we have of the Cannovacci so far

Aim of Task: To start actually rehearsing the scenes in the cannovacci that we have been discussing. To think about the scenes that will go in between the scenes we already have and complete the cannovacci.

Description of Task: Now that we have a better idea of what our cannovacci is going to look like, we will be rehearsing the scenes that we have thought about. In the process of rehearsing, we expect to think about the scenes that will go in between the scenes we have already thought about.

Pantalone is an old man. He doesn't walk straight, he walks with his back curved and speaks with a very rough voice. He is pretty much careless too, he cares almost only about money; nothing else. His animal is a chicken, so it is very important to make small fast movements. He walks in small, fast steps. His face is also always moving, looking around.

While performing, we figured that Pantalone will hit Zanni in the first scene to establish the servant-boss relationship. We also thought that Isabella should be the kind of girl that constantly asks her father things and constantly demands attention. Therefore, in the first scene. Isabella would be trying to talk with Pantalone but Pantalone would constantly interrupt her.

We also thought that one way we can explain how the characters fall asleep is that they are at a party, and after drinking a lot they fall to the ground and fall asleep. In this party we will play with words and the meaning of "melons." Pantalone will ask his servants to "bring the melons" and while Zanni will bring actual melons, Pantalone will reject them and demand that Colombina brings the melons.

After the scene where all characters realize that it will be the end of the world, IL Dotore will perform a "FBI - full body inspection" to Colombina, Zanni and IL Capitano which will be necessary for the to go to heaven. However, IL Dotore's main purpose will be to get to "inspect" Colombina. Nevertheless, Colombina tricks IL Dotore while his eyes are bended into touching La Ruffiana instead of her; which la Ruffiana really likes but then shouts at IL Dotore when IL Dotore makes a bad commentary about her body.

Reflection: Writing and discussing the cannovacci is one thing but actually starting to perform it gives you a better idea of what the cannovacci is about and helps you think better about it. Getting into your Commedia dell' Arte character is being an specific set of movements that are characteristic of your character.

Conclusion: There is still plenty of work we have to do in our cannovacci so that we can present it on stage. This will be our first performance as a theater year 1 group and we should make good first performance to all the school. I like Commedia dell' Arte because it is about making people laugh, I find it very curious to see how each character has its own way of being funny. It's fun to put this characters in different situations and letting them be funny by their own characteristics.

I think that commedia to some extent can explain why some stories are funny. Sometimes, I hear somebody telling a story about a person "x" they know and has a very specific characteristic say, this person never thinks twice what he says. Then when this somebody tells a story which demonstrates that "x" didn't think twice what he said and it was funny; the fact that the story reinforces the characteristic of "x" makes it even funnier. This is the case with commedia, characters do the same actions over and over again and that repetition and a very interesting humor factor that the audience can identify with.

Creating a Cannovacci, continued...

Description of Task: After discussing for some days what our Cannovacci is going to be about, we decided to write everything in paper.

In the first scene we will have Zanni picking up a newspaper that says in big letters that the world was going to end. We had some difficulties deciding on whether Zanni should read the newspaper or just lift it up so the audience could read it, but we decided that he would just let the audience read it because his character is not supposed to be "smart enough" to read out loud. He would only figure out that the news paper says the world is going to end by the pictures on the newspaper.

After that, Pantalone and Isabella will come in. Pantalone will be talking about money and call Isabella his daughter, to expose Pantalone's desire for money and the relationship between Pantalone and Isabella.

After coming in, Pantalone will turn on the radio and the announcer of the radio, who is going to be interpreted by Arshia, will say that the world is ending. This will serve as an additional cue to the audience of the theme of the play, the apocalypse.

After that scene, the second exposition scene will happen, where IL Dotore is at the market. IL Capitano will come in and ask IL Dotore for an "enlargement potion." This will show IL Dotore's character as the doctor he is and IL Capitano as the amazing lover he thinks he is. After IL Dotore and IL Capitano are talking about it, Zanni will come in and tell them about the about what he saw and heard in the news about the apocalypse. This will end up the exposition of the theme. Zanni will be the one who spreads the "news about the apocalypse."

After that, we are not sure about what scene to include after but we know the characters are going to fall asleep, and after they all fall asleep each of the characters will try to make his "ideal dream" come true before the world ends. For these, we have a scene where IL Capitano and Isabella will participate. Isabella will be looking for clothes to wear to see Flavio for the last moments when IL Capitano will come in and tell her how much he likes her and wants to be with her. While this scene is going on, La Ruffiana, Colombina and Zanni will be "looking through the keyhole" trying to figure out what is going on. IL Dotore and Pantalone will come in and talk about Pantalone giving his daughter to IL Dotore in exchange of access to heaven.

While IL Capitano will try to hide from Pantalone he will pretend to be a chair. Pantalone will try to sit in the chair but will notice a small "pin." Humor will rely on Pantalone saying how small the pin is. After that IL Capitano and Pantalone will have a fight where IL Capitano tries to be very courageous but ends up acting as a coward.

There will be a scene where all the characters notice it is the end of the world and they start laughing at something. Pantalone has a heart attack because he realizes his money is useless in heaven.

Reflection: It is difficult to put a Cannovacci together. Specially when there is several people, with several ideas, trying to put everything together. Putting all of our ideas together in a single Cannovacci can be a difficult job, as we have studied in TOK. It is important to include humor constantly in Commedia because, in the end, that is the focus of this type of Theater, to make the audience laugh. Commedia dell' Arte highly relies on improvisation. However from my experience with my group, it is difficult to agree in a sound story for a cannovaci. I noticed that on the previous exercises where we had a director, conflicts between the group where less common because the director is the one who makes all of the decisions. I don't know if it is common to do Commedia dell' Arte with a director, but I think it might be a lot of help when creating cannovacci.

Conclusion: The focus of Commedia dell' Arte should be humor and it is important to include physical humor in each scene. Theatre teaches you a lot of team work, it teaches you a lot on how to share ideas with each other and reach agreements between each other. It is something very useful in various aspects of life, this is something that I really wanted from this course and I am starting to realize how much I've learned about it!

Creating a cannovacci

Aim of Task: To create our first Commedia dell' Arte Cannovacci. To know how the Cannovacci's in Commedia dell' Arte work. To start performing in our characters.

Description of Task: The whole class was divided in three groups. Each group will develop a Cannovacci that we will later present on stage, in public. Our group is conformed by Zanni, IL Dotore, IL Capitano, Isabella, Colombina and Pantalone. My character is Pantalone. As a group, we started brainstorming on what could we do as the main theme of our Cannovacci. We started brainstorming about a lot of things: dreams, parties, end of the world... We were not sure on what theme to choose but after thinking about the movie "inception" we decided that it would be a good idea to combine the idea of the apocalypse, the end of the world in 2012 according to the Mayans and the concept of dreams. We started brainstorming on how to combine these two themes in a single Cannovacci. The Apocalypse theme is rather unreal, so we decided that it would be good to include it as part of a dream. We could make the whole apocalypse and the world ending thing as part of the dreams of the characters in the Cannovacci.

After we had a theme, we started thinking about the exposition, which should be the part of the Cannovacci that goes first and is responsible of exposing the characters, it's relationships with each other and the setting. For the exposition, La Ruffiana is going to come in, giving a brief introduction of the plot, setting and characters. After, we will have Zanni in Pantalone's house. Then, Pantalone and Isabella will come in, with Pantalone referring to Isabella as his daughter and referring to Zanni as his servant. Pantalone could be talking about something like his bussinesses making money since it is a very common topic for Pantalone.

Another scene we could include is a market scene, with IL Dotore. In the market scene, IL Dotore will be selling his merchandise to Zanni or one of Pantalone's servants. That would present IL Dotore as potion-selling doctor he is in many of the Cannovacci's. IL Capitano will be included in scenes with Isabella. Since there is no Flavio in our play, IL Capitano would play as the lover of Isabella.

Most of the comedy in the play will rely on Zanni's dumbness, silliness and inability to express himself in complete words. Zanni is a dumb servant, in our Cannovacci he will not speak at all. The only thing he does is run around and make yelling sounds like if he was trying to speak. Zanni is great to make people laugh with his very uncontrolled movements. The first scene will have Zanni and Pantalone in it, and Pantalone will push him

Reflection: While we were discussing all of these things in the group, it was very difficult to agree on something. All of us had several ideas but it was difficult to choose which ones to include and which ones we shouldn't include. As a non-native English speaker, I also found it sometimes difficult to express my ideas fully to all the group. It took us a long time to discuss and actually agree on our theme, I think it may be one of the most difficult parts of creating a cannovacci. After this, we will start building upon the ideas we already have to create the specifics of the Cannovacci.

Conclusion: Now that we have the topic of our Cannovacci, we need to start talking about the specific scenes and lines. We need to think about specific things that will make up the comedy in the Cannovacci.