Movement-Based Commedia dell’Arte Course

Course Description
The workshops are structured in two distinct phases, Commedia Technical Training “Tecnica” and Performance “Lo Spettacolo” that can be taken separately. If students wish to participate in the second workshop, the two-phase workshop format allows for a gradual formation of the student from practical training (body movement, voice techniques, analysis, etc.) to an actual theater production that also includes analysis of various classic Italian theater methodologies, with particular emphasis on Commedia dell’Arte.

Phase I: Commedia Technical Training “Tecnica”
We will begin with formative training that contains various techniques and approaches toward expressive exercises. Students are taught in a manner that prepares them to know their body so as to utilize it onstage in the traditional style of Commedia dell’Arte, creating what Moriaki Wantabe calls “corpus fictif,” the awareness of total interaction between the physical body of the actor and the stage and text which they are inhabiting.

Tools & Techniques

  • Relaxing breathing
  • Dramatization exercises
  • The mime
  • The voice
  • Verbal and nonverbal language
  • Exploration of movement
  • Improvisation
  • Cinesica (the study of communication based on postures)
  • Coreutica (functioning within space)
  • Theater theory gestures
  • Optional Italian mask-making session

Duration: Group meets weekly for 1.5 hours, 8 lessons total
Course Size: 5-20 people
Cost: $175.00
Dates: September – November, 2010
Locations: Seattle and Kitsap County

Please email Brittney Williams at brittney@digitalispurpurea.org or call (206) 453-0036 to sign up or learn more.

We believe that everyone who expresses a desire to learn can be provided the opportunity to do so. If you need low-income assistance please inquire about a low-income discount.

Phase II: Performance “Lo Spettacolo”
A second workshop will be offered in 2011 to students who have already completed a Propadeutic Training workshop. In the second phase, we will begin the preparation of a theater show itself, bringing to blossom the techniques previously studied in the first workshop.

Instructors
The course is led by Italian director and actor Germano Rubbi using original Italian language terminology and phrases, with full translations and co-facilitation provided by artist and translator Brittney Williams. To learn more about us, click HERE.

To sign up for a workshop or learn more about arranging a Commedia dell’Arte or Greek Theatre workshop in your area, please contact: brittney@digitalispurpurea.org or (206) 453-0036.