PHYSICAL THEATRE
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE
and
VOICE EDUCATION
2nd INTERNATIONAL
WORKSHOP
IN RESIDENCE IN VALDOBBIADENE
(VENETO, ITALY)
4 - 30 AUGUST 2014
(140 hours)
Featured Coursework:
CONTEMPORARY COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE
TRAGIC COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE
SLAPSTICK COMEDY (Stage Combat and Clownerie)
TECHNIQUES OF IMPROVISATION
EXPRESSIVE BODY
DIRECTION
VOICE EDUCATION
TAUGHT in ENGLISH and ITALIAN
Under the Instruction of:
Fabrizio Paladin (ITA) – Theatre
Loris Sovernigo (ITA) – Voice Education
OVERVIEW OF THE WORKSHOP
The main goal of the workshop is to impart to the participants the fundamental building blocks for creating and performing the much adored, Italian art form of Commedia Dell'Arte. The recovery of the expressive body as a fundamental scenic instrument, the importance of the art of the actor in scene creation, the respect of the dramatic functions of each character, and the collaboration between the performers on stage, all leading the story through to an organic solution of the conflicts presented.
The workshop is a step by step course, guiding the participants through the techniques necessary to authentically understand and perform Commedia Dell'Arte. Participants first focus on Commedia's rich history and the specificity of each stock character, through the investigation of each one's shape and movement. Participants learn the techniques of performing the Masks (designed with great artistry by Antonio Fava, Carlo Setti and Fabrizio Paladin). Additionally, the participants will create simple scenes based on historical scenarios, adding props, music and fight choreography as the session progresses. The Workshop concludes with a public performance of the participants' original Canovaccio (the final scenario) illustrating their understanding of the form.
The course is open to participants from various backgrounds and origins, professional performers who are interested to enhance their specialization and the beginners who wish to explore the new artistic technique. The training includes technical and musical aspects, improvisation and composition of scenes. Based on the level of experience each student will receive individual focus and exercises, as well as enjoy the collaboration in the group creative process.
SPECIFIC INVESTIGATION INCLUDES
CONSCIOUS MOVEMENT:
mirror exercises, the elements of the movement, the “yellow ball”
CONTEMPORARY COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE:
dilatation of body tensions, charachters, techniques and props
TRAGEDY AND MELODRAMMA
SLAPSTICK COMEDY:
Stage combat, clownerie
TECHNIQUES OF IMPROVISATION:
necessities VS possibilities
DIRECTION:
The Canovaccio System and the Assembly of the Show
VOICE EDUCATION:
ear training, vocal range, Minor/Major concept, intervals and vocal arrangements
THE COMMUNITY:
The workshop follows a weekly schedule, Monday-Friday
Morning Session, 10.30am to 1.30pm
Lunch break, 1.30pm to 2.30pm
Afternoon Session, 2.30pm to 6.30pm
Evening Session (some evenings through the session)
These sessions include extra time in free rehearsal time, movie night (examining physical comedy on film) and music jam session.
On the Saturday of the course, participants will enjoy a day trip to historical cities (Venice will be the first) where they can take part in touring the city.
Sunday will be a free day to enjoy the surrounding area and some much-earned down time. The river Piave is very near: a pleasant place where you can swim, row, read and relax.
On the final Saturday, there will be a final performance open to the audience in the Theatre. The Participants, Faculty and Friends will enjoy a Celebration dinner following the performance.
The Participants and Faculty all live together, sharing the kitchen and dining facilities. Participants will have accommodations in the rooms with access to shared bathrooms with showers. All cooking tools will be provided, though the students will be expected to provide their own food and drink, available for purchase at a Market. Participants should bring sheets, towels and sleeping bag.
We encourage participants to turn off their mobile phones and enjoy a wonderful, inspirational and challenging workshop.
SOME MORE INFORMATION ABOUT COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE:
Commedia Dell’arte (also known as Improvvisa, Commedia Zannesca or Italiana) began in Italy during the first half of the sixteenth century, and went on to become the primary form of theatre performed by professional actors. Unlike modern theatre, where set lines and cues are set down in a script, most Commedia performances follow what is known as a canovaccio – a kind of outline, or collection of sketches that provides the fundamental framework for the action: the themes, the entrances and exits, etc. Commedia actors improvise, following the structure of the canovaccio and the fixed characteristics of their own characters.
The improvisation techniques of Commedia also differ from more modern styles of improvisation. Commedia improv is not based on quidquid in buccam venit (whatever comes to the mouth), but rather an almost extemporaneous assembly of a plurality of elements which make up the technical repertoire of the actor: the role, the character, the gestures, the monologues, the jests… Because of this, we can see that Commedia is a style of theatre that relies less on the craft of writers, and more on the skill, ability and professionalism of the actors.
In learning to perform Commedia, the actor, like a jazz musician, must know perfectly his own instrument (in this case, the body and the mask) and he must also know and respect the rules of the game he’s involved in. When the actor can ‘give’ himself generously to his art and to his audience, his own peculiar sensitivities will fill the sketch provided in the canovaccio with color and shade – a process I call “strategic acting”.
THE INSTRUCTORS
Fabrizio Paladin is an award winning actor, playwright, director and musician who comes from Treviso, just outside Venice, Italy.
With an expertise in Commedia dell’Arte and improvisation, he holds a graduate degree from University of Bologne in Literature and Philosophy. He has worked with Aldo Sassi, Claudio Morganti, Carlo Boso and Antonio Fava. With Fava began a long collaboration which brought Paladin to perform in Tokyo and Honolulu. Producing and performing his own work in Italy (“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, “Omaggio a Giorgio Gaber”, “Assenzio, vita, Morte...Equalche Miracolo”, “Impresa Bellissima... e Pericolosa,...”, “O Spettacolo morto de fome e sono, pleno d’amor”, “The exhausting affaires of Love”, “Hamlet Routine”) has lead to the production of Paladin’s work in Portugal, Slovenja, Austria, Germany, Ukraine, Latvia and United States.
He’s winner of “Premio Omaggio a Giorgio Gaber 2004” as best italian talent in music and theatre of the year.
His book about Commedia, mask, and improvisation, “Il Teatro e la Maschera”, has been published by FIRENZELIBRI in 2008.
Theatrical Teacher for what concerns the Commedia dell’Arte and the Comic Theatre, keeping lessons, seminars and Stages in Italy, in USA (University of the Arts of Philadelphia; Actors Movement Studio in New York; Bates College; Levitt Highschool; Bowdoin College), in Portugal (Teacher of the 1st Interantional Course of Comic Art in Loulè, guest speaker the Ecola Superior de Teatro e Cinema in Lisbon, Porto and Aveiro), in Latvia (International Universtity global Art Experience), Ukraine (Municipal Theatre in Kiev and Donestsk), Spain (Barcelona) and Germany (Berlin).
Some quotes about Fabrizio:
"Fabrizio is an energetic and charismatic performer. [His workshop is] an invaluable means of coveying the principles of this enduring art form"
Gene Terruso – Former Director School of Theatre Arts, University of the Arts. Philadelphia
“...Fabrizio is nothing less than a treasure of the Italian Theatre, and I highly recommend his talent, drive and spirit (…) His understanding of Commedia is exceeded only by his physical prowess, clever mask work, and improvisational mastery. He not only claims his birthright to perform Commedia Dell’Arte, he has made it his mission to spread its relevance, its artistry and its hilarity”.
Aaron Cromie - Mask/Movement Faculty Ira Brind School of Theatre Arts. The University of the Arts. Philadelphia.USA
“...Fabrizio Paladin's Commedia dell'Arte workshop and solo performance revealed himself to be a true master of the genre.(...) An extremely physical art with codified movements and gestures, Commedia dell'Arte provides the comedic foundation upon which most of our contemporary comedy has been constructed. Crude humor, physical violence, entangled love stories, witty repartees and exaggerated masks are all stock elements of the Commedia trade. Molière and Shakespeare pulled from the Commedia cannon at will. Paladin explained to me that like rappers, there are a lot of 'poseurs' in the theatre world claiming to know the art of Commedia dell'Arte. I myself had seen a handful of performances and even had been in two professional Commedia workshops and a college Commedia acting course, all of which had failed to meet my personal expectations about this illustrious art. Fabrizio set a new standard in my mind that all Commedia artists must now live up to”.
Michael Pape (Texas,USA)
Loris Sovernigo is a composer, musician and teaching artist based in Treviso, Italy. His extended resume includes experience and axpertise in teaching piano, voice and accompaniment throughout Treviso, Montebbeluna, Valdobbiadene e Padova. He has studied pedagogy under Maestro Peter Appenzeller and performed wirh Ars Canendi, Altivole (TV) specializing in Baroque Repertoire. Loris is currently enrolled at the X composition course for teachers maestro Mario Pagotto and Maestro Nicola Straffelini at the “A. Steffani” in Castelfranco. His compositions hev been performed in variuos forums, including the international project on Futurism “The incendiario eletric” in 2009 at the Academic Theatre of Castelfranco from which was made into a DVD, the concert series of new composers in 2011 with song “Universes”.
In 2012 in the “Day of Remembrance” at the Academy of Castelfranco and Teatro Malibran in Venice. In 2012, his work has been performed in Modena, Castelfranco Veneto, Belluno, Verona and Trento during the project “Anterem, sounds and poetry” with the conservatory of Trento. Although classicaly trained as a pianist, Loris also plays in the group “Cotrino.Ato.Amiolo” trio that offers original music and has partecipated in nuomerous competitions, including “ArezzoWave” and “Prize Fabrizio De André” in Rome. Collaborates with Fabrizio Paladin, founder of the group, and theater actor and director, in variuos shows: “Niente di Privato”, “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”, “Il Tragicomico Equivoco”. Additionally he teaches the voice laboratory in weekly workshops for Teatro Studio Maschera at the Center “Stazione d’Arte” at Santa Croce Lake (BL, Italy).
teatrostudiomaschera.wix.com/summerworkshop2014
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