The Lovers:
-Eyes still follow the nose, even with no mask on. Head is still independents and moves a lot.
-Lead with the sternum. The sternum is the heart. Collapse chest to pull heart away/hide it from breaking.
-Arms out as if you were the statue on the bow of a ship.
-Walk with toes. Ballet feet. Keep your walking feel always about hip space apart.
-Lovers can think about suicide, but they would always find reasons that are too dirty to do it.
-First act: least comic, mistakes are made, symmetry
-Second act: more comic, explosion of mistake, no symmetry
-Third act: very short, few words, crescendo, most comedy, symmetry
-Very hard not to parody the lovers. Let them have their own lives. Do not make them into something else. They are funny because they are naive, not because you make humor with them.
-All commedia characters are good characters. AKA All players play commedia characters well.
- Disguised characters still act as themselves: therefore all characters do not play all characters well. example: Capitano is a horrible Isabella. And vice versa. They can not act the part, only wear the disguise.
- Must always retain contact with the audience. Whenever there is a big change in a character, there should always be a small aside with the audience. The audience is seen as the only true friend of the character and so they are always to be kept in the loop when something changes: someone falls in love, had an idea, finds something, etc. Any change of movement (looking at the word 'movement' as in the art form of music) should be shared with the audience.
-There are no extremes in Commedia. This means no Kings/Monarchs/criminals/villains. No good or evil. And never any religion.
-Scenes must be symmetrical in the beginning as in the end. If two people walk on stage, two people walk off stage. But the stage must never be empty, even for a second. As two are walking off, two are walking on.
-Typically a scene end is an end for EVERYONE on stage. Do not stay as an aside while others leave as it only add dramaturgic that the scene doesn't need and may confuse the audience.
-Zanni know everything about beds. Everything. They know rich beds, poor beds, middle beds, etc. They sleep standing up (lift foot to cross over knee, balance on one leg, put head on fist and slightly cross arms) so they can jump when their master calls. But if there is more than one zanni, they usually all sleep in a cluster.
-We learned the Zanni tired walk: lead with head instead of feet. And the Zanni proud walk: thumbs in belt while leading more with knees and moving elbows slightly like a chicken.
- Servetta is not a Zanni. Zanni are like... rent a servant. Servetta are a little more clever, more beautiful, unmasked, and are a live-in servant.
Today we did three short little scenes:
The first- Two lovers are to meet at the same time and place as another two. Unfortunately the male and female lover, one from each set, meet in the dark and think it is their lover. They are then found by their actual lover and chaos happens (jealousy, anger, upset, etc).
The second- The zanni sleeping machine! Zanni got into a position to sleep, slept together like a machine, and then woke, went back to sleep, etc three revolutions.
The third- Two lovers meet in the dark but there is a problem. They wake a sleeping Zanni who then tries to help them with their problem.
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