Commedia (questions 1,2,3)

What are your initial responses to the Commedia stock characters? Consider and reference your improvisations, character shapes, history of commedia research and which characters appeal to you and why?

My first impression of the stock characters, was that I realised they were all very different in the way they stand, talk, walk, costume, personality and characteristics. This also showed me how using a contrast of characters makes for a comical set up.

I learnt some of the brief background of commedia. Commedia started in the market places of Venice and developed in a full art form. Originally from St. Mark’s Square located in Venice. It started by people who were trying to sell fake or faulty goods. Original players were called ‘Mountbacks’. They would do this more successfully by putting on a lavish performance to please and wow crowds making the false item or goods more intriguing and desirable. Commedia dell’ arte is a form of improvised comedy which was popular in Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries. Mime was a big part of the plays, but they also used words.

I definitely took a liking to Colombina and Pantalone at first, as I found the way they were described easy to relate to adapted versions of these stock characters. For example I instantly associated Pantalone with Scrooge from A Christmas Carol, and Fagan from Oliver Twist. You could also argue that Fagin could be a Captain as he often has hints of cowardliness. I actually find that Charles Dickens has quite nice obvious examples of adapted stock characters in his work. I find Nancy very much how I would imagine a Franceschina character and Bill Sykes as a Mr. Punch. 

I tried playing a Columbina with Bradley as a Pierott I really enjoyed playing this, as I felt like I was confident with this stock character and went quite over the top and exaggerated my moves, which made the scene more entertaining, however, I feel like Columbina is similar to characters I’ve already played in the past, she’s quite reserved and smart, and to me is like the typical girl character besides the female lover.

What creative ideas have you and the group had for the setting and scenarios in your own play? How were some of these ideas explored in improvisations- provide the strengths and weaknesses of the outcomes.

We explored a lot of creative ideas, including these ideas of settings

• ·         Buckingham Palace
• ·         Bank
• ·         Prison
• ·         BBC Studios
• ·         Beauty Salon
• ·         Dating Agency

We had many more different ideas, but the ones listed above, where the ones we short listed and liked the idea of trying out the most. We also had ideas of doing a high school, as this would should status quite well, with the idea of Mr. Punch being a bully, or a female lover being miss popular. We decided against trying this idea out as the set we have is limited and if we did this idea it could be a little bland and not go very far. There is also the issue of this being overdone, and I think we all like the challenge of doing something unique and new.

We explored the idea of the prison, and had an idea of an escape, I tried the character harlequin or (Arrlechina) it was a good laugh but I don’t think the character was right for me. I felt a little silly, like it was out of my comfort zone, though I wish I kind of stepped up and tried it again in a different scenario but I don’t think there were many scenarios that I liked with this stock character in.

 Although Karen suggested I would naturally look right as a female lover, and though I had no rejection of trying this character, I felt as though, that may have been a little bit boring for my personal self, and thought I’d need something a little more out there, so I could get my teeth into the role and really challenge myself.

I had a go at trying Pierott and found that sweet and fun to play, but again I wanted to try something a little more adventurous. I found when I tried Franceschina, I came instantly attached to the character because it’s not something I would usually look at, and once I actually tried it I was surprised by myself. 

I think the character challenges me because I don’t see myself like Franceschina in many ways, and so when I tried the character I tried to pick out the traits that I did have in common with her to try and pull it off, for example she is not as harsh as Columbina and so I tried to show her soft side whilst contrasting this with her slutty flaunty side. I found doing the poses, was quite funny, and I had a good time being something that I wouldn't say I usually am. 

How were the chosen scenario, plot and stock characters finalised and developed? record problems and breakthroughs and improvisations.

A problem we had to start with was that we all felt positive towards the Buckingham Palace setting and plot, but we originally were told it could be difficult to do a commedia play with all 16 of us as we would work better in groups of 6-10. The original plan was to have 2 groups of 8. So we discussed in our groups who would be willing to try Buckingham palace and who wouldn’t mind exploring a new setting and idea. I was set on wanting to be in Buckingham Palace, as I thought it was such a brilliant idea, and already had scenarios in my head of what could work well together.

Whilst the Buckingham palace worked and jotted down in a speed dating exercise of how each character could go together and work in a scene, and what could happen, the others worked on the beauty salon and dating agency which I actually saw potential in when I watched them because I was laughing throughout. An original speed date summary with Yasmin, we had the idea that we could not like each other, and since this was before all the characters were finalised we decided that I could be hiding something about Charles and that  I could always be making excuses of where he is.

It took us a few days before we were sure of what characters we wanted to be, stock and actual personality. I think in the end it all seemed to fall in place, and we didn't reject to what we tried, since it all seemed to fit together so nicely with what we had already been trying out. I decided on the stock character of Franceschina and the royal family member Camilla. We all liked the comical nicknames 'Camilla Toe' for her and her objective in the scene is to kill the Queen. My special traits include, walking as if being pushed from behind with my breasts sticked out, and swaying the hips. I also have a scene with Abbi (playing a female lover) (Kate Middleton) who does everything I say and looks up to me, so a key trait from that scene is 'Tits, Hips and Teeth'. 

Today, I took a board pen a drew out a chart of all the scenes, we had already came up with, and noted ideas that other people wanted to try. We also tallied up how many times someone was in a scene, so we could try and even it out as much as possible since especially for an improvised piece it's important everyone has the same opportunity to show their acting abilities. This helped us progress as by using something we could all input to and go by helped us to see what we could try or work on. I think the structure is already in place, it's just a matter of trying and writing new scenes, which we can experiment with.