IN PRIMA LINEA

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

The Waterlines Project is an initiative that offers Italian and foreign personalities an experience of literary and artistic residence in Venice. The project, promoted by Ca’ Foscari International College and Fondazione di Venezia, brings together writing and other artistic disciplines, in an attempt to restate Venice’s role as a place of cultural creation. 

For the current academic year, the Waterlines Project hosted Filipe Crawford, a Portuguese actor and theatre director who specializes in the Mask Technique. Crawford was formerly the director of the theatre Casa da Comédia and of the Festival Internacional de Máscaras e Comediantes in Lisbon; he also created original theatrical works in the style of Commedia dell’Arte. His most recent creation, A última noite do Capitão, is a tragicomedy by Felipe Cabezas based on the life of Francesco Andreini, the creator of the Commedia dell’Arte character Capitan Spavento.

This year’s Waterlines collaboration involved an International College Laboratory, scheduled into two seminars and a final event. While the first class focused on the origins and history of the Mask Improvisation Technique, including a practical part with the use of the “Neutral Mask”, the theme of the second lesson was Commedia dell’Arte. This section also involved a theoretical and historical part, with a presentation of the main characters of Commedia dell’Arte, as well as some practical exercises to illustrate the trainingof an actor in a Commedia dell’Arte play. The final event, which took place in the M9 Museum in Mestre, was a theatrical lecture in which Filipe Crawford held a presentation and performed some monologues on the theme of the mask, with both the involvement of some Ca’ Foscari students and of the professional actor Pierdomenico Simone. Simone graduated in 2010 from the school of Teatro Stabile del Veneto; he later undertook a detailed study on Commedia dell’Arte, taking part in the European Union of Schools and Academies at Teatro della Pergola in Florence under the direction of Maurizio Scaparro.

Due to its lab-like organisation, the Waterlines Project required the International College students to write a final assignment, which consisted of some reflections onthe seminars’ topics, as well as a proposal for a Commedia dell’Arte argomento (i.e. a plot for a possible Commedia dell’Arte play). Here we gathered some of their contributions regarding the various aspects of the course. 

Starting from the very definition of “Mask technique”, the students explored its most interesting characteristics, especially in relation to their personal experiences: 

Mask technique […] is based on the ability of the actors to follow the rules of the play and to identify oneself with the mask they have chosen. These abilities are rather significant to have, not only for theatrical plays but also for everyday life.

I found myself learning, internalising, and automating this new acting technique. Exercise after exercise, I got more and more used to following the system’s rules; […] I got used to thinking differently, which, acting-wise, is probably the most important tool, as it helps get into the mindsets of characters with very different personality traits.

The students’ focus then shifted to Commedia dell’Arte and its characters:

I was mostly interested in the different characters’ stereotypes and in the ways they have to act on stage […].

In Commedia dell’Arte specifically, all the masks have attached a precise character that dictates how the actor should move, speak, and interact with the other masks.

Each character is an archetype that comes with precise postures and characterisations, and a route to follow. While on stage, the actor […] keeps the route in mind and within these boundaries he acts, he creates, he improvises.

[I]t almost felt like the mask was wearing the actor and not the other way around. It looked as if the actors actually became the characters after putting the mask on, and it was amazing to witness.

Lastly, they shared their final considerations about the course and its themes, summarizing what they understood from it:

I have always thought that improvisation on stage was a matter of spontaneity and rapidity […]. Instead, through the Waterlines seminars […] I reflected on the fact that improvisation is, first of all, about technique. […] I discovered that spontaneity and creativity are rooted in a precise system of rules and that, within those theatrical rules, fixed and shared between the actors, new scenes, dialogues and solutions are created.

I find it particularly interesting that the actor, before starting his action, prepares himself by trying to remove all the elements that would make him recognizable as a specific individual […]. The aim, as I understood it, is to hide the personal identity to let the mask speak for itself. […] It is like the artist “is lived” by the mask, which stands for the spokesperson of the tradition. […] [H]e is the one who stands halfway between being someone and being none, being both at the same time.

As for the proposals of some Commedia dell’Arte argomenti, here are a few examples of what the College students wrote.

Commedia dell’Arte: canovaccio for a new play

A rich foreign merchant comes to Venice on business and he brings his daughter with him. Pantalone falls in love with the lady and tries to court her, but they do not speak the same language. The servant Zanni offers himself as an interpreter and fools his master into thinking that he is able to speak the language. In fact, while the master believes that he is translating his sweet words and advances, Zanni uses the opportunity to his advantage and seduces the young woman.

Women of Venice

Two young and beautiful ladies named Lèna and Norìna meet in secret each night in a private garden to gossip and discuss their love life. Lèna is distraught as rumour has it that the old merchant Bastiàn Pantalòn is seeking her hand in marriage. They look for the help of Norìna’s father, the self proclaimed “esteemed” Dottòr Bórtoeo, who sends his servant Arlecchino to deliver a letter to Pantalòn, “subtly” suggesting better marriage prospects. Betìna, Pantalòn’s head servant, receives the letter from Arlecchino who, struck by her beauty, immediately starts to proclaim his love for her. The old merchant hears him and angrily chases him away, as he is actually in love with Betìna. Therefore he decides to have Arlecchino punished by his own master, by proposing to Norìna instead. Her father is outraged and seeks to punish Arlecchino, as Pantalòn’s servant Brighella, following his master’s orders and wanting to stir trouble, confesses to him the reason behind the old merchant’s decision. At a masquerade ball hosted by a friend of theirs, Lèna and Norìna meet two fine young gentlemen, Jàcheto and Mènego, with whom they fall in love. Betìna, feeling sorry for Norìna’s situation, decides to talk to the two young ladies and, to help them, she pays Brighella to go find the gentlemen from the ball.

In addition to the Waterlines lab, some College students also had the opportunity to watch Pierdomenico Simone perform in the play Arlecchino Muto per Spavento at Teatro Goldoni in Venice. The show is a comedy inspired by the eighteenth-century work Arlequin muet par crainte by Luigi Riccoboni: the performance, supertitled in English and French, was an excellent opportunity to further explore the study on Commedia dell’Arte.

Here’s what a College student, Michela, thought about it:

I particularly enjoyed the atmosphere of the theatre. The lights, the music, the public: everything seemed to be a part of the amazing performance by Stivalaccio Teatro company. The actors could turn every aspect of the show into a real-life situation and vice-versa. The way they engaged with one another and the spectators in their seats, following a continuous yet ordered and logical rhythm, made me feel like I was an integral part of the story. The use of various dialects from different regions of Italy, as well as French, created an unexpected but lively environment in which multilingualism was not an obstacle but a way to have a better understanding of what was going on. This on-site experience of Commedia dell’arte was truly special and something I will remember forever. Especially after participating in the Waterlines workshop and having the chance to grasp something more about this magical and creative world, I can say the Arlecchino Muto per Spavento performance was exceptional from every point of view, and if you have never seen anything similar, you are definitely missing out!