SABBATICAL ADVENTURES

  Commedia dell'arte Maschere (Internet) When I first started my career in theatre, and I mean, going to school for it, I had no idea what "commedia dell'arte" was. When I first encountered it, I didn't quite grasp its true meaning and didn't think much of it when it came to acting on stage. In graduate school I withdrew from acting and concentrated in directing and playwriting, and it was during this time that I started to note how the body could express emotions without the necessity to become all "emotional about it." As I continue writing and directing plays, I became more attune with how people's bodies morphed as they expressed their feelings. Perhaps this concept wasn't new to anyone but it become an epiphany to me. Soon, I started to explore the physicality of the body in relation to emotional expression. How does the body react when one is happy or sad? How about when one is scared, in pain, or in love? During my graduate studies I w...

  Dell'arte Logo Besides going to Italia to investigate Commedia dell'arte matters, I also have to do two more things during my sabbatical. Both are in relation to Commedia, of course. I must create a Commedia dell'arte class to become part of our Drama Curriculum. I also need to  interview one or two Commedia experts within the country, more specifically, within California.  The creation of the class will not take placed until I'm done with all my Commedia related work. This means that I will create the class sometimes during the months of May and September. The class must be created by the time I submit all my sabbatical reports. Since my sabbatical was approved prior to the pandemic, back then I was already investigating what institutions I should look into. It didn't take me time to discover Dell'arte International, a School of Physical Theatre located in Blue Lake, California, 300 miles north from where I live. From the internet I soon contacted the school...

The Closet I don't know if you ever saw the TV show "What Not To Wear." It was a reality series where to fashionistas ambush a person nominated by a family member. This person had its own unique fashion but in the eyes of American consumerism they had no fashion sense at all. It was the job of the fashionistas to bring them up to date with what I like to call, pretension capitalist American living.  The American show was based on the UK show and it lasted for 10 years. Needless to say, and as expected, the series was a hit. As the day to my infamous trip gets closer and as I plan the many different stops I will be making throughout Italy, I have a dilemma. My trip will start in the middle of winter and end in the middle of spring. This means I'm having issues packing what to wear. If I were to stay in one single location, I wouldn't have any issues packing lots of luggage. But since my trip will start in northern Italy, quickly move to southern Italy and then slow...

KY 2009 You would think that for someone who doesn't like the cold, going to Venice at the top of February should be a big 'no-no.' The reality is that when I started thinking of Venice as part of my sabbatical, I was not thinking about weather conditions.   When I started thinking about the type of sabbatical I wanted to do, the last thing I thought about was the weather. When I decided that it was a good idea to visit Italy in relation to Commedia dell'arte, I didn't think about the weather. And when my sabbatical was approved for this infamous sabbatical trip, I didn't think about the weather either.  Now that I have to figure the details of the trip, the weather is the first thing that comes to mind.  Let's start with the obvious: I HATE COLD WEATHER!!! I lived in Louisville, KY for six years and I have to say that my experiences there, when it came to cold weather, are not fund memories.  During my first winter I experienced an ice storm, a phenomenon ...

Seventeen dollars and fifty cents well spent! My sabbatical trip to Italy comes with many different stops and visits to different cities and towns. To help me organize my thoughts and visualize the trip, I bought a planner. The last time I used one of these was in the year 2002, exactly 20 years ago. Wow!  Photo by  Andrew Pons  on  Unsplash I have finally bought my airplane ticket. I will be flying from San Francisco, California to Venice, with one stop in Frankfurt, Germany. It's going to be a very long flight.  Airbnb Logo I have also reserved my quarters for my first stop. I will be staying in a "cute and modern" apartment in Venice, apparently a 10-minute walk from Piazza San Marco. The reviews (as early as September of this year) give the place excellent marks.  In the 3D Google map, the location looks like an abandoned building.    Why start in Venice ? Because of their carnival. And the carnival, even though its o...