SABBATICAL ADVENTURES

The poster And so it came to past, after a pandemic, several setbacks, challenges, injuries, and personal matters that Moderna Suspiros finally made it to the stage.   "Lo tuyo es puro teatro" The show only had two showings but there were beautiful, fun, exciting, and filled with an audience that laughed, cried, and ate bonbons.  "If you don't know, Google it!" Why two showings? Because it was part of my sabbatical proposal so it needed to be done to fulfill such promise.  "I'm your hostess" Those who saw the show love it, those who didn't see it, wished they could have (or so I've been told.) "Y la noche era de lentejuelas" And I couldn't done it without the help of the Drama Department, and those working behind the scenes!  Thank you! The playwright/actor, The Director, The Crew! And there are plans to have Moderna Suspiros travel and share her wisdom. Those plans are in the making. More posts about it will be coming. All ma...

  That's right! After a six-month absence, the director and I are reuniting to make sure the production of INTRODUCING MODERNA SUSPIROS: A Fable Based on True Event... We Think takes place. Yes, it has been a long way coming and lots of things have happened. The director, for example, who was scheduled to arrive two days before our week of rehearsals will now be arriving two days later-something to do with a faculty strike in his institution.   And then we have the issue with my ankle. The ankle, which still  hurts, but it is doing much, much better, may or may not be ready for high heels. The doctor put me on a boot for almost a month. Then I got cortisone injections, two of them, because my tendon and my nerve were damage, or are damage. I don't know any more.  Have the shots worked? To a certain extend, yes. I'm able to move a little faster; I'm able to walk a little longer; I'm able to see that my foot is no longer swollen. Those are the good things. The ba...

  Wear heels they said! You will look good in heels they said! It's easy they said! And yes, it is fun to wear heels, but if you are a person who isn't used to wearing heels and suddenly you have to wear heels, there has to be practice because "practice makes perfect..." and also brings injuries.  Going into details is not necessary but things have happened and well, see for yourself: I have a colleague that usually wears high heels, very high heels, and she doesn't walk on those high heels, she glides on them. How does she do it? I have no idea, but it is clear that it won't be me any time soon.  Let's hope for a quick recovery because we have a show in one month!

Measurements We had a costume fitting just a couple of weeks ago. The the fitting also included shoes, of course. It has taken me a while to post about this matter because the fitting, although exciting, was also a little bit of a disappointment. Don't take me wrong! The costume fitting fulfilled its purpose but the results were less than desirable.  I was excited about trying the different costumes and also nervous because what had been imagine the director's head and my head could and would look very different in reality.  After some laughs about undergarments and how to wear them I finally was able to get on my first costume. It look good, and I felt good about it too.  Colorful right? Well, this costume was costumed made for me and I got it while I was traveling in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. Colorful, a little heavy, and expensive. But it simply worked like a charm! One down, two to go! The next costume is what we area calling the "main costume." The character ...

Normally, rehearsals for a play take between four to six weeks, sometimes longer depending on the complexity of the production and the company's budget. A one-person show usually rehearses for a minimum of four weeks. However, due to the busy schedules of both the director and myself, the one-person show will only have two weeks of rehearsals. To complicate matters, the two rehearsal weeks will not happen consecutively. The first week of rehearsals already took place, while the second week will be six months later (in December.) The show will be presenting to an audience on December 8 & 9, 2023. One of my personal goals before starting the first week of rehearsals was to memorize the script, which is a challenge because my ability to memorize lines is not as sharp as it used to be. It's called "getting older." Surprisingly enough, by the end of the week, we did two full "run-thrus" of the show without a script on my hand.  This doesn't mean I did not...

Before spending my sabbatical days in Italy learning about Commedia dell'arte, I was already working on a one-person show, also as part of my sabbatical. I spent six months writing a script and having dramaturgical meetings with a theatre director.  I wrote about   the development process  of the play and also about  the staged reading  in two different posts that were done before going to Italy. The stage reading of the play happened in December 2022 when I flew to Ohio to meet the director at his homeschool. After that reading, the project was put on the "back burner" because my time needed to be dedicated to preparing the sabbatical trip and the trip itself.  Now that the sabbatical trip has ended and I'm back home, the focus is on "wrapping up" the sabbatical, which includes working on the one-person show once again.  For five days, from 10 AM to 6 PM (with an hour break in between), the director and I will come together in order to "put the p...

One of the main objectives of my sabbatical research is the creation of a new theatre course on Commedia dell'arte. Using the many resources I was able to find, the information I was able to collect, and the different theatre productions I was able to read, as well as other available academic sources regarding the subject matter, a class on commedia has been developed and submitted to the proper channels for evaluation and approval.  Once the class is approved, the class will be offered to the students, mainly to Drama majors and those interested in the theatre arts.  This class will have two main objectives: One of the goals will be to offer a history account of the development of Commedia dell'arte, from its origins to the present, while analyzing its influence on modern comedy. The other goal will give students the opportunity to explore physical movement and mask work in order to familiarize themselves with commedia dell'arte characters and physical comedy in general....

The following transcript is based on conversations with a closed friend who is an alumni from Dell'Arte International. Our conversations centered around her training and the benefits of it. The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.   --What made you decide to enroll in Dell'Arte International? I was applying to MFA programs and my college theatre director shared information about Dell'Arte with me. She suggested I audition as she believed it would be a good fit for me. One of the co-founders (of the academy) happened to be working as a resident artist near me an auditioned me herself. The process was welcoming and supporting from the beginning. I visited Blue Lake to tour the school and to meet some people there. I felt in love with the area and the program. I deferred traditional graduate school in order to to attend Dell'Arte. --What program were you in?  When I joined the school, they were in the process of obtaining accreditation for the MFA program....

The following conversation with Tony Fuemmeler (interim head of training programs) took place over zoom. The content has been edited for clarity and space. --What can you tell me about Physical Theatre training for the actor? In general, physical theatre offers a lot through the play of mask, a sense of specificity and clarity for the actor. Whether or not they (actors) play directly in the mask, or whether they ever find a mask again, physical theatre offers a window into physical storytelling, and also just an interest of the human condition and the human comedy. How we might understands some modes of the play for the actor as driven by the body and driven by a very visceral idea rather than by emotions or by a psychological idea. In commedia, it isn’t the psychology that drives the play, it is actually elemental forces, the drives and contradictions of human nature, which play at full force and rhythm, then collide and give us an opportunity to laugh at ourselves. --Let’s talk about...

From the museum The last commedia dell'arte character on my list is commonly known as IL DOTTORE, "The Doctor." His real name is "Il Dottore Balanzone" and he's from Bologna. He's part of the older generation of characters, "I Vecchi," (The Old Ones) and he's best friends with Pantalone, another "vecchio." Il Dottore  Balanzone is not a "medicine" man but rather a "Doctor of Letters," a man who has been educated in the first university in Italy and the oldest university in Europe: The University of Bologna. Il Dottore is "physically heavy" because of his knowledge, hence his name Balanzone, which derives from "balanza/bilancia," meaning both "balance" and "scale."  Although Il Dottore has many names, he has been worldly recognized as "Il Dottore Lombardy" thanks to Carlo Goldoni's famous play, "The Servant of Two Masters." However, in Bolonga he...

I'm starting this post with a disclaimer. There is place in the Bergamo region that claims to be "Arlecchino's House" and also "Arlecchino's Museum." This place is known as "Casa Museo di Arlecchino."   The "house/museum" is located in the village of Oneta (San Giovanni Bianco), in the province of Bergamo. Oneta is located 35 miles north of Bergamo and one can either reach the village in a private car or by bus. By bus it takes 1 hr 40 minutes one way, so the total traveling time is 3 hrs 20 minutes. Because the house/museum is so far away, it is only open for a few hours on specific days and by appointment only.  The house/museum is located inside the Palazzo Grataroli. The palace, who is known by the locals as "Casa di Arlecchio" is linked to the Renaissance actor Alberto Naselli, who represented the Zanni and Arlecchino's characters in the main European courts, and whom, according to tradition, stay at the Palazzo. Ho...

While Napoli embraces Pulcinella as part of its arts and culture, the entire region of Campagna also embraces the character as part of its popular pop culture. Bergamo, on the other hand, and the entire region have not made Arlecchino or Brighella part of their popular pop culture. And if you recall an earlier post, the majority of people do not considered Brighella a commedia dell'arte characters from Bergamo, at least not in the way they considered Arlecchino.  As I roamed the streets of both Cittá Bassa and Cittá Alta, I saw a few signs of Arlecchino's presence. And the few things that are there, are significant because, to me at least, they emphasize the importance of Arlecchino as a symbol of art, culture, and pride for the Bergamo region.  There is, for example, the "Dispensa di Arlecchino" restaurant. A famous eatery and a very difficult place to get in without a reservation. This restaurant is in Cittá Alta. The title translates to "Arlecchino's Food ...

By the time I arrived in Bergamo I knew two things: 1) Arlecchino and Brighella are the two commedia dell'arte characters with roots in the city, and 2) somewhere in the city of Bergamo a statue to Arlecchino exist.  What I didn't know was that my arrival to Bergamo coincided with the 2023 Bergamo Brescia Italian Capital of the World Culture Festival. As soon as I knew of it, I quickly set out to figure out what theatre events, especially in relation to commedia dell'arte were happening. My search brought me to "The Puppet Theatre Museum," better known as "Il Museo del Burattino."  Here, I had the opportunity to learn the history of, and admire the many different types of hand puppets that had been created in the Bergamo region, along with learning about the invited Italian guests' collections representing China and Japan. The museum exists mainly thanks to La Fondazione Benedetto Ravasio and the collaboration of five other families from the Bergamo ...

While the City of Bergamo doesn't show the same "enthusiasm" for Arlecchino as Napoli shows for Pulcinella, Bergamo still recognizes Arlecchino as part of their culture and their art. Within half a block from Bergamo Centrale train station, a statute of Arlecchino welcomes everyone arriving to the city. If you are leaving Bergamo, Arlecchino still is there to wish you safe travels.  The statue was created by artist Mario Gotti and commissioned by "Il Ducato di Piazza Pontida," an arts and cultural private organization in the city of Bergamo. In 2002, "Il Ducato" decided to donate the statue to the city of Bergamo with the goal of placing it in an open space for everyone to admire. As a result, the statue was placed in the garden of one of the main government buildings known as "Provincia di Bergamo," a garden that serves as an open-air gallery. The only issue is that people only visit such a place if they have official business to conduct in ...

One of the most entertaining commedia dell'arte characters who is also less known to most people is Il Capitano (The Captain.) Like Pulcinella, Il Capitano was born in Naples, although Napoletani don't pay homage to him the way they do to Pulcinella. There are several reasons for this.  First, Il Capitano Matamoros was created by Silvio Fiorillo, based on the main character created by Plautus in his play "Miles Glorious."  Il Capitano Matamoros is a caricature of Spanish soldiers, hence his name "Mata-Moros" (Kill Moors) in reference to Spaniards fighting the Muslins during the "Reconquista" (8 c. -1492). Il Capitano is a braggart soldier, just like Miles Glorious, but unlike him, Il Capitano is also a cowardly soldier who spoke with an undefined language, which was a mix of Spanish, Latin, and Neapolitan lingo.  Second, as an actor, Fiorillo left the military and joined different acting troops, traveling to the northern part of Italy such as Flore...

Pulcinella has always been associated with Naples. And as I mentioned in my previous post, this commedia dell'arte character is a symbol of the city and it's embedded in the cultural fabric of the Napoletani. It is logical then, that I've always believed Pulcinella was born in Naples. However, I've come to find out that Pulcinella's birth isn't as clear-cut as I thought. About 15 miles northeast from Naples, there is a small town named Acerra. It is a town with about 60,000 residents and two "castles" to its name: Il Castello dei Conti di Acerra and Il Castello Baronale di Acerra, now both museums. It is in the latter that "Il Museo di Pulcinella, del Folklore e della Civiltà Contadina" is found, and i t is here where I learned several things about the Pulcinella.  Pulcinella was born in Acerra in a small house closed to the walls of the town in the district of La Maddalena. The house overlooked the town's square and it was decorated and ...