Spitballing, slapstick, lazzi and improvisation: The benefits of practising Commedia dell’Arte in secondary schools
VIEW FULL TEXT HERE

Keywords

Commedia dell’Arte
Shakespeare
pedagogy
drama in secondary schools
Australia

How to Cite

Di Niro, C., & Muslera, P. (2015). Spitballing, slapstick, lazzi and improvisation: The benefits of practising Commedia dell’Arte in secondary schools. The European Journal of Humour Research, 3(4), 75-91. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR2015.3.4.diniro

Abstract

Commedia dell’Arte is the 16th century genre of theatre from Italy where characters such as Pantalone, Dottore, Il Capitano and Arlecchino reappear in performances showcasing human frailties in comic ways. The term Commedia was initially used to describe “theatre” and Arte to describe one’s trade or business. Now, commonly referred to as “the art of comedy”, Commedia dell’Arte is often taught within the middle years of Australian secondary schools, where it is explored not just for the understanding of the genre itself, but more importantly to impart a number of theatre and life skills. Sometimes aided by an artist in residence or through viewing live Commedia dell’Arte performances, the slapstick manner and ensemble characteristics of Commedia dell’Arte players can serve as pedagogical tools to enrich the academic and personal lives of 21st century students. This article refers to a devised theatre play, The Marriage of Flavio and Isabella, which was developed as a contemporary Commedia dell’Arte performance and aims to show how the intrinsic characteristics of the genre can be translated to suit a contemporary Australian context. In doing so, the performance targets student-learning outcomes within Australian secondary schools. To devise the performance, I drew on my training and ten years of experience as a Commedia dell’Arte practitioner, the ideas and work of Antonio Fava, a leading expert in the genre, data collected from interviews with five professional Commedia dell’Arte practitioners, and interviews and participant observations with ten secondary school drama teachers. The purpose of drawing on a variety of sources was to explore the place and potential for Commedia dell’Arte in curriculum practice and to determine how Commedia dell’Arte could be better understood in a context where the genre is not part of the day-to-day culture. This article includes a discussion on Commedia dell’Arte’s influence in different genres and encourages a dialogue on how might the mode of performance embodied in traditional Commedia dell’Arte be translated to respond effectively to contemporary contexts, both educational and public.

 

VIEW FULL TEXT HERE

References

Aristophanes. (1938 [424 BC]). ‘Knights’, in O’Neill, E. (ed.), The Complete Greek Drama. Vol. 2. New York: Random House, pp. 515–520. Available online: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0034%3Acard%3D507 [Accessed on 4 September 2015].

Aristotle (1996). Poetics (trans. M. Heath). London: Penguin.

Aurther, Owain. (2013). Verbatim from ‘Artist Talk’. One Man, Two Guvnors, National Theatre of Great Britain Australian Premiere, National Adelaide Festival, 5 May.

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2012). ‘Learning in the Arts — Australian Curriculum: The Arts - Foundation to Year 10 (Draft for consultation)’. Available online: http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/DRAFT_Australian_Curriculum_The_Arts_Foundation_to_Year_10_July_2012.pdf#search=arts [Accessed on 11 March 2013].

Bruce, S. (2007). ‘Shakespeare: The comedies’, in Hiscock, A. & Hopkins, L. (eds.), Teaching Shakespeare and Early Modern Dramatists, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 75–90.

Dillon, J. (ed.) (2006). The Cambridge Introduction to Early English Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dutton, R. (ed.) (2011). The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Literature. Oxford: University Press.

Fava, A. (2004). The Comic Mask in the Commedia dell’Arte: Actor Training, Improvisation, and the Poetics of Survival. Reggio Emilia: Arscomica.

Fischer-Lichte, E. (2002). History of European Theatre and Drama. Transl. by Riley, J. New York: Routledge.

Flaherty, T.J. (1991). ‘“Othello dell’Arte”: The presence of “Commedia” in Shakespeare’s tragedy’. Theatre Journal 43 (2), pp. 179–194.

Haseman, B. (2006). ‘A manifesto for performative research’. Media International Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy. Quarterly Journal of Media Research and Resources 118, pp. 98–106.

La Commedia dell’Arte. (2015). ‘The characters’. Available online: https://sites.google.com/site/italiancommedia/the-characters [Accessed on 4 September 2015].

Lea, K.M. (1962). Italian Popular Comedy: A Study in the Commedia dell’Arte, 1560-1620 with Special Reference to the English Stage. New York: Russell & Russell.

McManus, D. (2003). No Kidding!: Clown as Protagonist in Twentieth-Century Theatre. Delaware: University of Delaware.

Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962). Phenomenology of Perception. London: Routledge.

Plessner, H. (1983). Conditio Humana. Berlin: Suhrkamp.

Richards, K. & Richards, L. (1990). The Commedia dell’Arte: A Documentary History. Oxford: Basil Blackwell for the Shakespeare Head Press.

Sophocles. (1906 [450 BC]). ‘Trachiniae’, in Young, G. (transl.), The Dramas of Sophocles, London: J. M. Dent & Co., pp. 174-191.

All authors agree to an Attribution Non-Commercial Non Derivative Creative Commons License on their work.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.