Course Description

Remember falling in love with Drama when you were a student?

  • What was it that you loved?
  • Being silly?
  • Laughing?
  • Exploring a world which was deeper that you could have ever imagined?

IntotheMask Theatre are here to help you bring that love of play into your own space once again. We are primarily a company of 2, Alethea Dreyer and Shane McMullan, however, we have also welcomed dozens of teachers and performers into our process over the years.

We have both trained intensively under the world renowned Commedia dell’Arte master Antonio Fava. Just as he passed his knowledge on to us, we want you to pass our knowledge on to you, and you on to others. The lineage of education is beautiful, and we hope you are as inspired right now as we are.

Teachers

IntotheMask Theatre

Hello! We are Alethea and Shane, master practitioners of Commedia dell'Arte. We love making education fun and simple!

Course curriculum

  • 1

    Welcome to the course!

    • Welcome to the course!

    • What is commedia dell' arte? A short clip for your Students

    • Program Schedule
  • 2

    Module 1: How To Be Playful

    • Starting with the body is key!

    • Using the body correctly

    • How to be playful

    • Know your place

    • The Animals Within Introduction

    • The Monkey

    • The Turtle

    • The Chicken

    • The Majestic Bird

    • The Gorilla

    • More Fun Activities
  • 3

    Module 2: Your Critical Characters

    • ACTIVITY: Balloon Bodies

    • Archetype 1: The Servant

    • Archetype 2: The Lovers

    • Archetype 3: The Captain

    • Archetype 4: The Old Men (Dottore)

    • Archetype 4: The Old Men (Pantalone)

    • PDF Archetype Guide

    • Role Play Scenarios for your Archetypes
  • 4

    Module 3: It's all in the timing

    • It's all in the timing.. Lazzi explained

    • Acrobatic Introduction

    • Acrobatic Clips: Crab Walk

    • Acrobatic Clip: Pin Roll

    • Acrobatic Clip: Cartwheel

    • Acrobatic Clip: Tumble Roll

    • Acrobatic Clip: Slaps and Swipes

    • Acrobatic Clip: Child-like-play

    • The Fly Lazzi: Zanni

    • The Heart Attack: Pantalone

    • The Statue: il Capitano

    • Searching: The Lovers

    • Lazzi in Rehearsal Example

    • What goes around comes around: Canovaccio explained

    • HANDOUT: Practise Canovaccio

    • Narrative explained

    • Let the audience in

    • ACTIVITY: Influence your audience

    • Don't Script me: Canovaccio Task

    • HANDOUT: Lazzi scenarios for your 4 archetypes

    • ACTIVITY: Bringing it back to the world around us.
  • 5

    Module 4: Becoming the Character - Mask Work

    • About the Masks of the Commedia

    • 3 Tips for mask work with your students
  • 6

    Module 5: (Upper School Advanced) - Text study: A Servant to Two Masters

    • Module introduction

    • DOWNLOAD: The Synopsis and Canovaccio
  • 7

    Module 6: Link to Theories

    • Commedia as a system of training

    • Laban theory of movement links
  • 8

    Your Box of Teacher Tricks: Assorted Resources

    • Canovaccio Marking Key

Reviews

5 star rating

My kickstart to Commedia Dell'Arte

Katharina Spanbroek

This course has provided me with so many resources and a strong understanding of what it is that I need to ensure my students can do by the end of the unit. ...

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This course has provided me with so many resources and a strong understanding of what it is that I need to ensure my students can do by the end of the unit. The videos have been a great new way to build my own toolkit and Alethea and Shane are very personable in their approach to this. Highly recommend this course to anyone who is thinking of taking on Commedia Dell'Arte

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5 star rating

Nadia Forte

Informative, user friendly and excellent PDF's!! Thank you

Informative, user friendly and excellent PDF's!! Thank you

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