Tag Archives: rituals

Posted on 2016-11-27 by Micke Klingvall

The language of the marketplace

A street vendor starts to call out his products in the square. The peddler in the booth beside him starts to yell out his products even louder in order to be heard and get anything sold. It works well. A … Read the rest of this entry →

Filed in 2 Vulgar Comedy | 5 Comments
Posted on 2016-11-14 by Micke Klingvall

Grammelot

The onomatopoetic, language mimicking, voice illustrating, sound that Dario Fo calls Grammelot was born in France when the Commedia dell’Arte actors where antagonized by the church in Italy during the counterreformation. They turned to Europe instead, but not only to … Read the rest of this entry →

Filed in 1 Commedia dell'Arte, 2 Vulgar Comedy, Acting style | 1 Comment
Posted on 2016-10-31 by Micke Klingvall

The roots to all western popular comedy

I see Commedia dell’Arte as the roots to all western popular comedy. There are naturally roots to Commedia dell’Arte as well, but if we see it as the first professional form of theatre in Europe and if we consider that … Read the rest of this entry →

Filed in 1 Commedia dell'Arte, 2 Vulgar Comedy | 2 Comments
Posted on 2016-10-24 by Micke Klingvall

Stage strategies (Part 2)

The second group of strategies he call dividing the stage: Windows are the easiest way to divide the stage. By using windows on the backdrop (as talked about in THE STAGE), where a mask can look out, we work on … Read the rest of this entry →

Filed in 2 Vulgar Comedy | Comment Now
Posted on 2016-10-10 by Micke Klingvall

The Stage

Traditionally a Commedia dell’Arte stage was used to be a banco, made of wood, about two meters tall and not much bigger than a horse driven cart, about 3 x 4 meters. It usually had a simple backdrop and where … Read the rest of this entry →

Filed in 1 Commedia dell'Arte | 3 Comments
Posted on 2016-10-03 by Micke Klingvall

Acrobatics as a discipline in Commedia dell’Arte

Acrobatics and slapstick (together with the music) may be the most used discipline in Commedia dell’Arte. They work with symmetries, physical turns or physically exaggerated reactions or positions. Acrobatics is a way to stylize and it is used, just as … Read the rest of this entry →

Filed in Disciplines | Comment Now
Posted on 2016-09-26 by Micke Klingvall

Mime as a discipline in Commedia dell’Arte

All disciplines are not equally easy to use in Commedia dell’Arte. As an example on a problematic discipline we can look at mime or rather mimed objects. All objects on stage should be real. If we start to mime object … Read the rest of this entry →

Filed in Disciplines | Comment Now
Posted on 2016-09-19 by Micke Klingvall

Music as a discipline in Commedia dell’Arte

The music is off course the most central of all disciplines in Commedia dell’Arte. It is there to heighten the performance and it helps up the atmosphere of feast that is so characteristic in Commedia dell’Arte. I the very first … Read the rest of this entry →

Filed in Disciplines | 2 Comments
Posted on 2016-09-05 by Micke Klingvall

Disciplines in Commedia dell’Arte

Commedia dell’Arte is sprung from a time long before circus and theatre were divided as separate genres, when all sorts of stage disciplines could be played on the same stage without one having to be better or more refined than … Read the rest of this entry →

Filed in Acting style, Disciplines | 5 Comments
Posted on 2016-06-07 by Micke Klingvall

Improvisation in Commedia dell’Arte (Part 3)

Much of the art in playing Commedia dell’Arte has to do with being constantly on the alert, always ready to jump in to the action or leave space for another mask. This does not just apply when we are on … Read the rest of this entry →

Filed in Acting style | 2 Comments