Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to drama.

This is lesson six.

The last lesson of Commedia dell'Arte: An introduction and this lesson is called applying commedia to a scene.

My name's Mr Wood and if we're all ready, let's get started.

For this lesson, like all the others, can you make sure that you are taking part inside, there's plenty of space for you to work safely, your shoes and socks are off, the floor is not slippery and you're wearing comfy clothing, ready to move.

Pause the video now if you need to make those things happen.

If you're ready, let's continue.

For this lesson you're going to need plenty of space.

Well done if you've finished your introductory quiz, that's super.

If you haven't had a chance, you can go back to do that now.

We'll then continue with recapping last lesson's content, we'll then move on to combining some characters and then we will look at applying our prior knowledge altogether in a couple of scenes, before we finish with our exit quiz.

So, last lesson.

We taught about the remaining stock characters and these weren't the masters.

Can you remember which faction they belonged to? The servants, well done.

We looked at where their power came from.

It wasn't necessarily from the body.

It was from, the masks they wore.

The masks were almost where the character was born from and we explored each different character practically.

We then moved on to looking at Zanni in closer detail.

Your key words for today's lesson are, traits and they are, distinguishing qualities or characteristics.

Energy, again we're going to need a, and that is the strength required for physical activity.

We then have scene, which is a sequence of continuous action, and then lastly, exaggeration, which is the way of making some things seem larger, more important, better or worse than it really is, and I'm sure you recognise that one from our earlier lessons.

There are four main categories to which all the stock characters belong.

Do you think that's true or false? Three, two, one.

Of course, the answer is false.

There are not four.

There are two and they are the masters and the servants.

The only characters that are the exception, are the lovers, the Innamorata or the Innamorato.

Now we're going to start combining some of these characters.

To do this safely, we need to warm up.

So gather the space that I asked for previously, and let's begin.

We'll start today's warm up with a little bit of jogging on the spot.

So if you've got your space and you're ready, let's get going.

We're going to turn this into the quickest sprint, we can manage for the next five seconds.

Three, two, one, go.

Three, two, one, stop.

Okay, back to a light jog, feel the heart rate going, and this time, what we're going to do, is we going to go into a couple of squats.

However these squats are going to be a little bit different.

Arms going to be up, widen your legs and we're going to, squat down just like this, and each time that we go down, I want you to drop your hand as well.

Okay, try and keep your back flat.

Okay, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Okay this time we're going to twist it a little bit.

So we are going to go one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Lovely, okay, now we are going to start mixing it up a bit.

We going to roll our arms back in little circles, but what we are going to do when we go down, so, if we can go down, one, two, then we're going to jump up one, two, one, two.

So all together it should look, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, okay.

So we do that all together.

We'll start standing.

Arms out, three, two, one.

Roll them back, jump down, roll them back, jump down, roll them back, jump down, roll them back, jump down, Okay we are going to bring our knees in, just to benefit our hips and the other side and to just them in but not to force them up as high as you possibly can.

You should just be able to feel it in your hips.

Okay, lovely, now shoulders, going to cause a strain a little bit more because it's quite important for what we got to do today.

Shoulders going to rolled forward and we'll do that for 8, so, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Take them back, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Hands and shoulders, going back, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Going forward, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, lovely.

Okay, this time, I'm over to the other side of the body as we did before.

It's a line down here that we're trying to stretch.

You'll find that the longer you're in it, the more it goes down.

Lovely, and the other side, just down the line.

Super, okay.

Start with head now, just over to our left, I am sure it looks like right in your screen.

And the side, back again and see the other side.

And roll our head, so we're going down to the left, down to the right, don't move your neck too quickly here.

You don't want to hurt yourself, and back to the other side.

Lovely, okay, right, over to the voice.

Repeat after me.

Me, me, me, me, me, me, me.

We, we, we, we, we, we, we.

She, she, she, she, she, she, she.

He, he, he, he, he, he, he.

Sally sold seashells by the seashore.

Sally sold seashells by the seashore.

Sally sold seashells by the seashore.

Sally sold seashells by the seashore.

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood, How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

Betty Botter bought some butter but, said she, the butter's bitter.

Betty Botter bought some butter but, said she, the butter's bitter.

See how quick you can go.

Betty Botter Betty Botter bought some butter but, said she, the butter's bitter.

Lovely, I'm finishing off with a few of these.

A-I-U, A-I-U, A-I-U, A-I-U, A-I-U, A-I-U, A-I-U.

Lovely, okay, if you're not warm.

If you feel like your voice could do with a little bit of more warming up and go over each of those stages as and when you need to, if not let's get ready with the lesson.

Out of all of our stock characters.

I would like you to think about which ones really stand out and they may be different for all of us.

For me personally, I think Magnifico stands out because of his power.

I think Pantelone stands out because he is so overtly nasty.

I think The Captain stands out for being this hilarious coward character and the facade he holds.

Arlecchino, for his cheeky and fun loving nature and then Zanni for being a complete and utter fool.

If we look at all the Arlecchino, here's one of the best characters for engaging and communicating with the audience because of his bubbly, cheeky and animalistic traits.

He has a natural connection with the people he is looking at and talking to, and I think there's a lot to be said for that type of relationship.

Arlecchino, no, Arlecchino, Arlecchino, Zanni, Arlecchino.

Arlecchino, Your task now is to become all the Arlecchino.

Your aim is to show your audience something.

Now that could be, a spying on people through a crack on the wall.

It could be getting amazed by an insect on the floor or you could simply be showing how strong, beautiful and funny they really think they are.

And don't forget all the Arlecchino is a cheeky, playful and dimwitted character.

You need to think about exaggerating the gestures and the movement that we've already started to work on both by the last lesson, and today.

To do this, you need to pause your video.

You will need to rehearse this at least three times to be able to get to grips, with pushing that exaggeration.

By now we should be getting into a nice system here and then click resume when you've completed this and ready to move on.

Well done.

I hope you enjoyed that.

Now, I would like to know, who you would pair up out of the stock characters and why? So we have Magnifico for being powerful.

We've got Pantelone for being greedy and they're both masters.

Then we have Arlecchino, is cheeky.

We've got Zanni the fool and they're both servant characters.

Now there's no wrong answer here.

There's nothing you can say in the combinations that will be wrong.

I would pair up Magnifico and Zanni because we've got, two ends of that hierarchy at the top and the bottom.

And within that, there's so much scope for creative potential.

I think there's a lot of scenes between the king of kings and the utter fool, that could be quite interesting and engaging to an audience.

What scenarios do you think of with these two characters together? The strongest and the weakest? Are there any that are quite obvious? Here are a couple, Magnifico walks down the street and Zanni gets in his way.

Magnifico is being waited on by Zanni and he accidentally knocks over Magnifico's drink.

Zanni walks into Magnifico's mansion by mistake, idiot.

and Magnifico finds him.

What's going to happen there.

That's going to be a showdown, epic proportions.

Any ideas on which character I was? Was it Magnifico or Zanni, well done if you said Zanni, now you're going to have a go at improvising a moment between those two characters.

Specifically the relationship between the two.

Now you can choose to be Magnifico or Zanni at this moment and that's dependent on which character you feel you can do the best.

Now, if you'd like some extra structure, go with this example, Magnifico walks down a street and Zanni gets in the way.

So you can either be Zanni or Magnifico there, either is fine.

If you're up for an extra challenge, try and pick one of the other examples that I listed previously.

Obviously I went with the example of Zanni being in Magnifico's mansion, and then he stumbles across him.

I thought that was more exciting.

Don't forget the limitations of the masks.

Now I would argue that Magnifico is not as limited, as Zanni is.

When you consider the length of the nose.

He needs to lead with the nose and he needs to consider all the things that might get in his way.

Don't forget about your use of exaggeration, Grim a lot where possible and your engagement with the audience.

So try and find moments where you can look away from the character and look at your audience and then back and forth.

There should be a nice communication, with you as the middle person, between audience and actor.

You need to pause the video to complete this task, and this activity will take a considerable amount of time.

So really consider how you are approaching this character and how they engage with somebody else.

If you've got someone in the space with you, ask them to watch and see if they can pick up on your character being exaggerated.

Does it look amplified enough, once you're ready, click resume and we'll carry on with the next activity.

Well done.

I hope you got on well with that last activity.

Now it's time to apply all of our prior knowledge into a new task.

The Lazzi is a rehearsed section of comedic scene that can be any duration, is that true or false? Three, two, one The answer is true.

Well done.

If you've got that correct.

It can be any duration and it always has to come away from the scene behind it.

So the storyline will allow for moments to dip out of it and to be entertained.

Now we're going to have a go at combining our use of characterization from what we've learned in our previous lessons, alongside a Lazzi.

So choose one of the following options.

We've got Zanni.

You're watching a fly buzz around the room, it lands on your hand, your nose and your forehead.

At this time, you attempt to swap the fly and only end up causing damage to yourself.

We have Arlecchino, sitting on a balcony, eating cherries and spitting the pips over the edge.

They start hitting people in serious conversations, so you continue.

And we have Pantelone.

Stood in the market square, counting his money.

He keeps losing count and has to start again.

Pick one of those three options for me.

Now that you've chosen, you need to pause this video because we're going to add character to the Lazzi.

Similar to what we've done before, but now that we understand the characters and we can assign a character to a specific Lazzi, we should be able to develop our skills and our knowledge and combine them together.

So using your selected character and Lazzi, develop your skills.

Now you have an understanding of how these stock characters move.

Think about exaggeration, grim a lot if you can, and engaging with your audience.

This may take you a fair few minutes to be able to get to grips with your Lazzi again, and your use of characterization alongside that.

Once you've finished click resume and we will move on with the next part of the lesson.

Well done.

I hope you managed to develop your skills in that last activity, and I hope you found the enjoyment in it as well.

I would personally chose swatting the fly because that sounds the most interesting to me.

Now we've come towards the end of this lesson and in turn the end of this topic.

So a massive congratulations for taking part in the activities over these last six lessons.

And thank you very much for giving it your best effort.

I hope you found the content useful and it becomes beneficial to you later down the line, but for now that's it for Commedia dell'arte and Introduction.

You should be really proud of the work that you've created over this topic.

So if there's anything that you would like to share, please do.

Just ask your parent or carer for permission first, and ask them to tag us on Twitter, using @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

Until your next giver work.

Thank you very much.

Take care and goodbye.