Lesson video

Hello and welcome to Drama.

This is lesson three out of six for Commedia dell'Arte: An introduction.

Today, we're going to focus on speaking through Commedia.

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

As ever, you're going to need space for this lesson.

We start with our introductory quiz, if you haven't had a chance, you can do that now.

We'll move on to recap with our last lessons content, We'll move on with understanding the Commedia language today before we go into playing with Grummelot, more on that later, before we finish up with our exit quiz.

So last lesson, what did we get up to? We explored mime in Commedia dell'Arte and the elements that make it successful.

Can you remember any? Exaggeration, making it as clear as possible, having a very clear before moment, the present moment and the after moment that helps to add clarity to a performance when you break it down.

Well done if you've got any of those.

Breaking mime down to specific moments can be useful.

Is that "True" or "False"? Three seconds.

"True".

Okay, if you remember, we broke it down to the moments of before, the moments of and the moments after the specific scene.

So whether it was opening a present, for example, the moment before opening, the moment of opening and the moment after.

Well done if you've got that right, if you didn't don't worry for now.

Here are your key words for today's lesson.

Speech, is the ability to communicate thoughts and feelings through sounds.

Sound is a noise that can convey an impression or meaning.

An emotion is a strong feeling derived from your circumstance or mood.

We're going to start with experimenting with speech next.

To do this we need to warm up.

Okay, today's warm up is going to look a little bit different to how we'd done them previously.

This warm up is all about our voice and it's really important to make sure that our mouths are ready to move, ready for the work ahead.

So the first thing we're going to start with are some 'Ss' We are going to do the following.

I'd like to say it and for you to repeat it and we'll do it just like that as we move through some of these sounds.

So the first one is /sss/, /sss/, /sss/, /sss/.

Your turn.

And again, but we'll do it slightly differently each time.

So I'm going to adjust it to myself and then I'll adjust it to you for you to have a go.

/Sss/.

/ss/, /ss/, /ss/.

/sss/, /sss/, /sss/ /sssss/.

/ss/, /ss/, /s/.

/ss/, /sss/, /ss/, /ss/, /ss/.

Nice, okay.

Next one will be 'Sh'.

let's have a go.

/Sh/.

/sh/, /sh/, /sh/.

/shhhhhhh/.

/sh/, /sh/, /sh/, /sh/, /shhh/.

/shh/, /shh/, /shhhh/, /sh/.

/Sh/, /sh/, /sh/, /sh/, /shsh/, /sh/.

Okay, next one was on, Will be /f/, /f/, /f/, /f/, /f/.

Okay.

/ffff/, /f/.

/f/, /f/, /f/, /f/, /f/.

/fff/, /fff/, /f/, /f/, /f/.

/f/, /f/, /f/, /f/, /f/.

/f/, /f/, /f/, /f/, /f/ /f/, /f/, /f/, /f/, /f/ Well done.

If by now you haven't realised, this is going to be a little bit silly and we are going to look a little bit on edge.

We are going to be, looking a little bit different how we normally do so, but that's okay.

Close the door if you need to.

Make sure you really focus and get involved.

The next sound is going to be /kuh//kuh//kuh//kuh//kuh/ Okay, all to do with the /kuh/ Ready, /kuh/,/kuh/,/kuh/.

/kuh/,/kuh/,/kuh//kuh//kuh/.

/kuhkuh/,/kuhkuh/,/kuh/.

/kuhkuh/, /kuh/, /kuhkuh/, /kuh/ Lovely, this next one's going to be a little bit different.

This is a lip roll and it's almost similar to how we do a raspberry.

So watch me and copy.

/brrrrrrrrrrr/, /r/.

/brrrrrrrrrr/, /r/.

/brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr/, /r/.

/brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr/.

/brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr/.

/brrrrrrrr/, /r/, /rrrrrrr/, /r/,/rrrrrrr/.

/brrrrrrrrrr/, /rrrr/, /rrrrrr/, /rrrrrr/.

Lovely, okay.

This next one we're going to have a little bit of fun.

We're going to do a couple of tongue twisters.

So the first one is how much wood could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood? So do that again.

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Are you ready? Let's do it together.

Three, two, one.

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could Chuck wood? let's try and do it a bit quicker.

Are you ready? How much wood could a woodchuck Chuck if a woodchuck could Chuck wood? even quicker, three, two one.

How much wood could a woodchuck Chuck if a woodchuck could Chuck wood? and again let's try and go as quick as we possibly can.

Three, two, one.

How much work could a woodchuck Chuck woodchuck could Chuck wood? Hopefully you're even quick than I am.

The next one is going to be, Sally sold seashells by the seashore.

Okay so Sally sold seashells by the seashore.

Let's do this one together.

Three, two, one, Sally sold seashells by the seashore.

Let's try and go a bit quicker.

Sally sold seashells by the seashore.

and if you can, I'm sure you would see my brain starting to work.

Even quicker three, two, one, Sally sold seashells by the seashore.

A bit quicker, Sally sells seashells by the seashore.

And this time as quick as you possibly can.

ready? Three, two, one, Sally sold seashells by the seashore.

I'm sure you're quicker than me on that one.

My brain was really struggling and it's only going to get tougher.

Here's the next one.

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

Yeah, tough.

Here we go.

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

Let's go a bit quicker, ready? Three, two, one, Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter's bitter.

Even quicker, ready? Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter is quicker.

This one definitely has more sense of rhythm.

You ready? This time we're going to go as quick as we possibly can.

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

Crushed it.

Okay, last one.

And this one is tough.

I'm actually going to read this.

Are you ready? Stick with me.

If two witches would watch two watches, which witch would watch which watch? Yeah, tough.

Again, here we go.

Three, two, one If two witches would watch two watches, which witch would watch which watch? Okay, I'm going to have to add in some gesture to it.

It's the only way that's going to make it work.

If two witches would watch two watches which witch would watch which watch.

Okay now that's making it more difficult.

Ready, three, two, one, If two witches would watch two watches, which witch would watch which watch? Okay, even quicker, three, two, one.

If two witches would watch two watches, which witch would watch which watch? Getting the hang of it, last time as quick as you possibly can.

Three, two, one.

If two witches would watch two watches which watch would which watch witch? No, that was wrong, but we made it.

Hopefully your mouth's starting to feel a little bit more lubricated ready to move.

If you are, let's get ready to move.

If not, please go back to watch this video again.

How do we know if someone is angry? we're going to start by seeing it in a facial expressions, secondly, through their body language.

But what happens if we can't see? How do you know if someone's really angry? You take away that sight.

There's another sense which is going to be hit first.

We're going to hear it on me.

Each emotion has a very distinct sound.

So let's start with a game of Silly sounds.

I'm going to call out a silly noise and a complimenting gesture for you to follow.

I'd like you to copy this, including the gesture if you're able and at the same level of exaggeration as me I want you to aim, to duplicate exactly what I do.

Don't worry about it not making sense.

At this stage, that's not a problem.

This feeds into the very next activity.

So make sure you're giving all of your energy for this.

If you can, for an exception, think about what emotions you can identify through these sounds.

/Blalala/, /blalala/, /blalala/, /blalalaaa/.

/bgloooo/ /pthss/ Playing with Grummelot.

Grummelot is the name given to the muffled speech used in traditional Commedia Dell'arte scenes.

Is complete gibberish and makes absolutely no sense.

However, there are particular sounds and certain phonics that give off a certain emotion and that emotion is something that we can identify.

If you remember back to last lesson, I said that these touring troops would journey to different regions of Europe and they'd have to perform to audiences that didn't speak their language.

Even if they were in the same country sometimes the dialect would vary massively meaning that they still didn't know what they were saying.

So it was really important that they communicated their intentions through mime as we discovered last lesson but also something to help ease that and some things to help evolve it so that it was very clear to an audience, not just a visual but an audible version as well.

And that's where grummelot became so useful.

Now I would like you to try and identify the meaning within the grummelot you hear.

Which one do you think this is? Don't forget grummelot does not make sense.

Okay.

Which one do you think that was? Anger.

Superiority, sadness or confidence? Superiority, well done.

Okay here's your next one.

See if you can identify the meaning here.

Which one do you think that was? Would it have been anger, sadness, confidence.

What do you think? Confidence.

Okay next one is the last one I'm going to do.

What'd you think that was? Was it anger? Was it sadness? It was sadness.

Okay.

Well done.

How do we make this sound right? How do we make sure that it makes sense? And how do we communicate these intentions clearly? I tried not in that activity to demonstrate too many gestures.

Points I got carried away and I had to reign it back in because the focus right now is on how we make it sound like that particular feeling.

So we need to think about what engages it for us past experiences, moments where you felt confident sad, angry, personal, and observed so it could be seeing somebody else seem quite Su.

well they could be superior to you.

For example, if you've seen someone who is a boss of a company and you know them because someone in your family works for them.

So, you know they're off great status.

How do we show that clear enough? Could we repeat it? For example, if we've seen them do a particular aspect of a walk or a talk, we can amplify that.

And today using grummelot, we could use repetition to communicate those same intentions again and again and again.

And then lastly, exaggeration, the more you repeat it the bigger we get with our exaggeration until we've got this massive caricature, which if you remember from last lesson was the art of telling the truth in an exaggerated way because it was amplified.

Now its your turn to have a go.

So pause the video to complete this task.

I'd like you to pick an emotion from the table below and try and communicate it through improvised silly noises.

Don't think about it too much.

The more you think about it the harder this activity will get.

It has to be rough and ready.

So go with your instinctive reactions to make that emotion.

If you're stuck, think back to that first activity the game that we did with silly noises and when you're ready, click resume to come back for the next step.

Okay.

The next point to consider is eye contact.

By directly addressing your audience, you engage them.

You need to involve them like they are part of your performance.

Consider them another character.

And when speaking grummelot, you must form a connection.

You've got to make them understand.

So you've got to try and imagine that they are there and listen to me and we don't know what happened there.

And I want to help I want to say what I really feel over there so you're using your eyes to engage and deliver.

You're thinking about what the intention is and you're offloading it onto somebody else.

You're making your story, your problem, your issue their business, and to do this you will need some kind of reflective surface.

So like last lesson, if you have a mirror, great if you don't, that's not a problem.

We can get creative with a phone or window even a car door from your window.

Please don't go outside.

You could also make your audience with your family.

Teddy bears, dolls, bottles, plants whatever you can to make it feel like you have someone there with you.

With this in mind, I'd like you to pick a different emotion to try and copy whilst making those silly noises.

Just like before, don't think too much.

Remember to hold a connection with your audience or reflection, depending on what you have around you.

To do this, you need to pause the video and then click resume when you're ready for the next step.

Commedia dell'Arte ignored improvisation and scripts everything.

Do you think that's true or false? Three seconds.

Because the answer is both.

Although they were rehearsed sections we would call them Lazzi, as we discovered in our first lesson everything else came from the actors knowledge of the mask on the character.

For this task, you've got one more opportunity to select an emotion from the below table.

I'd like you to try and copy it whilst making those silly noises like we've practised so far.

Remember it's really important to hold a connection with your audience and potentially your reflection.

Push yourself to exaggerate this one step further.

You need to pause the video to complete it and click resume when you're ready to move on.

Pick a feeling that you can relate to.

Anger, you catch someone eating out of your fridge.

Sadness, you've dropped your ice cream on the grass.

I've seen that one before.

Happiness, someone gives you a million pounds, lucky.

Power, You are sophisticated adult, Very cool and everyone is interested in what you have to say.

Pick one of those now for me.

I would like you to now experiment with grummelot.

So all of the skills that we worked on so far, I'm going to culminate and we're going to have a go at creating grummelot.

We need to take the emotional feeling from the previous slide, anger, sadness, happiness or power, including the scenario that was attached.

And you're going to have a go at improvising another key word, the sounds that match that emotion.

That's all it is.

It should be exaggerated and it should be playful.

Use the sounds that we've previously explored.

Don't think you have to reinvent the wheel.

Okay we're building on the previous skills for a reason.

Don't forget, have fun with it.

You'll need to pause the video to complete this task and then click resume and we will wrap up the lesson.

Welcome back and well done.

I hope you enjoyed that last activity where you could combine your prior knowledge from today and the lessons before.

As ever, if you would like to share your work with the Oak national, please do.

Just make sure you ask your parent or carer for permission first.

And they can tag us on Twitter with @OakNational and the #LearnwithOak.

Until our next lesson, take care and I will see you then for more Commedia dell'Arte.