Commedia dell'Arte: Character Shape

Each commedia character has a specific physical shape and way of moving. This film was made over a two day workshop with a group of young actors and lead by Didi Hopkins. The film was made by Deborah May.

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Commedia dell'Arte was an improvised form of theatre.It's an oral tradition, so it

doesn't start in the brain with language and text, it starts in the body by

experiencing something. And when you commit 100% to the shape and energy, you begin to

get the essence of the character that you're playing. There are three types of characters: masters and

the servants who are masked, and the lovers who are unmasked. In the masks, there's a lot of

information, so what we want to do is put in the body the thing that matches the mask in your energy and your

sound, and the way that you think. Because the wore half masks, and the mask is fixed, it's the work

that you do with your voice and your body and your emotions that brings the mask to life.

And the masks are types; the characters are types. For example, the doctor is really large and he

oozes words and thoughts. He's like oil. Whereas his neighbor, Pantelone is really mean and vinegary.

These are the positions of the main characters in commedia. Each of these has their own

characteristics and their own energies.They have a distinct walking pattern and a particular shape.

It's a fantastic template for an actor to put into their body and make their own.

Didi: You're going to put your finger on your nose, and you're going to pull it forward...

Let the arms go like that, and now put them as if their nose... absolutely.

And this is what's going to happen, you're going to go.... nose is leading. That whole shape goes all the way to the

tips of your fingers. So, you hear the breath, absolutely hear the breath, because that's the basis of everything.

Shape, head. And what you're going to do, you're going to metamorphose, mmmm...

and you're going to go up into sort of nothingness, and then you're just going to stick your chest out

that's the thing that's going to go through the room first. Put the chest back but let the belly come out.

When you shift your frame, when you lead with another part of the body, you start to get a

feeling of that character. Light on the feet, not.. (stomps.)

(Makes noises) And that is a breathing moment because it opens up the lungs.

And as this is the doctor, it always gives him a thinking moment...the belly goes first.

However you want to turn, make a moment of it. This is the one bit of theatre where you do as much as

you can in between moments so that you can sculpt it away rather than have to add things.

Keep that belly. Put your finger there and just hmmmm. And the chin's out and the knees out

Pantelone, Scrooge, Faegan, Mr. Burns. What happens when you start with an impulse in the

body, and the body leads? You get a sense, you get a feeling, you get a rhythm. Loose hips, playful,

open. An artful dodger, or Arlecchino. So that's just the beginning of the idea of those different shapes.

Magnifico, with his head. The first actor and the first actress, shoulders.

The doctor, his belly. His neighbor Pantalone, bent back. Closed hips, Brighella. Open hips, Arlecchino.

The captain, knees. And Zanni, nose and feet.

In their shape, the character is clear. When the action is really clear, it has a sort of flipbook or

comic book effect. It's like frame by frame and the two the character and the action, is absolutely the

beginning of storytelling. Before language. Understanding what the action is in order for the

story to happen.