Ian, Capocomico!

I am spending another summer teaching mime and commedia dell'arte to the children at Open Air Circus. Slowly, over the years, my classes have been attracting more and more students as kids from previous years keep returning to me, and bring new students with them, so this summer, I'm teaching two mime classes and one commedia class. The commedia class has gone from five students last year...

...to eight this year, thus necessitating that I sculpt at least three more masks in time for or final show. In the mean time, feast your eyes upon the masks I made last summer worn by the students who inhabited these characters.

This is Arlecchino-- and this is the same mask I've come to wear this past year when I play the character with i Sebastiani. The motley on her head was made by my father as a gift and are the school colors of Boston College, which I was attending at the time.

This is Pantalone. I thought a formal brimmed hat might befit a more modern version of the character. My students often see him as the archetype for Montgomery Burns on The Simpsons.

Il Dottore is a parody of all learned professionals. The hat has been part of my collection since 1994. Once while wearing it at a coffeehouse, studying for exams, a woman called me "Il Dottore" and proceeded to introduce me to some of the characters of the commedia dell'arte. The girl playing Il Dottore is the sister of the girl playing Arlecchino.

Il Capitano is parody of every blustering, lying, narcissistic bully who ever walked the earth. He is often the villain and he is often from out of town. The pin that ties the cape was a wonderful borrowing from the player's mother since it features the faces of a number of commedia characters.

Franchescina is sometimes known as Columbina. Like most female characters, she is not traditionally masked in the commedia but I did not want anyone left out of the fun of wearing a mask so I invented something.

The story about the making of these masks can be found in this earlier post. Right now though I'm at work on three more masks: Pulcinella, Brighella, and Flaminia.

i Sebastiani in Washington, D.C.

However much belated, I have finally posted photographs of i Sebastiani's April 1st performance in Washington, D.C. at the National Museum for Women in the Arts. We did two shows that day, once in a beautiful marble rotunda on the ground floor and a second time in a fifth floor auditorium which apparently was once a porn theatre. Our performance conincided with the exhibition, Italian Women Artists from Renaissance to Baroque

This was particularly convenient for me as Washington, D.C. is my home town and it just happened to be my father's birthday.



In this performance of "Dressed for Love", I played the role of Pantalone, the father of Isabella (Catherine Crow), for which I had to borrow the costume from Michael Bergman, who is a much taller actor, which meant that I was constantly having to lift my cloak. Like many commedia dell'arte scenarios, the storyline revolved around young people not being able to marry their true loves because of the plans of vecchi such as Pantalone.

Interestingly enough, Only a week before, when we performed this play I had been cast as Flaminia, a lusty inmate of the convent, who was played by Sophie this go around while in December's productions of Dressed for Love I had played the role of Pedrolino, which come March and April was being played by Michael McAfee. However, this being commedia, it is never the same play.



Being that we were performing in the museum, I was able to slip in a line about "this convent's art collection must be worth a fortune!" and complaints that "Saint Margaret's father must have spent many ducats for that dress, and she still refused to marry! How ungrateful!"

You can look at the full set of photographs from the second show here. I hope to post photographs from the first show later.

Pictured: Kristine Page as Reverend Mother Olivia, Carl West as Arlecchino, and Ian Thal as Pantalone. Photography by Jay Thal.

Upcoming Performances with i Sebastiani

Buon Giorno, you lucky people!

Over the next three weekends I will be performing with i Sebastiani, the commedia dell'arte troupe I joined this past November. In what amounts to "theatrical hazing" the capocomica and the artistic director have decided to have me play a different character every week. So without further ado, here is the schedule:

Saturday, March 17th, 10am to 6pm:

The Barony of Carolingia presents:

Vision of the Twelve Goddesses Performed by the Carolingian Dancers.

Vision of the Twelve Goddesses was a court masque authored by Samuel Daniel in honor of James I's ascension to the throne of England in 1604.

With an original Anti-Masque by i Sebastiani. (I will be in the role of Arlecchino.)

Music by The Renaissonics.

RSVP and period dress recommended



March 23-25, Framingham, MA: i Sebastiani in Dressed for Love:

Friday, March 23rd, 7:30pm
Saturday, March 24th,7:30pm
Sunday, March 25th, 3:00pm

(I will be playing the role of Flaminia )

Framingham Community Theater
Turenne Auditorium
214 Concord Street,
Framingham, MA 01702
(508) 875-5218

$12 at the door, $10 in advance

Sunday, April 1st, Noon- 4pm, Washington, D.C.: i Sebastiani in Dressed for Love (The shortened version):

(I'll be in the role of Pantalone.)

An opening reception for:

Italian Women Artists from Renaissance to Baroque

National Museum of Women in the Arts
1250 New York Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20005
202-783-5000, 1-800-222-7270

FREE!

Three Things That Make This Curmudgeon Happy

As of late, when I do publish a blog entry, either here or on another site, it tends to be a polemic or an account of some quarrel in which I have been engaged. So be it: conflict is the basis for both comedy and tragedy and thus makes for a compelling read. However, today I will share with you three relatively new things in my life that make me happy just to demonstrate that I am not a complete curmudgeon.

Back in November I joined the commedia dell'arte troupe, i Sebastiani. Commedia dell'arte is an improvisational comedic theatrical form that originated during the Italian Renaissance, but over a couple of centuries, became popular throughout Europe, leaving its mark on Western theatre. It uses masks, slapstick comedy and a collection of stock characters. This past December I played the role of Pedrolino, a clever servant. In the next month of shows I will be playing Arlecchino, a maddingly foolish servant from Bergamont, and Flaminia, a lusty convent girl. Cosmic Spelunker Theater always drew upon our peculiar conception of commedia, but outside of the briefly lived Teatro Commedia, I had never actually played any of the traditional stock characters. The group is a great deal of fun to work with, and I appreciate the collaborative atmosphere-- everyone has good suggestions and no qualms about sharing them.

For a number of years, I had been attending concerts by kathak dancer, Gretchen Hayden, and the students of her school Chhandika. This past October, however, I decided to become a student. Kathak is a classical dance-theatre form that developed in Northern India and Pakistan. I became very attracted to kathak in part because, like other classical dance forms of India, incorporates elements that remind me of the corporeal mime that I have studied for years, and is also very much tied in with India's sculptural, storytelling, and mythological traditions. What gives kathak its unique identity amongst other schools of Indian classical dance is that because of geography, it developed into its modern form in the courts of the Mogul period, and so has elements of both Hindu and Muslim aesthetics. On the other hand, it is rhythmically sophisticated with incredibly intricate footwork that, owing to my lack of background in percussive dance (or percussion in general), means that I have to concentrate on those elements and not the more mimetic aspects that come naturally to me. Unfortunately, due to my performance commitments to i Sebastiani, I won't be able to perform in the Chhandika student show this year.

Off and on, I have been also been taking ballet classes. I had tried to start some years ago, but I was sidetracked, but for the past year I have been more disciplined, studying with Anna Myer. If I keep this up, I might even be a real dancer in a few years.

What is most exciting is that I would not have been able to imagine myself doing any of these things a decade ago.