by Maddie Buttitta

Variations in setting, style, theatrical format, and other such reachable venues are easy to come by when seeing a production of Shakespeare’s work. Just this past year, Stauntonites have had the opportunity to see the American Shakespeare Center’s takes on several of Shakespeare’s classics: A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the 1920s, Twelfth Night in the Edwardian era, The Merchant of Venice in present day, and Coriolanus in post-apocalyptic Rome. To count the countless Shakespeare variations in other theatre companies, not to mention different countries, would amass an entire dissertation. In local news, Stauntonites were in luck this month. Recently they had the chance to see visiting guest director John Bellomo’s commedia dell’arte production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Done in collaboration with Mary Baldwin University’s MFA Company Compass Shakespeare Ensemble and several MLitt students, this production of one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays engaged in an interplay with the Italian improvisational theatrical form based in comedy, masks, and Shakespeare’s language. This past week, I had the opportunity to conduct a phone interview with Bellomo and ask him about the art form and integrating it into the rehearsal process.

Q: What attracted you to the seemingly dissonant realms of Shakespeare and commedia dell’arte?
JB: In actuality, Shakespeare and commedia are not as dissonant as they appear. The theatre scenes in renaissance Italy and early modern England were structured in very similar ways: they were run by actors who took risks together; they played same parts; actor-managers took on leadership roles; and they jumped from company to company. Commedia dell’arte was based in and uses improv, whereas Elizabethan theatre use(s) scripts. They both had similar rehearsal processes: they rehearsed on their own, rehearsed bits with their scenes partners, which included the creation of lazzis (“gags” or stock jokes), and the staging got perfected as they performed.

Q: The masks and stock characters used in commedia appear to transfer well into Shakespeare’s plays, especially A Midsummer Night’s Dream. What is so enticing about commedia and the work available within the art form that made it readily applicable to Midsummer?
JB: In addition to the comic form of commedia, there are other forms – the pastoral and the tragic. Within these multiple forms, there is improv in sense of creating. In a performance script for commedia, it hits the same points, but is not line by line. The pastoral form and tragic forms are very similar to Shakespeare, and I immediately thought of Midsummer. The fairies as mythical creatures made a lot of sense in the commedia world as masked commedia characters, as well as the Lovers and the Mechanicals: they all maintain earnestness present as clowns as well as masked commedia characters.

Q: Through Jacque Lecoq’s influential work in combining masks and actor training, it is commonly believed that masks free the actor’s imagination so that they better tell a story in lieu of presenting one. Keeping this belief in mind, what are some of the initial challenges in introducing commedia masks into Shakespeare?
JB: Lecoq saw the acting technique of using masks as a very mystical endeavor. My teacher and mentor, Antonio Fava, used masks as a storytelling tool, which I believe as well. Along with the leather masks used in commedia, you also have the physical mask of your whole body. The principle of any storytelling tool, especially in commedia and masks, is how you use that tool to tell the story. In rehearsals for Midsummer, getting actors to have and maintain physical discipline in commedia took a while to get used to it. At first, they looked at the play in a very intellectual way; once they started, they had to let muscles adapt, and let the brain get out of the way. They did an excellent job, and they had a great time. Commedia is a learning tool as well an art form. As an (former) artistic director (of The Maryland Shakespeare Festival), I introduced commedia training as training for the actors in our company: it hones actors’ skills, and uses improv as physical work. Nothing trains the body better than commedia.

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