The Art of Failing

Teaching an art form is a process (duh!): not only the teaching and learning, but also figuring out what to teach.

When it comes to Commedia, with its rich history (and mysterious, since since the form pretty much died), that story grows more interesting and complicated.

How do you introduce students to this wild world called Commedia?
Do you start with the history (probably too boring), with discipline (probably not that inspiring), with humor (fun but where is the weight of the form), with improv (also fun but not the whole picture), with the physicality (too much training), with imaginative play//lazzi (great fun but takes time to retrain the brain), with chaos (often confusing)…

How do you lay the ground work so that students are interested, excited and understanding the full scope of Commedia?
I mean, it is pretty complicated. I guess, you begin to look for the hook. What will get an artist all excited about learning a new form? One answer: if they feel successful. Remember this is only an introduction.

Success is a funny idea, not haha. When we (Tut'Z) were training in Commedia, failure was essential. We had to learn how to fall flat on our faces day after day (and find the joy in it). Failure is the key to success. When I stepped into a Commedia workshop this past weekend, I was expecting failure to be on the menu. The weird thing, it wasn’t there. The instructor was working triple hard to make sure that we all walked away feeling successful. He would give us lines, he would provide us with scenarios, he would give us the walks, he would give us the characters, he would direct us (like we were his puppets on strings), and never once was there a dull moment.

After the first day, I was really annoyed. I thought he was too prescriptive in his Commedia – truthfully, he would give us the option of freedom but when we faltered he would step in to hold us up which I took as him trying to tell us how it should be done. Really, he was making sure we had a good time. However, in making sure we were all enjoying ourselves, he took away our creativity, our chaos, our terror, our fear, our everything-one-needs to be in the moment. To me, he took away the Commedia.

I stepped up to do a 3 person scene, and took on Tartaglia. I’m not so good at T, but I wanted to try it. While we were up, he kept tossing things at me. I did not know whether to follow my impulses or to follow the direction. I just kept stammering (like T), because everything was mixed up. I was trying to be present, but did not know how to navigate what I wanted to do and what I was supposed to do. I started trying to do both – which meant that it was a huge FLOP. It kind of felt great. I love a flop. It feels terrible but the kind of terrible to get up and try again.

This got me thinking. What is important for
Commedia? What do you introduce first, second, third? How do you bring the person up to speed and the imagination into play and the character into the body? You have so many elements you need to do at once – what is the order you choose?

I learned, never allow the need to succeed take the place of failure. Failure is so important in this form. The way you improve is through a complicated exploration of failure. There is no right or wrong. There is no perfect character or Commedia. We don’t really know how it was done 300 years ago – we are making it up. Fail, in order to succeed.

written by: Patrick Berger

Servant of Two Masters - an uber-positive report!

**Make sure to check out the Christopher Bayes workshop at the bottom of the page!

I saw Servant of Two Masters at ArtsEmerson last Sunday, directed by Christopher Bayes. It was a fantastic production!

The performances, the mask work, the lazzi, all the details of the traditional form were so well done and the show was hysterical and fresh.

I adored seeing each of the stock characters so fully and uniquely realized by the actors. Pantalone was amazing with his ability to use extreme variety the mask allows. Arlecchino used the characteristic of distraction with such proficiency and delicacy, it was mesmerizing and hilarious.

The process of creating this show, I would interpolate, was through extensive research of the craft, then character development, improvisation, "scripting" of the improvs, and then bringing back the element that anything can happen at any moment during the performance. It had the specificity of great physical comedy, while not at all feeling contrived or put on. I was extremely impressed with the virtuosity of all the performers.

I also noticed most of the characters were on the balls of their feet with absolute focus the entire time they were on stage. There was a moment when some audience were distracting Pantalone, and he stopped and said to them "we are trying to concentrate up here..." it was a great rare moment, when you can see the deep work the actors were engaged with. Other than that, the whole show looked and felt effortless in its exaggeration and the flow of the physicality and musicality from one moment to the next.

One element I was not excited about was Pantalone's response during the late seating. He had a shtick he did with admonishing the audience - he said something about missing the whole beginning and someone (who may or may not be the writer of this blog) yelled back - well, do it again!! Perhaps he didn't hear this, but it went unacknowledged and it took me a while to warm up to him again.

He did, however, win me over with his commitment, generosity, and borderline senile ways which never lost status or power.

The show touched on modern stereotypes as well, which, because they must have derived from moments of lazzi, were pushing limits, vulgar, profane, and hilarious while never loosing their audience. The character were living in today's world, while still adhering to the traditional costumes, mask work, and physical comedy.

It was also whimsical, playful, and had a moment when Arlecchino ran into the back drop of the sky, lifted it up, and found his way to the other side. The drop fell and began dancing in a starry world with his love, until the characters turned into dancing stars themselves and drifted into the sky.

I loved the show and felt it was a great commedia production!

-Allegra


Christopher Bayes is teaching a commedia workshop in March - see info below:

Commedia Dell'arte Weekend

Discover the world of Harlequino, Pantalone, and other archetypes of the Commedia dell'Arte. Celebrate the vulgar, the romantic and, of course, the profane. Find the lazzi. Learn to bring the mask to life. Live fully in your body. Investigate the actor/creator. Take ownership of your work.
Admission is open to all students.

Instructor: Christopher Bayes

Saturday, March 16, 1-6pm

AND Sunday, March 17, 12-5pm

@ ART NY, South Oxford Space, Great Room
138 South Oxford St, Brooklyn, NYC

$250.00

To sign up for a workshop or ask questions,
call Virginia @ 917-533-1924 or emailthefunnyschool@gmail.com

$50 non-refundable deposit required to reserve a spot per workshop.

The Berlin Wall is Being Rebuilt?!

No. It's not. But we had to con you into clicking our link, and to be fair, this post is related to Berlin, so only a few of those words were lies.

We just wanted to give you a little looky-loo into what we are up to!

Just because Tut'Zanni has settled down geographically a bit for 2012, doesn't mean that we aren't still hard at work. After all, so long as the world doesn't end this month, 2013 is just lurking around the corner, and we want to hit the ground running.

So here is what we are excited for: we are developing a new show with the working title, "HELP?!". As you have probably guessed, the show is to be about helping. But it's not just a bunch of feel-good stories about good people helping other people. Of course not. Because Commedia characters are not good people. The 'Zanni are not good people. We are not good people. No. They (and we) are just regular people (and sometimes terrible people...). And as we know, when regular people try to help, sometimes it doesn't go so well, or the have ulterior motives, or maybe help wasn't needed at all. We have all experienced or witnessed terrible things happen, storms and hurricanes and disasters, even just this year in New York and many other places. We have all needed help in our lives, or tried to help those around us, and in our show, we intend to explore all of these things, and more! And, of course, as a Tut'Zanni show, we'll be making sure it is as raunchy, vulgar, and hilarious as possible.

Now, we have been doing as much work as possible through  the wonders of today's technology, but we can only do so much wearing pirate hats and goatees in group video chats. We are going to have to come together physically and put this show in its feet! So, in February 2013, Tut'Zanni is running away to Berlin! Where the air is ripe with creativity, and the city is filled to the brim with inspiring art and those who created it. And, perhaps the more realistic motivation, theatre space that costs less than lunch (and believe me, the term "starving artist" is definitely applicable to us), and there are plenty of cozy little living spaces we can cram into. And let's not forget that our lovely co-founder, Dory, will be so pregnant that the changing air pressure in a plane would probably make her pop! Ok, not really, but we aren't going to make her travel across continents anyway.

As excited as we are, these things all mean the time for fundraising has begun! So we are reaching out to all fo you for your help and support, in whatever form. We are going ot be putting out some great swag, starting with our cute Tut'Zanni Monster calendars, and sweet glow-in-the-dark wristbands! They are available on our website under "swag", and all proceeds go directly to Tut'Zanni Theatre Company. You can also make donations on our "Donate!" tab (in case you hadn't noticed, you can also just click any of those words. Yay for links!). We understand that not everyone can donate monetarily, and that's totally fine! We're poor too, we get it. But you can still help. Spread the word, like our pages, follow our twitter, share our links! Let your family and friends know we exist, and help us rally up some support. We love and appreciate all of our fans, and all that you do for us!

We are planning a lot for 2013, Berlin is just the beginning! So keep checking us out and what we're up to, and when Tut'Zanni comes to town, come and see us!

Ok, so none of these pictures except one have really been related to the post itself, but let's be honest- blogs are far less boring when they have pictures (and who doesn't like Tut'Z in a Tub?!)! Plus we like to share our craziness with you. Help us create more weirdness in 2013!!!