The Shakespeare Project
Jess Rudolph
There's a new project being undertaken by the members of the Greater
North-East Ohio members of i Verdi Confusi. This project can also be
of benefit to the CWRU chapter of The Confused Greenies.
Our commedia troupe is occasionally asked to participate with demos
for the community, primarily with local chapters of the medieval and
Renaissance re-creation organization, the Society for Creative
Anachronism. Zsof (the Concertatore of the SCA branch of the troupe)
and I discussed the idea of developing short (a minute or so) scenes
for use as demonstration of what commedia can do as well as be
something the public recognizes.
And this is where the Shakespeare Project (or First Folio Follies!)
comes in. Shakespeare was writing his plays contemporary with the
rise of commedia dell'arte in Italy. Many of his comedies and even
some of his fools in his tragedies were influenced by commedia as it
was spreading throughout western Europe. And, almost everyone is
somewhat familiar with Shakespeare's most famous plays.
The proposal is to take scenes or ideas from Shakespeare's plays and
interpret them as how the zany and foolish commedia characters would
do them. The goal is to have at least one short piece from each of
Shakespeare's plays; this will allow us to request the audience to
suggest plays for us to do in the true spirit of improv - and you
know someone out there will shout "Pericles, Prince of Tyre" or
"Troilus and Cressida" hoping to trip us up.
This where all members of the troupe can help by offering suggestions
on what could be done to make a short silly piece. Slapstick, world
play, twisting expectations. Examples we did on the stop last weekend
included the always hungry Arlecchino drinking the cauldron of the
Three Witches from "Macbeth", thus preventing the downfall of
Scotland and that of a completely cowardly Hamlet being so scared he
doesn't stay to listen to the ghost of his father who now must go
avenge himself. Of course we are welcome to multiple ideas for some plays.
So please think about this and feel free to just use summarizes of
Shakespeare's plays for ideas (we don't expect everyone to go read
the whole Folio!). Even if you're not the actor type or don't have
time to perform you can offer us ideas and we will put them on stage!
Folly away, everyone!
--Jess
Jess Rudolph, Capocomico of:
The Confused Greenies - the Greatest, Loudest, and Most Pompous
Commedia dell'Arte troupe at Case Western Reserve University
i Verdi Confusi - the Greatest of the Newest Commedia dell'Arte
troupe in Northern Oaken of the Midrealm
http://filer.case.edu/org/commedia/
-a hungry, hapless, and hopeful harlequin