Two shows to introduce new styles
A group of theatre enthusiasts wearing creatively-crafted masks and recreating scenes from a 17th century play took over local theatre director, Amanda Bothma’s Bonnie Doon home on Saturday afternoon.
Taking part in a theatre mask and Commedia dell’arte workshop, the group, consisting of local amateur actors, an artist and a stage manager, delivered witty performances and comical improvised scenes in preparation for two unusual and exciting productions to be staged later this year. Working towards presenting
The Doctor In Spite Of Himself, a comedy by French master, Moliere and an original children’s theatre production, Spot,
The Fearless Fish at the Umtiza Arts Festival, Bothma’s workshops, which started on March 9, marked the start of an exciting venture into two unique performance styles. Bothma has delved into Commedia dell’arte, an improvised comedy style where performers wear masks to portray different characters, and object theatre, a performance style that relies on the animation of objects to tell a story.
“We live and work in East London where there is a defined theatre audience so we have to be innovative. We can’t keep producing the same type of theatre, we have to give people something new and different,” Bothma said.
“I also wanted to do something we would enjoy; we’ve got to do theatre that we can have fun with. Object Theatre and Commedia dell’arte hasn’t been done before in East London, so the first step is to introduce the actors to objects and masks so they can learn to just let go and play around with them.”
An attendee, Alison Hillstead said: “We’ve learned how to lose our inhibitions when we’re performing, especially in the mask workshop; you really become the character without holding anything back.”
Jeanne Mould, who has been stage manager and set designer for Bothma’s previous productions last year, including I Love You You’re Perfect Now Change, The Jungle Book and the Pantomime, A Lad and a Lamp, will once again create both productions
She said that there were seven to nine masked characters in a traditional Commedia dell’arte production and it would take between 10 days and two weeks to create each mask.
Bothma said: “These workshops have been amazing so far and I’ve worked with most of the actors before; they are all keen and want to do it so we’ve all had a lot of fun these last two Saturdays and that’s what it’s all about.”
Both productions will be staged at the Guild Theatre during the Umtiza Arts Festival in May and will also feature at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda in June.