Aspiring actors sought for Italian comedy workshop in Bangkok

Theatre as an intellectual exercise and a strong emotional experience will be explored in the “Commedia Dell’Arte” workshop, which will take place at Ekkolo Theatre on six Wednesdays from 7-9pm, starting tomorrow until Nov 24.

Designed for those who truly love acting and wish to learn more about improv action, the workshop will be an introduction to the art of commedia dell’arte, also known as Italian comedy. Participants will learn about six characters from this Italian theatrical form — Zanni, Captain, Lovers, The Doctor, Pantalone and Arlecchino.

The course will focus on reading, understanding, and interpreting scenes, characters and stories contained in major classical texts. Participants will see the many emotions connected to time, space, love, fame, war, power, justice, friendship, violence and jealousy that remain in the world today.

Lessons in the six weeks include vocal and physical training, acting masks techniques, neutral masks and larval masks, improvisation games, a study of main characters, and study of scenarios of traditional texts.

They will be conducted by Maurizio Mistretta who has been writing, directing and acting theatre and multimedia plays for the last 20 years. Participants will learn and develop skills related to improvisation, acting with the mask, stage combat and body expression/ language.

The fee is 3,000 baht. Ekkolo Theatre is on Soi Saphan Koo off Rama IV Road (MRT Lumpini Station).