Year 8 Drama

During the last week of Term 3, Year 8 students participated in an online performance workshop with Commedia dell’Arte experts Rosa and Mason from Make A Scene. Students explored the social and historical context of Commedia, stock characters, lazzi (comic skits) and masks. It was a great way to break up our usual remote lessons and the students had a blast!

Below are reflections from some of our Year 8 students.

The Commedia incursion was an amazing experience that gave us more insight and knowledge about Commedia dell’Arte. Although we weren’t able to do it in person, it was still just as enjoyable. Rosa and Mason brought such a great energy, and it was a nice refresher from our other classes. I particularly enjoyed when Rosa came on as Pantalone. She acted it really well and made it really comedic.

Millie D, 8A

The Commedia workshop was an exciting, interactive experience. First, the instructors taught us how to talk like the characters in Italian gibberish. Students were to contribute Italian words they know and then the instructors demonstrated how we could use those words and other exaggerated expressions as well as many dramatic elements to communicate without using actual dialogue. This was a really exciting and enjoyable way to learn such an important part of Commedia. The instructors also explained the meaning and history behind some characters and their masks, teaching us how to act them out and their properties. They even did a live performance of one of the characters, which helped us understand how we can use our bodies, gestures and voices to illustrate a situation Commedia. The workshop was really captivating and enjoyable and our class was able to learn many important techniques and details about Commedia dell‘Arte.

Lauren F, 8B

I really enjoyed the workshop, it was a lot of fun and very valuable. I found it so interesting learning about the different Commedia dell'Arte masks and how the masks relate to the characters' personalities and attitudes. Also, the small performance by one of the instructors was so good!

Jemima P, 8C

We were fortunate to have Rosa and Mason run an online workshop on Commedia dell’Arte for the Year 8 classes in Drama. It was lots of fun and we learnt so much! They ran us through exercises helping us to have a deeper understanding of the stock characters and their characteristics. It was very enjoyable to play around with the different characters and my favourite was attempting to portray Arlecchino. We also had a performance of Lazzo of the Fly from Rosa which was very entertaining and it demonstrated the rule of three that we have been learning in class which is used in slapstick comedy. It was a very good session that was beneficial to us all!

Stephanie D, 8B

Jason Forrest

Head of Performing Arts