Overall I enjoyed commedia masks, as it is an improvised comedy performance that has been performed on streets in the early 17th century in Italy. When we first went into Commedia masks I was excited as we could talk and use our voices to develop the masks more. There are different types of masks in commedia such as the Pantalone, Illcapitano and the Zanni. Zani’s are the servants to the masters Panatalone and the Illcapitano and in my final piece with Zack, Patrick and I we have improvised a 10 minuite scene that shows our high statuses while also communicating with the audience, through clocking, stillness and clarity of gesture. During this piece my character Illcapitano drinks Tomato juice and passes out from what Pantalone and Zanni puts into the drink, however through that part I can see that I thought of what I was going to do acted it and reacted to the part. Through out the piece, I can see that Patrick and I were using ‘Ping Pong’ technique with the audience as we were both trying to empower each other by our characters. However in some bits you can see that Zani impowers the Illcapitano in some parts. With the gesture zones that we have learned in the past, I feel that we used all 5 gestures in the whole piece as we all were in different levels and used different gestures for those levels. For example when the Illcapitano asked for his brother I was using gesture 5 which is below the waist line which is a rude way to gesture at anybody, however in those days it was acceptable to talk to Zani’s that way if you were the master. Overall I do think that we did successfully be able to pull of improvising on commedia masks in a short period of time, also making the audience laugh and be interested and hooked into our piece. As I said overall I think we did well, however I feel that we could of have done better with clocking the audience and talking directly to them (aside), I feel like they would of have understood our piece better if we did as our story line was about two brothers. We also could of have extended our piece by adding in more clocking with the audience and stillness. Illcapitano had his moments to himself as he likes to spend time alone, however we could of have added a part where he talks about his conquests which were obviously all lies to impress others and to make them jealous. We could of have added a part for the Zanni as he is the only one who didn’t have time alone with the audience, if we added that and told the audience his true feelings for the both Pantalone and Illcapitano the audience would understand better. I am impressed with what I’ve learned with commedia masks and masks in general, I feel like I’m a better actress by learning how to use masks which is an actors tool. What I accomplished in this final piece is the status/ master servant relationship, physical realization of Illicapitano, voice improvisation of Illcapitano and the physical movment of my character. The Illcapitano leads with his chest and his nose.

16.2: Mask Arlecchino Lazzo

For this piece of workshop work, I used the Arlecchino Lazzo mask and what we were given to do with the mask, was to walk into the room hungry and show that we are, then we find a fly and eat it. The Arlecchino Lazzo mask is also a half faced mask, which you are able to communicate with the audience by using different types of voices. In this piece it was silent however you can tell by watching the piece what the mask was doing and what it was portraying to the audience. I could of have added more stillness and clocking into this piece and play with the audience more, you can see that there were any opportunities for me to do that through out the piece. At 0:009 seconds I gestured to the audience that I was hungry, however I could of have added stillness and clocking there to make my piece longer and attract the audience’s attention. While catching the fly I could of have played with the audience and used more of my body to catch the fly to make it look exadurated and playful like the mask. While I eat the fly I can see that I’m peeling the fly off bit by bit and put it in my mouth, I could of have extended that and made bigger gestures to match my masks character. The Arlecchino mask has more of an animal vibe to it therefore I could of have acted more animal like. In this piece I look like I was put into a plastic mask and it you can easily tell that I could of have improved on my work to make it look real and believable. I could of have added different head gestures to clock the audience and add plenty more stillness into this workshop. I should of have also used the different gesture zones to make my piece more interesting however I know that I was on only one gesture zone through out the piece. While catching the fly I can see that I thought of what I was going to do, caught the fly and reacted to it, that is one of the keys of mask work that should be accomplished. The different skills that you need to master mask work is clocking, stillness, gesture zones, reaction, head gestures and partner work.

16.2: Basle mask

Overall I prefer to use commedia masks over Basle masks due to the fact that it is easier to see in commedia masks and you can breathe properly in commedia masks. In this piece, I can see that I clocked with the audience more than I did with the Arlechinno mask and working with someone else can really build up your characters therefore Patrick helped me through the Basel mask. With Basel masks you cannot speak, as it is a full-faced mask, it would ruin the performance, as people will see the plastic on the face but not the character of the mask. Overall I think I did well with this workshop, as Basel masks are easier to develop and work with, as there are different facial masks and communicate to the audience through head gestures and clocking. There wasn’t very much stillness in this piece with my character but, I could of have added it and clocked to the audience to communicate to them. The story that we were telling the audience was that the other mask Patrick was sleeping on my property and I didn’t realize that until after I gave him my remaining change, after I asked him to leave but he wouldn’t so I decided that he should pay to stay, however I saw that he didn’t have much money so I gave the money back that he gave to me and I wanted the scarf instead. I feel like the audience wouldn’t of have gotten the idea, therefore making it clear to the audience would be something that I would have to work on if I did it again. I would also recommend myself to use more of the different skills. But what Patrick and I did accomplish was the Ping-Pong skill as we worked off each other so there aren’t a lot of things going on at the same time to make it confusing.