The World of Harlequin, Then and Now
Teenagers and parents will enjoy traveling through the trail of history for theater.
The World of Harlequin, Then and Now is an approachable, entertaining, and instructive introduction to the techniques and methods of the first professional performers in the history of Western Civilization. The one-act play opens with a group of students engaged in a discussion about Commedia - the relationship between improvisation and written text, the function and meaning of the masks and stock-character types, and the organization of acting companies - embellished by slides and practical demonstrations. Captivated by the characters' quirky charm and the mysteries surrounding the history of the Commedia dell'Arte, the students attempt to enter the world of Harlequin and his friends by staging their own apparently improvised scenario. The play concludes by reflecting on the historical trajectory of the Commedia dell'Arte in which improvisation and stock-characters eventually gave way to scripted plays, shifting the emphasis from an improvised comedy of masks to a fully written comedy of characters.
Sunday, November 17th (tickets here)
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