Double - Commedia Dell'arte - Blog 15 - 29/02/16

Today in double we continued to devise and workshop ideas for our piece.

We began by sharing the ideas for scenes which were supposed to link to our new main idea for our piece. Below are the ideas which were brought to the table:

After discussing these ideas we chose to start off by devising the opening scene. There was a lot of controversy about whether we would have the audience start in their seats (cabaret staging) or whether we would have them walked into our "restaurant" by one of us. If we were to have them walked in, it would most likely be by Columbina as she's considered very beautiful so the managers would want the prettiest employee to let the customers in. We ended up deciding against letting the audience in because our original idea for it just wouldn't work. We thought that we could have the audience being let into the restaurant by Columbina but everyone else wasn't ready. We would have Zanni sleeping, Captain admiring his reflection in a large silver dish, Harlequin eating the night before's leftovers off of the floor, and Brighella picking stuff up off of the floor. The only issue with this is that as the audience moves in, some members will see everything and some will only see some of the action. Also, we felt this type of introduction wouldn't do the characters of Commedia Dell'arte justice. We wanted each character to have their own separate scenarios where they're introduced.

We then devised a short outline for what we want the opening few scenes to be:

• Brighella telling Harlequin to get out of the leftovers and do something but Harlequin would have none of it.
• Doctor and Pantalone (the managers) confuse Captain (the chef) by telling him different options for starters but Captain's flair gets him recognition with a new recipe
• Columbina finds Zanni sleeping in a cupboard and attempts to get him ready for serving customers.

With Doctor and Pantalone's scene with Captain we've already finished devising it and here is the outline:

• Doctor and Pantalone enter the restaurant kitchen talking about how they haven't got a starter for that evening.
• The pair joke saying that they know what the other is thinking and on the count of three they say completely different dishes.
• An argument stirs, the pair argue over whom is the better manager. Pantalone mentions how he knows how to get in profits and Doctor mentions how he knows which food tastes nicer (good opportunity for a joke about Doctor's weight).
• Doctor insists to ask the chef, Captain, which is better. Doctor looks over to Captain, back to Pantalone and says that Captain agrees with him.
• Pantalone gets cross, walks over to Captain and tells him to make his starter. Doctor goes to opposite side and tells him to make his starter. This involves Captain being confused and throwing ingredients everywhere.
• Captain shouts stop whilst holding a ladle in the air as if it were a sword and suggests a combination of the two starters. After Pantalone and Doctor's befuddled reactions, he goes on to say that the recipe had been in his family for generations.
• Doctor then passes it off as if it were his idea and he exits with Pantalone thinking of the profits leaving Captain downtrodden.

For Columbina and Zanni's scene, it is very similar to the scene Rhiannon and James devised last time except the washing line is replaced by dishes and sinks and Zanni's glue s replaced by sticky syrup.

An idea Ollie and I had for next lesson is having a scene based around Pantalone's love for money and Doctor's constant bluffing of any knowledge. Below is the outline we came up with (Doctor and Pantalone are shortened to their initials):

• P is panicked about how they were going to please their critic that night and whether a bad review will have effect on their profits. D says how he has a solution.
• D has a love potion which will be put into the critics food and make him fall in love with the food. This excites P as he wonders about the amount of customers a good review will bring in.
• D mentions, as a side note, how the potion wasn't cheap. P clocks on to this immediately and demands to know how and why.
• D explains all of the intricate ingredients of the potion and goes on to pretend to know what he's talking about. P interrupts him and asks the most important question: How much did it cost.
• D reluctantly tells him it costed £4000. P freaks out but D reassures him saying that it will be a key investment and that he hasn't paid for it yet. P asks when and how will be able to pay that much!
• D says that someone will collect the money tomorrow and that there's plenty of money left in the cash register. P realises the flaw in D's plan and says is he sure. D says of course he is and asks why as he moves towards the cash register. P insists there's not much left.
• D opens the cash register and nearly screams in horror. D announces the lack of money and throws comical items (rubber duck, feather etc.) out of the register in search of at least one coin.
• D questions who would take the money, meanwhile P is taking wads of cash out of his pockets and placing them in his groin sack, exclaiming his terror also.
• D suggests there is a thief in the midst and blames Harlequin. In order to shift any possible blame from himself, P blames Harlequin too. The pair leave to confront him.

Next lesson we will work on more scenes to be developed and present mine and Ollie's scene to the rest of the class to see what they think.

Whilst writing this blog, I came up with an idea on how we would open the piece. Once we let the audience in, we'd all be frozen still mid acting (e.g Harlequin eating, Captain admiring reflection). When the audience is settled we'd have the lights dimmed down then brightened back up to start the piece.