Commedia Dell’ Arte: Commedia Workshop

Each year, for the past seven years, students from our second year of performance studies have gone to Padova, Italy, to take part in a three week workshop on the technique of Commedia Dell’ Arte. The workshop is facilitated by a graduate of the world famous Ecole Jaques LeCoq in Paris, and is funded by the Leonardo Da Vinci project. During the workshop the Students learn the techniques of Commedia. They research the Characters and work with leather Masks. They create Costumes and Music and finally devise a text through Improvisation. They also make and work their own ‘Human‘ masks, which is a different style to the commedia ones. At the end of the workshop the students perform a commedia play (or canavaggio) devised by themselves with the guidance of their tutor in front of an Italian audience. On their return they present their work to friends, family, and an invited audience.

This trip to Padova is an integral and unique part of the training course at Inchicore College .