No, we are not being starved and over-worked for the love of our art. OK, we kind of are… would that define us poor theatremakers as Zanni, seeing as we share the three characteristics above?

This weekend, Tightlaced had the pleasure to receive Stefano Guizzi, who flew from Italy to take a day-and-a-half course on Commedia dell’Arte, co-organised by Charioteer Theatre. It was a rather intense weekend for the 8 participants, who came from various backgrounds and levels of experience and had to take in a huge amount of information within a short period of time. It was a big challenge for Stefano himself, who is used to running longer courses with larger groups. What happened, however, was a brilliant show of enthusiasm, commitment and energy. It was mesmerising to watch each mask being introduced, carefully built up and finally brought to life by all performers. Day one was dedicated to preparation and it looked like people were overloaded, but as some of them stated, they digested the information overnight and when they came back for day two, the space was beautifully populated with Zannis, Pantalones, Dottores, Arlecchinos, Smeraldinas and Brighellas getting themselves and each other in the silliest of situations, provoking genuine outbursts of laughter from all of us! It was an intensive course, but so much came out of it thanks to Stefano’s expertise and the performers’ talent.

Don’t be too sad if you missed this opportunity, we are planning to run more workshops and courses from next year on. It would be lovely if all regular and not-so-regular Tightlacers dropped us a line to let us know what kind of workshops and courses they would be interested in so we can put together a programme especially for you.

Thank you once again to all involved in the Commedia course, and well done! Bravissimi!