This is the first time the summer theater program has incorporated commedia into its offerings. Commedia fits into the Shakespeare camp because that form of theater was popular during Shakespeare’s time, and because the camp’s participants are focusing on Shakespeare’s comedies and the clownlike characters that appear in them, said Samantha Starr, the education director at A Noise Within.
“They’re using [commedia] to inform the Shakespearean clown,” she said.
During a commedia class on Wednesday, John Achorn, one of the camp’s instructors, talked to the campers about how to perform commedia while wearing masks.
Achorn had the masked students move their heads in small, precise movements and hold each position for a few seconds.
“The reason we do that is to give the audience specificity of where we’re going,” Achorn said.
In commedia, that kind of body language is so important because, the students said, one’s face is masked and remains expressionless.
“You can’t show things with your facial expressions, so you have to use your body more,” said Noah Sonderling, 12.
Derek enjoys commedia for the freedom it offers.
“You totally become a completely different person,” he said. “One moment you’re an urban kid, the next moment you can be a rich Venetian merchant who’s very lustful and greedy.”
Throughout the five-week summer program, the actors, who range from 10 to 18 years old, act scenes from Shakespeare’s plays and do text analysis to better understand them. They have also built lutes, and learned about improvisation, stage combat and voice projection. On Aug. 9, they’ll perform some of the scenes they’ve crafted as well as samples of commedia.
For Sarah White, 14, the text analysis portion of the camp has made Shakespeare accessible.
“I’ve always thought it was complicated and really hard to understand,” she said. “We pretty much take all the text we don’t understand and bring it into modern English.”
