The world of Commedia

Running time: 9.10mins

Film maker: Deborah May

This film is an introduction to the world of Commedia dell'arte. Learn about all of the stock characters in Commedia, the masked and the unmasked, their status, their physical shapes and their character traits. This film was made from a two-day workshop with young actors led by Didi Hopkins from Commediaworks.

Commedia dell'arte

Commedia dell'arte came out of Venice in the 1600s. It was a popular form of street theatre based on improvised scenarios between stock characters based on universal types of masters, servants and lovers. This collection features video about the world of commedia and offers video workshops that look at the key attributes of the craft.

  • The world of Commedia

    This film is an introduction to Commedia dell'arte.

  • Shape

    This film looks at specific physical shape and way of moving for each Commedia character.

  • Emotion

    This film looks at ways of physicalising primary emotions.

  • The language of Commedia

    This film looks at the language of Gromalot - a nonsensical babble speak that carries the truthful emotional intention of a character.

  • A brief history of commedia

    This film gives an overview of the history of Commedia dell'arte with Didi Hopkins.

Video Collections