COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE

Run time: 1 - 7 days

Discovering the deep root of modern theatre.

In this high-energy, hands-on workshop, we’ll dive into its core elements: masked performance, stock characters, dynamic physicality, improvisation techniques, and the all-important relationship with the audience. We’ll explore themes of power, play, and presence—drawing on both traditional mask work and modern clowning. And yes, if time allows, we’ll throw in a bit of history too.

This workshop offers a fresh, authentic perspective—with plenty of sweat, laughter, and discovery along the way. You will leave this workshop with a more precise mask technique, a deeper understanding of archetypal characters, and strong improvisation tools.

Due to the amount of material, this workshop is meant to be an in-depth 5-days experience, but it can also be performed as a 3-hours taster.

SKILLS:

  • Commedia stock characters

  • Comedy structure

  • Embodying the mask

  • Improvisation types

  • Breathing and physical techniques for Commedia

KNOWLEDGE:

  • Roots of modern western theatre

  • Fundaments on how to create a masked character

  • Insight into mask-making technique (leather work)

  • Stock characters applied to contemporary storytelling

Francesca Fatichenti has performed Commedia Dell’Arte in multiple en-plain-aire theatres in Padua, Paris, Sicily, Venice, Avignon, Edinburgh… First directed by Commedia luminaire Carlo Boso, she has acted in old cannovaccios such as La Folie D’Isabella (playing Arlecchino), co-written new Commedia plays, and adapted to Commedia classics such as Molière’s Les Fourberies De Scapin, Shakespeare’s Midnight’s Summer Dream and Carlo Gozzi’s The Green Bird.

She has also been crafting leather masks for years, learning from the oldest and best mask-makers in Europe, including Stefano Perocco, Andrea Cavarra and Giorgio De Marchi.

Her mask collection features 14 hand-made (some by herself) leather Commedia masks.