Pazzi Lazzi began the new year with shows, lectures, workshops and tours!
Indeed, we are so excited to bring our show in New York!
The tour represents an opportunity to show the New Yorkers our research and work on Commedia dell’Arte.
Our show ARIA DI COMMEDIA (in English) is for Theater and Commedia dell’Arte lovers, early music admirers or Italophiles, and not only.
Thanks to our sponsors Westchester Italian Cultural Center, Scuola D’Italia Guglielmo Marconi and New York University Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, we have three events scheduled on March 8 and March 9, 2015.
The show features two original, independent scenes inspired by the classic Commedia scenarios of the early 1600s. New England Conservatory M.o John Tyson and director of Renaissonics, a renowned Renaissance music ensemble, provides the musical accompaniment. http://renaissonics.weebly.com
When:
“Aria di Commedia” Sunday March 8th at 4:00 Westchester Italian Cultural Center
Directions and tickets visit: www.wiccny.org – Show is in English.
“Masks in motion” Workshop and demonstration (in Italian), with the lazzo “La fame di Arlecchino e i rimedi del Dottore” – Monday 9th at 1:00, Scuola d’Italia Guglielmo Marconi Middle School, NYC
“Aria di Commedia” with lecture, Monday March 9th at 6:00, New York University – Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo’, for directions and tickets visit: www.casaitaliananyu.org – Show is in English.
DOWNLOAD OUR PRESS BROCHURE AT THIS LINK.
OTHER DATES IN MASSACHUSETTS AND VERMONT
“Masks in Motion” Lecture, workshop and demonstration with the original scenario “Lady of the Rings”
March 27th at 5:00, Northeastern University, Ballroom Theatre – free and open to the general public. To sign up: http://www.northeastern.edu/issi/events.html
Commedia dell’Arte course, runs for four Thursdays starting on March 12th 7:00-9:30, Actors Training Program at Apollinaire Theatre, 189 Winnisimmet Street, Chelsea MA (we’ll update this event with another post on the blog)
“Masks in Motion” workshop and demonstration with the scenario “Two Gentlemen and a Sausage”
Friday April 3rd time TBA, Wellesley College.
“Lady of the Rings” scenario, Sunday May 10th as part of the Newton Festival of the Arts – Newton Centre Green time TBA, free and open to the general public.
“Masks in Motion” workshop and demonstration Thursday April 16 at 4:00, University of Vermont
During our tour, an Italian chef asked us what “Lazzi” means. We explained it in this review article, with a video or in our comic routine laboratory. In fact since we know that is a gag, a jest, we can summarize our response also in this video, even it’s in Italian our American audience can figure out the acrobatics behind the performance of an actor.
And last year, one of the Northeastern University students wrote this essay after watching our Lazzi. This good review gives another response to that question. Is Lazzo involve space and timing of the actors? Yes.
Reflection on Commedia dell’Arte by Nino Gvalia
The performance of Pazzi Lazzi was lively and interesting; the abundant use of colorful costumes and masks along with the energetic performers made the play engaging and fun to explore. In general I enjoyed this experience because besides actually having fun during the play, it carried educational and informative value as well.
Since Commedia dell’Arte is an example of improvisational theatre, actors were mainly believable, open and honest because large portion of their acting was improvisation. The content, themes of the play and the fact that the performance is supposed to be a comedy helps the performers to be believable and authentic because when a play involves sense of humor and actors are talented enough, it becomes easier to demonstrate high quality of artistic abilities. I especially liked the performance of Chiara Durazzini because I believe that in general her performance was quite humorous, especially in third act where she tells a man in white outfit with a mask that he is the best, how much she loves him, how handsome and smart he is. Her acting is not artificial but rather authentic and with proper amount of humor and honesty. I think that all actors were almost equally funny and witty, for example the man Chiara Durazzini was talking to (Emanuel Capoano) seemed completely preoccupied with his performance, however the acting was not over-thought or superfluous but rather humorous and sincere. For example in the beginning of the first act an actress talks about her favorite soup, she calls it something like zuppa del granduca. We know that one of the main themes of Carnevale was food and this passage was proof of that information. The actress demonstrates with gestures how she is going to feel when she eats the whole food, showing that she get fatter and fatter.
I believe that the customs were very colorful, proper for the play and the Carnevale in general. Each costume expressed the essence of the character, whether a character had to wear a mask or not, whether the outfit had to have many colors or be simpler. However scenery and visual elements besides lighting were not sophisticated enough personally for me. The background and scenery were too simple and not expressive of the circumstances and environment the director wanted to demonstrate. One scene followed the other logically and with sufficient pauses, but I think that itself each scene was a little bit long and may have caused slight sense of boredom from time to time. But in general the play was engaging notwithstanding these minor drawbacks. Since the scenery and decorations were not enough, the atmosphere was more created by the costumes and the playing of the actors that the background and other visual elements. The space definitely affected the performance, and at the same time met the needs of the play, but I believe that there was sufficient space to be used more actively with more decorations to create the atmosphere that the performance required.
I really enjoyed the musicians and the musical instruments they used, what created the feeling that Commedia dell’Arte needed. I believe that the play as a whole serves as a mirror of most of the societies not regarding the geographical or cultural backgrounds.
PAZZI LAZZI 