Jacques Lecoq said that the essence of Commedia dell 'arte was hard for his student actors to grasp as they had not lived long enough to understand the tragic (Murray, 2003, p. 50). His work on Commedia was not about codified systems or rediscovering the characters, but about identifying key principles so as to re-invent them for the contemporary theatre (p.53).

Discuss

In a video conference with your teacher, discuss Jacques Lecoq's philosophical underpinning of Commedia dell 'arte. Remeber - he wanted his actors to immerse themselves in the pleasure of playing with the essence of this dramatic form.

Exercise 4.12 (p.146) and Exercise 4.13 (p.147) in the text set for study provides a solid introduction to developing a character through Commedia dell 'arte. The obstacle course exercise means you have to find ways to create a character with balance and counter balance, and the ice skating, crawling through tunnels exercise can help you explore the dynamics of push and pull in a character. This can be followed by planning in groups small scenes from the themes of The Divorce and The Reconciliation (p.149).

When developing these scenes you are reminded to create characters that:

• change moods
• push and pull each other emotionally
• push and pull each other physically
• balance and counter balance bodies
• react to every new piece of information
• react in different ways to old information
• become the adult and become the child
• swap status
• find the ridiculous
• find the humour in the tragedy that is unfolding
• find the tragic in the human tragedy
• want to be loved and want to hate.