Slingshot Laboratories: Why Commedia?

The acting profession has always been a rockier road than most. In today's climate, filled with not just directors & producers but also casting directors & agents, not to mention audiences, there is one thing that everyone wants from us: excellence. However, the need to survive financially when out of work forces us to forsake our chosen profession in order to keep the landlord happy. This provides what I believe is our most torrid dilemma: how do we provide excellence when we have no time or space to train or grow? Even when in work, especially for long contracts, the skills we use are often limited to one area of our talents. How do we grow? How do we strive beyond the mean of the industry to achieve excellence? Even when finance isn't an issue, there is the problem of space & co-workers. Acting is not a solitary artform; technique can be refined, plays read, scripts analysed, theories absorbed, but this only strengthens our theatrical muscles. 

Imagine young David, eyeing Goliath up with his slingshot in hand, swinging his weapon faster & faster gaining momentum and rhythm. This is our technique: strong, rehearsed, timed, coordinated, disciplined to execute the throw. Our technique is the launchpad and foundation of the quality of our work. 

But Theatre is not just the execution of technique, it's the release of the stone, the release of our creative life, the life deep within us that allows the rock to fly. A weak technique means a weak throw. An arm that won't release means a dead show. It is the combination of the actor's discipline & refined technique, with their ability to liberate their inner creativity, creating memorable theatre, alive and vibrant. This release cannot be achieved alone, and whilst technique can be, seclusion from a work environment saps the energy to discipline ourselves. Painters can paint alone, writers can retreat off to remote islands, musicians can gather in small spaces to rehearse, but actors learn in front of an audience in a performance space. 

That's why at Slingshot we're seeking to establish a Laboratory to train actors in Commedia: not as THE solution to this age old problem, but as part of a solution. 

You may ask "Why Commedia? Why is this random Renaissance art form heralded as the path to improve my acting? No-one does Commedia any more, it's all method..." etc. etc. 

This is why I believe in the necessity of Commedia in actor training:

1) It puts actors at the centre of the creative life of performance, which is where they should be. This is opposed to putting the writer, director, method or indeed character at the centre. The first three do not exist to the audience, they do not see them and only consider them in reflection upon the event. The character exists only as a living interpretation of the actor, it is a mask the actor brings to life on stage in front of an audience.

2) It requires not just one part of your acting skill-base, but indeed all parts. As Antonio Fava says "You must control ALL". It requires a physical perfection which must be drilled to become part of the muscle memory. It requires a keen wit and alertness of mind. It relies heavily on teamwork with fellow actors. It demands that you take risks, speak clearly, make all your actions understandable, and that you learn to improvise. Improvisation alone requires creativity, timing, teamwork and the role of a writer within your head: editing, copying, pasting, filtering etc.

3) It is the foundational art form of ALL European theatre, including Shakespeare (see '7 ages of man speech' in As You Like It). It was the first professional theatre of Europe (for the name means "professional theatre"), inventing the actress (1560 - 100 years before England would do the same), the indoor theatre (Vicenza), and physical or 'slapstick' comedy, a term taken directly from Commedia (Zanni's 'Batocio'). 

4) It provokes something from actors which no other method I have come across does: it brings actors alive and into an ownership of their work, (without the religion of the method), and a realisation that they are artists, not just props for the overly exalted director, writer or producer. Rather than the Eastern European methods of shedding self, journeying to neutral and ridding oneself of all things interesting, the Commedia embraces and calls forward precisely those individual qualities and idiosyncrasies and asks the actor to inject them into their interpretation of the mask/character (which are the same thing). 

5) The main reasons actors & directors steer clear of Commedia in the UK is fear & pride. Fear of the unknown, and pride of having to learn something unknown. Fear of an art form which exposes the heart of the actor to the audience and pride of feeling 'above' such an art form. These reasons are at best, lame.

Details of laboratories will be posted on the website and sent out through our mailing list. They are currently sporadic and infrequent, however our desire is to find a permanent home & regular slot.