Événement

COMMEDIA CRASH COURSE with Philip Hays

COMMEDIA CRASH COURSE

DATES: Sundays 8/28-9/25
TIME: 2pm-6pm

INTRUCTOR: Philip Hays

The commedia dellarte, or comedy of skill, flourished in the Renaissance as a highly physical, ridiculously silly, often offensive and enormously popular style. It became a means for performers to band together and create their own work on their own terms for a popular audience.

Students will learn and practice the building blocks of commedia dell'arte, including stock character types, physical gags, and character-based improvisation.

But this is more than a stinky ol history lesson: we will emphasize practical skills in physical characterization, masked performance, and the construction of scenes and plays from an improvisational method, culminating in a devised performance based on original characters of their own creation.

This is an advanced course. Previous experience as an improviser or performer is required.

LOCATION:
RecRoom
100 Jackson Street
Houston, TX 77002

BIO: Philip Hays is an actor, director and theatre educator based out of Houston, TX. He is a graduate of the Scola Internazionale dellAttore Comico (International School of Comic Acting) where he studied commedia dellarte in its Italian homeland with the master Antonio Fava. He is a company member of the Horse Head Theater Co. (Houston Press MASTERMIND Award 2016), for which he conceived, co-wrote and performed the one-man immersive show The Whale; or, Moby-Dick (Best New Play, Houston Press Theater Awards 2016). He is also a company member of the Classical Theatre Company, for whom he has directed his own adaptations of Aristophanes The Birds and Ubu Roi, as well as new adaptations of Doctor Faustus and A Christmas Carol. Philip has been an Artistic Associate with the Prague Shakespeare Company, where he performed in over twelve productions, and directed, co-wrote, and performed in both his original commedia dell'arte-meets-Grand Guignol take on John Websters The Duchess of Malfi and the new play The Murder of Gonzago, loosely based on Shakespeare's Hamlet. As an actor on Houston stages, he has appeared in numerous roles at Main Street Theater, Classical Theater Company, Stark Naked Theater Company, Houston Shakespeare Festival, and more. www.philiphays.com