Contents of the workshop



Campus Belriguardo”
The Commedia dell'Arte and the Art of Comedy
(A path between different cultures to remould the modern comedy)






Antonio Fava: “Nasi Mustacchi e Lazzi”. Conference with demonstrations
Massimo Malucelli: “From the Commedia dell'Arte to the contemporary comic experience”
Carlos Clemente Martinez Gallego: “Commedia dell'Arte and Siglo de Oro”
Fabio Mangolini: “Commedia dell'Arte and eastern theater”

22 – 31 july 2013, Castello di Belriguardo

Contents of the workshop


Ten days at Castle Estense of Belriguardo where four teachers will give life to an intense one of a kind experience( un'esperienza intensa, unica nel panorama) within the international panorama of courses on the Commedia dell’Arte.


Four points of view, four personalities, four different teaching styles, and four aspects of the Commedia dell’Arte phenomenon, which will open itself to the study and creative manipulation of contemporary actors interested in rediscovering the deep roots of their art. 

The workshop, therefore, proposes an exploration that will bring to light the processes that make up the foundation of the comic experience, touching on the creative area and the characters of the Commedia dell’Arte (Zanni and Arlecchino, Pantalone and Doctor, Captain, Lovers).

We will not, therefore, be dealing in historical techniques.  We will instead be submerging ourselves in the roots of contemporaneity and in the vital terrain of a grand tradition.  This experience will be rooted in a precise area of study that will lend itself to being used as an extraordinary way to tap into creative material.  This work will favor the meeting between poetics and people coming from different traditions, will different professional, cultural, and artistic baggage. 

This workshop will be presented in four parts.  This first will give a general summary and a strong precise point of view of the Commedia phenomenon while the second part will cover the road taken from the historical phase to the contemporary comic experience.  The final two parts, which will be held up against the relationships of the Commedia and the “Siglo de Oro,” as well as the similar forms of Eastern theater, will permit us to deepen important unprecedented aspects of this type of theater, from which come many contemporary creations.

Structure of the Course


July 22.  Antonio Fava: “Nasi Mustacchi and Lazzi (gags).”  Conference with demonstrations.  Historical introduction; illustration of characteristics and of the relative masks with demonstrations; exhibition in a few lazzi, short scenes of repertory showing different characteristics; Question and answer with the public in order to deepen the subjects covered.


July 22-25.  Massimo Malucelli: “From the Commedia dell’Arte to the contemporary comic experience.”  This part covers the general themes of the workshop as a whole and proposes that those involved bring to light the processes that make up the foundation of the comic experience touching on the creative area and the characters of the Commedia dell’Arte, representative archetypes of the human condition, which are all capable of generating multitudes of new characters.  An opportunity to discover the profound sense of the comedian. (nel senso “della comicità”, comicity?) 

July 26-28.  Carlos Clemente Martinez Gallego: “Commedia dell’Arte and Siglo de Oro.”  The relationships between the characters and the dramatic situations of the Commedia and the Spanish “Siglo de Oro” unveil unprecedented potentiality and give important archetypal grounds to the construction that exists at the base of the contemporary comic experience. 

July 28-31.  Fabio Mangolini: “Commedia dell’Arte and Eastern Theater:”  A comparison between the foundations of Western and Eastern theater that will open up new possibilities in the founding of a new contemporary comic experience.  The processes and the archetypes of the comedy, in comparison will a distant culture, reveal their universality.

The Teachers


Antonio Fava is an actor, author, theatrical director, teacher of the Commedia dell’Arte as well as of other comic disciplines.  He directs the International School of the Comic Actor of Reggio Emilia in Italy.  He designs and makes leather masks that are used in his school and in his productions.  He teaches the Commedia dell’Arte in institutions, universities, and dramatic arts academies all over the world.  His masks are exhibited in important musems and cultural institutions.  He is an international director.  He is the author of the book The Comic Mask in the Commedia dell’Arte published by Andromeda, Italy, and by Northwestern University Press, USA. 


Massimo Malucelli has a degree in Philosophy with his thesis’ about a Commedia dell’Arte Canovaccio .  He studied acting, phisical theater, dance, mime, improvisation, and voice with the most prominent teachers from all over the world, a few being (traduce “tra cui”?) the Actors Studio in New York, Nichita Michalkov, the Roy Hart Theater, Yves Lebreton, and Antonio Fava.  Playwrite: six scripts.  Actor: fifty five plays, radio comedies, films, and narrated books.  Author: fifty seven works, some original and some adapted.  Director: sixty productions and one opera.  He conducts national and international courses, some of which being: international workshops, “improvvis-Attore” and “Commedia dell’Arte” with pupils coming from all over Europe and from the US.  He has done workshops at the “Drama Summer School” (UK); “Texas University” (USA); Centro Dramatico Galego (ES) and many others.  He is a contracted professor at the University of Ferrara and is the founder of Fonè.  Artistic director of “Campus Belriguardo” FB: Massimo Malucelli; Campus Belriguardo; FonèTeatro; Fonè ScuoladiTeatro   http://scuolateatrofone.blogspot.it/

Carlos Clemente Martinez Gallego has a degree in the dramatic arts and is titled in “declamazione” declamation and the Conservatorio Superiore Superior conservatory of La Coruña.  He completed a postgrad in pedagogical adaptation.  He is a master in theatrical and cinematographic studies at the University of Coruña where he also has a diploma in advanced studies (DEA).  Currently he is getting his doctorate in the research of “psicopedagogia” of the comic archetype of the “Siglo de Oro.”  In 1982 he founded the School of Rhythmic and Dramatic Expression Dandhea.  He is the president of the Puppeteers Association of Galizia and is in the process of creating the Institute Galiziano of the Scenic and Musical Arts (IGAEM).  He also currently belongs to the department of special didactic study in the Sciences of Education at the University of Coruña.  Actor and director in the theater, radio and television.  Directs the Company Dandhea and the theatrical “Sala Gurugù.”  He is also a theatrical author.

Fabio Mangolini is a professor of the Commedia dell’Arte at RESAD (Real Esquela di Arte Dràmatica de MAdrid) and in acción -- Escena.  He has a diploma from the international school of Mimodramma Marcel Marceau of Paris.  He has studied in Tokyo with the master Kyogen MNomura Kosuke.  He has worked with Carlo Boso, Nomura Kosuke, François Cervantes, Roxane Rizvi, Remi Barbier, Didier Doumergue.  He has directed productions in Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, Germany, The United States, and Japan.  He teaches courses in the Commedia dell’Arte in Italy, France, Spain, and on multiple occasions in Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Norway, El Salvador, Japan, and in the US.  He was a professor of the Commedia dell’Arte and of the techniques of the mask in the international school of Mimodramma Marcel Marceau.