Dell Arte: Further in the Mask

Week 9:

Back in the swing of things after the break and I'm glad to say I was itching to get back to work.

Mask work is very hard and technical.  An audience can tell when a person is physically imposing their ideas of what character they think the mask is rather than listening to it.  To finding the physicality, look at the mask and see it.  Ask yourself what the texture is, where are the creases in the face, how do the lines move on the mask, what shape are the eye holes?  All of these questions are helpful and encouraged before you put on the mask.  Consider the physical rhythm, tempo, and how body is influenced by the mask.  ALWAYS when working in mask, you as the wear-er, need to see, hear, and breath. If you don't breath, neither can the audience.  Working with this sequence of actions for an excersize can allow a character to live: Look at something, See it, Interested in it, Go toward it, Scared of it, No-It's funny.  

One of the greatest challenges with mask is how can I keep it simple and yet amplified.

For the P-Lab this week, my group worked with larval masks.  It was extremely difficult because if you google these masks, they are very hard to see out of.  There is no peripheral vision.  The are very simple and are not very intelligent.  They allow for a lot of discovery.  When developing a scene, the simpler the better.  What the lab was created for, was to find character and let the character live.  Our group missed the mark. It became about the unnecessary complex situation we developed rather than the relationship between the characters.   Our masks did not see and we were simply plowing through the actions and not experiencing them as if it was the first time.  It was an epic fail, but I learned a lot.

We had an assignment to make a mask out of cardboard and tape.  It needs to be secure to the wearer's face and be able to see.  This went well.  The review I received after showing it, was that it could really see (win!) and had great form (yes!) and that now it just needs to be painted.  Also, that Ronlin is excited to see how physical the character can get.   I was happy with this, especially since I struggled finding a form that worked.  I made four shapes that week and decided on one on the night before we showed.  I also struggled with finding physical features: lips, nose, ears. Because I didn't want to just stick them on the form, but rather find where the form is allowing the opportunity for these features.

The only way to learn with mask is by doing.  So I continue to play.