INTERPRETATION

MIUR Acting Academies

The Academic Diploma Course Programs in Acting at the International Theatre Academy are structured in predominantly practical teachings complemented by theoretical lessons to support academic training.

The roots of theater

The study period begins with the search for the "neutral state", namely a state of total openness, preparatory for any subsequent stylistic application, which precedes every action and places us in a condition of discovery in relation to the space around us and others, predisposing us to listening, to receptiveness. The actor must first become aware of their posture, their everyday gestures, and the signals expressed through them, to detach from them and search for a clearer and more versatile stage presence.

THE NEUTRAL MASK

In the search for the "neutral state," the neutral or inexpressive mask plays a fundamental role. It is a preparatory tool that erases facial expressions. This way, attention is focused on the body and more precisely on the torso, the center of breathing, the engine of every feeling, and thus of every movement. The first step is the observation of natural elements: water, fire, earth, and air, with the aim of capturing their intrinsic dynamics and transforming them into breathing and abstract movement. From the line of force that arises from breathing, the limbs and head are involved only in a later stage. The next step is to remove the mask, introducing sound, word, and text for a theatrical transposition. This research aims to bring about less stereotyped acting since it is born from the experience of the many nuances present in the range of human feelings and from a more aware expressive potential.

MYTHS AND RITUALS

In the pursuit of natural and essential acting, the actor engages with the origins of theater, namely with a symbolic and evocative representation of signs. At this point, the research follows two parallel paths: the verbal through myths and the gestural through rituals.

Propitiatory Ritual
At the dawn of time, primitive peoples believed in the mystical union of all living beings and in the creative force that stemmed from it: from the effort to identify with nature arises the spirit of imitating animals and the cathartic abstraction of the forces that move the world, which is at the base of the dances of rituals and thus at the very basis of theater as an evocative and propitiatory representation. The climax of the ritual is precisely the creation and exaltation of the Totem, which represents the mystical union between animal and man and evokes its power.
The propitiatory texts are drawn from African, Amerindian, Asian, and Indo-European myths.

Funeral Ritual
Funeral dances, present in all animistic religions, aimed to protect both the deceased and the entire tribe from evil spirits. In an ecstatic bond, the living helped the departed to surely reach the spirits of the ancestors. No ritual has an essence as "vitalistic" as the funeral one: the dance that arises has a strong rhythmic base, and all movements are performed with the utmost vigor to create a circularity that evokes infinity.
The funeral texts are drawn from African, Amerindian, Asian, and Indo-European myths.

Combat Ritual
It represents the game-preparation for war. Tribes confront each other in choreographies that train the body for quick attacks and defenses, representing the confrontation with the enemy, in its various phases, until the hopeful epilogue of victory and triumph. Two opposing choirs face each other exorcising the violent aspects of war through the abstraction of the danced fight.
The war texts are drawn from African, Amerindian, Asian, and Indo-European myths.

Hunting Ritual
It symbolizes the most ancient form of food collection, which is the basis of the survival of the species. The rhythm of the hunt, marked by drums, involves the simulation of the various phases of the chase: from the sighting to the capture of the prey, passing through the strategies of approach, all aimed at emphasizing the sacredness of the act of hunting, where the prey is respected and honored as a worthy opponent. The hunting texts are drawn from African, Amerindian, Asian, and Indo-European myths.

The origins of the word

The second year of study is dedicated to the exploration of the word's power, its rhythm, and its musicality in correlation with the gesture. The work starts from the study of the phonetic alphabet, to proceed with the analysis of texts from the classical tradition, up to contemporary authors. The aim is to achieve a perfect synthesis between word and action, in which the physical gesture becomes an extension of the spoken word, creating a unified and harmonious scenic language.

THE ARTICULATION OF THE WORD

The articulation of the word is analyzed in its components: the vowel, the consonant, and the syllable, to reach a clear and precise diction. The exercises aim at mastering the modulation of the voice, its volume, and its intonation, to express the full range of emotions and states of mind through the spoken word. Special attention is paid to the breathing techniques that support the voice, to the posture that facilitates its projection, and to the gaze that conveys the intensity of the speech.

THE TEXT AS ACTION

The text becomes the protagonist of the scenic action. The actor explores it in its multiple layers: the literal, the metaphorical, the symbolic. The aim is to inhabit the text, to make it live through the body and the voice, transforming it into action. The work on the text is not only interpretative but also creative: the actor learns to compose his own texts, starting from improvisations or thematic suggestions, developing a personal and original scenic language.

THE CHORAL DIMENSION

The study of the choral dimension is fundamental in the actor's training. The chorus is not only a group of voices but a collective body that moves in space, creating forms and rhythms. The work on the chorus aims to develop the sense of rhythm, the capacity to listen and synchronize with others, and the ability to create collective emotions and thoughts through the harmony of movements and voices.

The contemporary scene

The third year of study focuses on the application of the acquired skills in the contemporary scene. The actor is now ready to confront the complexity of modern texts and the challenges of current staging. The training includes the study of directing, to understand the mechanisms of the scenic machine, and of dramaturgy, to deepen the analysis of texts and the construction of the character. The encounter with contemporary theater practices, from physical theater to performance art, from multimedia theater to street theater, enables the actor to experiment with different expressive languages and to find his own place in the panorama of contemporary performing arts.

THE ACTOR AND THE CAMERA

In the era of multimedia, the actor must also be able to act in front of the camera. The course includes specific training for cinema and television acting, focusing on the differences between stage acting and screen acting. The work aims at mastering the techniques of acting in front of the camera, from the control of movements and facial expressions to the modulation of the voice for the microphone. The actor learns to interact with the camera, understanding its language and its expressive possibilities, to perform convincingly in the various audiovisual formats.

THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE

The International Theatre Academy prepares the actor for the international scene, offering courses in English and other languages, to enable him to work in different cultural contexts. The knowledge of foreign languages and the ability to act in a non-native language are essential skills for the contemporary actor, who must be able to move freely in the global theater and film market.

The Literary Tale: Courteous, Sacred and Profane
- Chivalric Courtesy
- Lyric of the Troubadours' Poetry
- Mysteries and Sacred Representations

Characteristics of the Chivalric Romance:
- Love plays a predominant role, taking the form of courtly love
- Lacking any historical reference, it deals with purely legendary matters
- Dominated by a fantastical and fairy-tale imagination, based on ancient Celtic legends.

Structure:
- Stories follow one another ad infinitum with a dynamic development full of twists and turns
- Use of agile and smooth rhyme
- The chansons de geste

THE FAIR THEATER

The Fair Theater arises from the oral and popular tradition of the great fairs that, in the 12th and 13th centuries, animated Paris and the major European urban centers: in the Middle Ages the theatrical building disappears; due to the lack of a theatrical structure, the performance takes place in public places, such as the church, the square, and the street, or in private places like aristocratic halls. The revival of economic activity after the fall of the Roman Empire, merchants and exotic goods brought back from now more frequent travels, the re-establishment of games and tournaments, and the celebration of sacred or profane festivals, make the squares a meeting place between the population and a varied and widespread spectacle. Actors, poets, acrobats, street jesters, musicians, singers of deeds, dance masters, and charlatans turn the festive time into a theatrical time. The "Forains", the wandering actors, transform the square into an "en plein air" stage for their timeless stories. The evolution of this type of narration leads to the "grand-guignol" tale that transforms traditional children's fairy tales into bloody grotesque farces.
Students confront this particular style by tackling various modes of storytelling.

• The narrator
  Introduces the themes of the legendary story aiming, through a taste for exaggeration, at a comedy that is both naive and delirious linked to the "commedia dell'improvviso".
• The mime
  Relates the text to the image, so that the story becomes a rhythmic score that marks the dissolves between narration, dialogue, and pantomime setting.
• The charlatan
  Doctors, actors, illusionists stage the persuasive charm of "sellers" of all times, enchanting the audience with their stories always teetering between fiction and reality.

The work on the neutral mask is contaminated by martial arts, Thai Chi Chuan, and Zen practice, and once again focuses the actor on breathing, feeling, and being, addressed in this period of teaching with the study of Eastern philosophies, the sacred texts of India, Taoism, and Tibet. Alongside the Fair Theater, work will therefore proceed on a type of narration antithetical to that of Western tradition: through Zen tales, with their essential and symbolic word, the Tibetan tales, where the gesture blooms baroque, and the uninhibited comedy of Mongolian and Chinese stories, students will approach the mythical storytelling of the Eastern tradition.

Improvisation Techniques

In the first year, we will lay the foundations through various paths aimed at: observation and rediscovery of life as a phenomenon, elevating the acting level and exploring the depth of poetry, words, colors, sounds. The goal is dramatic creation, the discovery of vast expressive territories, geodrama. To bring forth a theater in which the actor is in play to reinvent theater without ever losing sight of the essentials, namely the dynamics of nature and human relationships, the engine of the acting game.

• Movement and gestuality
• Word and sound
• Great feelings and imagination

Anthropological Construction of the Character
(theatrical)

THE MASKS OF BASEL

The Neutral Mask, the Larval Masks, and the Masks of Character are tools of knowledge and self-awareness, of theatrical anthropology, which leads the actor to explore and define the energies and archetypes that animate the human being. The work on the mask, by limiting the means of expression, concentrates the actor's attention on listening, on presence, on being rather than appearing. The mask teaches humility, the sense of the ridiculous, the grotesque, and the sublime.
The work aims at the construction of the character starting from the analysis of movement, the study of animals, of the elements, and of materials, to then address the study of human typologies through observation and imitation exercises.

THE COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE

The study of the Commedia dell'Arte masks is an important moment in the training of the actor who, through the rigorous discipline required by the mask, learns to manage the comic timings and the mechanisms of laughter.
The traditional characters of the Commedia dell'Arte (Arlecchino, Pantalone, Dottore, Colombina, etc.) are analyzed in their typological characteristics, in the "lazzi", in the "canovacci", and in the improvisation that constitutes the basis of their acting. The goal is to arrive at a personal reinterpretation of the mask, through a work that combines technique and creativity.

Movement and Body Expression

The work on movement is aimed at freeing the actor's expressive potential, to achieve a full use of his physicality in the scenic space. The courses propose a journey through different techniques and approaches to movement:

• Mime and Pantomime: the art of silence, where the body becomes the sole means of expression.
• Dance Theater: the fusion between dance and theater, where choreographic movement meets narrative.
• Physical Theater: a contemporary form of theater where physical expression prevails over the word.
• Clowning: the discovery of one's own clown, a journey into the absurd and the comic through the innocence and vulnerability of the clown figure.
• Acrobatics and Circus Arts: the exploration of acrobatic skills and their theatrical application.

These paths are not only aimed at acquiring technical skills but also at exploring the emotional, expressive, and narrative possibilities of the body in space. The ultimate goal is to develop a versatile, sensitive, and expressive actor, capable of moving with ease between different styles and registers of performance.

Voice and Diction

The voice is the actor's musical instrument, and its training is fundamental for the expressiveness and effectiveness of the performance. The work on voice and diction includes:

• Vocal Technique: breathing, resonance, articulation, to achieve a rich, flexible, and powerful voice.
• Text Analysis and Interpretation: to bring the written word to life, understanding its rhythms, melodies, and emotions.
• Singing: to explore the musicality of the voice and its expressive potential in song.
• Improvisation and Creation: to use the voice creatively, exploring its infinite possibilities in the creation of characters and atmospheres.

This approach aims not only at technical mastery but also at the development of a conscious and expressive use of the voice, capable of supporting the actor's interpretative choices and of communicating the deepest emotions and nuances of the character.

The Clown

The work on the clown is a deep and transformative journey into the essence of the actor, through the discovery and development of his or her own clown character. This process involves:

• Personal Research: to identify the clown within, through exploration and improvisation.
• Physical and Vocal Exploration: to develop the clown's unique way of moving and speaking.
• Comic Timing and Rhythm: to understand and master the mechanics of comedy and laughter.
• Creation of Skits and Routines: to bring the clown to life on stage, through the development of original and personal comic material.

This work, deeply rooted in the tradition of the circus and street theater, opens up new expressive horizons for the actor, teaching him or her the value of vulnerability, authenticity, and the comic perspective on the human condition.

• Psychology, posture and walk of the character, rhythm and musicality
• Realism and allegory of the character
• Search for the counter-character

This method of work, in character building, allows to analyze through the same lens dialogues and theatrical literature situations from the works of some early 20th-century authors such as Chekhov, Lorca, and Pirandello; motivations and given circumstances in which the character acts are this time provided by the author. The character's evolution is tied to the plot, and his or her psychological and behavioral lines must be partly deduced from the text analysis and partly from a personal interpretative journey.

• Credibility and interpretative authenticity
• Interpretative study of action and relationship with the other

Character Building: Stanislavski - Strasberg
(Cinematic)

STANISLAVSKI METHOD

From the actor's work to self-work, the "method" of the Russian master Konstantin Stanislavski starts from two fundamental processes for character building: the "Personification Process" and the "Revivification Process".
The "self" and the "given circumstances" place the actor in the creative condition of wondering how he or she would behave in that situation, just as a child does in his or her early games. In the constant search for the "true", opposed to the clichés of emphatic acting, the actor must appeal to his or her "emotional memory" to re-experience lived feelings and keep them alive until the staging and his or her "physical training" with which over the years shapes his or her body as a flexible instrument.

STRASBERG METHOD

An additional approach to work on character building is given by the study of Lee Strasberg's method, who developed in America a working system starting from some elements of Konstantin Stanislavski's theatrical pedagogy, focusing mainly on the use of emotional memory. The actor frees himself from fiction if he does not imitate but becomes the character to be represented, in a kind of identification. The training in this case is emotional and, starting from a psychological and behavioral analysis of the character, the student is led to assume its most intimate identity. The goal is to discover the motivations, personality, feelings of the character based on one's own, to know his body, his emotions, his deep reactions. The improvisations are based on the interpretation of situations emotionally similar to those contained in the text, but without the support of the lines. The exercises of affective memory, consist instead in reliving experiences of one's past, in order to evoke the feelings involved in that given moment, then using them to create a true and credible character.

• The actor's training
• Concentration, observation, attention
• Psychological and behavioral analysis
• The "ifs" and "given circumstances"
• Exploration of the character: motivations, feelings, personality
• Emotional memory - Affective memory - Sensory memory
• Public character - Private character
• Dramatic action and narrative arc
• Imitation of people through the observation of the real
• Imitation of animals
• Evolution of the character with unusual characteristics

If the Stanislavski method is used in the context of a purely theatrical research, the approach to the Strasberg method is preparatory to a more cinematic application. Indeed, at the conclusion of the work on the Strasberg method, students will confront the camera. Through relaxation exercises, control and expressive dosing, one learns to favor the close-up of the lens, according to the shot (close-up, medium shot, American shot). Then one trains to get into character in the time of a clapperboard, to interpret a segment of story in a non-consequential form, and to repeat the action several times without losing freshness and credibility.

• Shooting with a camera of the built character
• Organicity and naturalness
• Immediacy of action
• Non-consequential interpretation to the story
• Repetition of action
• The dynamics of the close-up, medium shot, long shot
• Cinematic and television audition techniques

ON-CAMERA ACTING/ACTING

The process starts from the viewing, analysis, and finally the interpretation of scenes from auteur cinema: Luchino Visconti, Dino Risi, Michelangelo Antonioni, Mario Monicelli, Ettore Scola, Ingmar Bergman, Vittorio De Sica, Jaques Audiard, Berry Levinson, Pedro Almodovar, Eric Rohmer, Ken Loach, Cédric Kaplisc, Patrice Leconte. Additionally, some scenes from quality "Italian fiction" will be worked on. The program then provides for the students to perform the assigned scenes in front of the camera as a real shooting with the aim of mastering the "on-camera acting technique" applying the rules of space and entries and experiencing a relaxed and natural stage presence. Times and methodologies of cinematic and television shooting and scenic movements will be applied. Initially, the student's work will be mainly emotional: from building a personal training, observing and analyzing the character, to the physical details. Then the research will involve the cleanliness and essentiality of the line and scenic movement, without neglecting the many details that complete the character's characterization.
Subsequently, a more "technical" phase is tackled by working on the basic unit of cinematic language: "the shot", also known as "frame". The student will have to practice the dynamics of the "shot-reverse shot", "feel" the camera movements and know how to take the light, support the "close-up" (shot from the shoulders up), the "very close-up" (shot of the head and part of the neck), the "American shot" (from the knees up), and the "medium shot" (shot that coincides with the character's waistline) to finally use the eyes as a minimalist expressive form and to enter smoothly into the shot.

From Modern Drama to Comic "Melodrama"

The final educational phase of the first year now focuses on the search for feeling, from the lyricism of a poetic text to the raw realism of war settings.

MODERN DRAMA

The historical period from the 1800s to our days, with its revolutions, conflicts, and great migrations, is an extremely fertile ground for exercising the interpretation of the wide range of human feelings.

Melodramatic Acting
Compared to ancient tragedy, modern drama lives with a different, softer and more suspended breath, which modifies acting with a more lyrical and intimate vocal timbre and a movement that arises from the play of attractions and repulsions.

Interpretative Sincerity
The actor embarks on the study of interpretative sincerity by working on feeling, from reading in verses to a real theatrical and poetic research on emotion: love, hate, hope, pride, strength, weakness, and nostalgia; common passions that the actor explores within themselves, within dramatic settings. This gives rise to specific improvisations: the meeting, abandonment, betrayal, separation, nostalgia, social conflict, war, exodus.

The Characters
The characters are extraordinary and common men sometimes unknown, ranging from the first "industrial era" to our days: abandoned orphans, ruthless usurers, slave traders, sailors, prostitutes, soldiers and fighters, tormented lovers, emigrants in search of fortune.
This phase of study unites various research paths tackled during the year: from character work, narrative skills, from stylization and abstraction of feelings and passions, to the creation of a screenplay capable of using cinematographic techniques (flashbacks, fades, long takes, shot/reverse shot) to structure a story that necessarily includes fragmentary testimonies and temporal leaps.

VERSE ACTING

Narrative, Stories, and Author's Poems
The study of romantic literature from the nineteenth century to today, the poems and works of narrative of the great authors of these centuries, from Maupassant to Rimbaud, from Neruda to Eluard, from Apollinaire to Hikmet from Rilke to A'isha Arna'ut, will become the starting point of the work of text elaboration and of short poetic writings to be transposed onto the scene. The purpose of this study is to develop an interpretative ability evocative of the thoughts, images, sounds, and deeper meanings that each poem carries within itself.

COMIC MELODRAMA

Exasperation of Feeling
When the tragicity of human destinies becomes exacerbated, drama turns into laughter: the same stories, the same characters seen under another lens take on grotesque traits. Thus, students discover the tragicomic potential of melodrama and confront the creation of short screenplays with farcical mechanisms: the “narrator/mimer,” the narrator's “voice off” in relation to the silent dialogue, the malfunctioning of the narrative mechanism, the exchange of roles, etc.

From White Pantomime to "Ragtime"
Starting from the acting of silent cinema, full of mimetic emphasis, exaggeration of facial expressiveness coupled with scenic movement, we arrive at the study of accelerated pantomime and its evolution in the world of imagery. Pantomime is the art of silent storytelling; it uses the mimetic language, composing a vocabulary of gestural meanings that describe characters, environments, and feelings. The nineteenth-century white pantomime of the moonstruck Pierrot introduces the study of poetic melodrama.
Its historical evolution, also thanks to the birth of photography and silent cinema, pushes towards a caricatural form transforming the watery characters, into fixed types with accelerated mimicry. The scenic writings in this phase will therefore have as a stylistic reference the “silent cinema of the 20s”: falls, misunderstandings, pies in the face to the rhythm of “ragtime” (Chaplin, Keaton, Marx Brothers, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy).

USE OF VOICE / EMISSION TECHNIQUES / ORTHOEPY

1st Year

The voice is the main instrument with which the human being realizes communication transmitting ideas, emotions, feelings, personality, and moods. Knowing the functioning of vocal emission and the ability to act on it are therefore the basis of interpretative techniques for the actor. The phonatory function is particularly important in the dramatic art, where the voice is used in a creative and personal way. It is therefore necessary to develop a correct vocal technique that allows the actor to use their voice in all its potentialities, without damage, and with the greatest expressiveness.

THE VOICE: ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY

The student will acquire a knowledge of the main anatomical and physiological mechanisms of phonation, from the production of sound by the vocal cords to the articulation of the voice in the vocal tract. This study will be accompanied by practical exercises aimed at becoming aware of the vocal apparatus and its functioning, exercises of vocal relaxation, breathing, and phonation that will lead the student to discover their own vocal potential.

VOCAL TECHNIQUES

Vocal Warm-up and Training
The daily practice of vocal warm-up exercises is essential to prepare the vocal apparatus for the effort required by the interpretative performance. The student will learn specific exercises for the warming up of the vocal cords, for the development of the diaphragmatic breathing, for the control of the voice projection, and for the modulation of the tone and intensity of the voice.

Articulation and Diction Exercises
The clarity of diction is fundamental in the interpretative art. The student will therefore be engaged in exercises aimed at improving the articulation of sounds, the pronunciation of words, and the intelligibility of speech, through the study of the phonetic alphabet and the practice of diction exercises.

Voice Projection
The ability to project the voice in space is a fundamental skill for the actor, who must be able to reach the last row of the audience without strain. The student will practice voice projection techniques, learning to use the resonant cavities of the body to amplify the sound of the voice.

Expression and Interpretation
The final goal of vocal training is to enable the student to use their voice expressively, adapting it to different interpretative contexts. Through the study of intonation, rhythm, and pause, the student will learn to modulate their voice according to the emotional content of the text and the character's personality.

ORTHOEPY AND DICTION

The correct pronunciation of the sounds of the language and the clarity of diction are essential requirements for the actor. The student will study the rules of orthoepy and diction, practicing the correct pronunciation of vowels and consonants, the use of the accent, the intonation of sentences, and the modulation of the voice according to the expressive needs of the text.

The study of orthoepy will also include the analysis of the most common pronunciation errors and the ways to correct them, with particular attention to the regional accents and the need to adapt the pronunciation to the standard language in the theatrical context.

READING TECHNIQUES

1st Year

Reading aloud is a fundamental skill in an actor's work, lying at the intersection between empathy and alienation techniques, and boasting significant practical applications: from "table readings" in drama theater, to lectern performances, from radio and live literary readings to audiobooks. In reading techniques, the teaching of acting aids in making a highly artificial path natural and in making what is effectively a staging communicatively more effective: it is about making a portion of text that is not spoken seem spoken, and making a string of language that is not thought seem spontaneously thought. The work is situated in a pre-interpretative area, starting from the premise that to achieve a brilliant interpretation, one must relearn to read, and that before applying expressive enhancements to the text (specific use of voice, melodic intensity of certain passages, emotional vibratility, characterization of characters) it is necessary first and foremost to understand and communicate something that is in the text and constitutes it as such. To activate this area, it is necessary to use the whole body through a process that utilizes movements and gestures exercisable with theatrical methodologies based on bodily expressiveness, the organicity of impulses, and the concept of action; the understanding and attention of the spectator lie in the link between gesture and speech, between body movements and intonations.

EXPRESSIVE READING

- Meaning of a passage in reading
- The word in semantic and syntactic context
- Poetic and dramatic reading
- Reading in verse and prose
- Spontaneous reading
- Reading technique exercises

 

PHYSICAL TRAINING / MOVEMENT TECHNIQUES

1st Year

The path related to movement techniques, in the first year, is aimed at improving self-awareness and awareness of one's body in relation to space and others. Through the analysis of one's natural movement and the exploration of body structure, training and movement techniques are experimented with, enriching non-verbal expressive capabilities by developing control, energy, and creativity.

ELEMENTS OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY DANCE

1st Year

The educational path of Dance Techniques, parallel to the study of interpretative styles, expands expressive possibilities through the multiple capabilities of the body's instrument. Thus, Afro-dance is preparatory to the study of Tragedy in its relationship with the earth element, the concept of the chorus, and the mystical/ritualistic aspect; court dances, from Renaissance to Baroque to eighteenth-century dances, evoke the settings of Fair and Elizabethan Theater; Tango and Waltz, quintessentially theatrical dances, strengthen and uniquely enhance the study of scenic relationship between characters. This includes the study of bodily expression and relationship, conscious and economical movement, and movement in relation to voice and space. The 1st Year study path develops in two phases: the first is oriented towards the discovery and awareness of movement principles, stage presence, and improvisation, the second consists of a performative experience that deepens the work on stage presence through expressive, compositional, and scenic relation improvisations.

• Specific weight, alignment, and gravity
• Relationship, center, and periphery
• Consequentiality of supports
• Pushes and transmissions
• Anatomical connections
• Points of initiation and falls
• Floorwork

MIME AND PANTOMIME

1st Year

To convey a message, communicate an emotion, or tell a story, words are not the only tool at our disposal. There's a powerful form of language shared by all of humanity and based on gestures and expressions: the non-verbal. Mime consists solely of gestures and does not involve the use of any kind of word or sound; it imitates real life starting from a methodical decomposition, simulating with extreme precision the presence of objects or attractive or repulsive forces. Pantomime is also a silent scenic representation, made up of mimetic action, facial expressions, and body movements but, unlike mime, it can be accompanied by music, sounds, and offstage voices, and is aimed at telling a story.
According to the methodology of corporeal mime developed by Étienne Decroux, the human body is decomposable into segments and parts like a machine, but such decomposition is aimed at searching for unity between the body and the spirit. This occurs through an expressive discipline that trains in the mimetic representation of objects that we have around us daily (manipulation) and to understand the movements we make when we are in contact with them (fixed point and translations).
It’s a method based essentially on self-perception and gestural memory: it's not enough to intellectually imagine the object, the body must “feel” it physically by activating in the manipulation the muscles involved with the same effort they would employ with the real object depending on its weight, shape, and dimensions.

• Basic technique, manipulation and fixed point, mimetic sequences
• Illusion of objects and everyday actions
• The abstract mimetic gesture (Decroux's symbolism)
• Segmentations and reconstructions of mimetic sentences (Marceau technique)
• The essential dynamics of the human body: pulling, pushing, etc. (Lecoq technique)
• Human scenographies
• White pantomime
• Accelerated pantomime
• Cinematic pantomime
• Comic strip pantomime
• Comedies and Ragtime

MUSIC AND SINGING DISCIPLINES

1st Year

In the first year of the course, the study of music and singing disciplines is aimed at stimulating in students the aptitude for listening, harmonizing, rhythm sense, and improvisation in relation to a given score. In this way, vocal setting techniques become a gym for the actor functional to theatrical performance.

• Music literacy
• Sensitization to musical forms and structures
• Solfeggio and score reading
• Elements of rhythmic and sung reading
• Rhythmic and melodic exercises
• Percussion section
• Elements of composition
• Concept of tonic: dominant, subdominant
• Recognition of pulse, accents, and meter
• Singing
• Setting of the sung voice
• Vocal interpretation techniques
• Rhythm, singing, and scenic movement
• Vocal - rhythmic - melodic improvisations
• Practice of singing, various pitches, and intervals
• Awareness of the harmonic - vertical aspect of music
• Canons and second voice
• Intensity and quality of the voice: the vibrato, the "growl" (hoarse and guttural), the "scream" (shouted)
• Songs from the folk, classical, jazz, ethnic repertoire
• Composition and execution of pieces with percussion and voice
• Jazz improvisations and "vocalese"

 

THEATER HISTORY

1st Year

The study of theater history starts with the dramatization forms of primitive peoples, linked to myths and rituals; it then addresses Greek theater and ancient tragedy of the fifth century by deepening the figure of the hero and his evolutionary path. The process begins with Homeric heroes, thinking about their actions and the multitude of possible futures, but above all with Oedipus, who through deep introspective ability approaches the dimension of tragedy. The evolutionary path then proceeds on the road paved by Oedipus encountering the different interpretations of the three classical tragedians, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, who progressively strip the hero of certainty in his actions. It is indeed in the tragic dimension that the true nature of man, full of doubts, uncertain, thrown into a world where he desperately seeks his own place, can be shown.

• Myths and rituals
• Structure of scenic language
• Aeschylus: the figure of the hero
• Sophocles: the poet of great characters
• Euripides: the irrational, passions, feelings

ELEMENTS OF DIRECTING / SCREENWRITING / DRAMATURGY

1st Year

Writing closely follows the study of interpretation. In the first year, students practice writing and staging poems, monologues, and narratives, both original and by authors.
Thus, they engage in short stagings that confront the students with the directorial aspects of performance: from text selection to cuts, from narrative style to identifying the most suitable scenic languages for representation, from choosing a soundtrack to scenic design. The students' personal elaborations are guided through creative writing techniques and the application of models most functional to narrative needs: introduction of archetypal elements in characters and assigning their function, division of the narrative into stages (patterns), identification of narrative lines, setting the goal of each scene, merging of functions and cutting of scenes, transpositions, shifts of focus, spin-offs.
It starts with the identification and analysis of narrative structures in theatrical, literary, and cinematic works following the well-known and established application scheme presented in the texts "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell and "The Hero's Journey" by Chris Vogler, which identify in each story twelve phases (stages) with variants (patterns); these phases are nothing but the steps of the outer and inner journey that the hero undergoes in the narrative arc:
- Ordinary World
- Call to Adventure
- Refusal of the Call
- Meeting with the Mentor
- Crossing the First Threshold
- Tests, Allies, Enemies
- Approach to the Inmost Cave
- Ordeal
- Reward
- The Road Back
- Resurrection
- Return with the Elixir
Within these recurring repetitive structures, the hero comes into contact with other characters, each of whom plays one or more roles necessary for the evolution of the plot and the hero himself. Delving into the structure of Myth, stages and characters are analyzed as "archetypes," identifying their function. In a second moment, different personal writings that rework the model according to narrative needs proceed, however maintaining an elaborative scheme that allows for modifications and scenic cuts while maintaining narrative coherence.

• Reinterpretation of a monologue, dialogue, and narrative
• Writing and staging of a story, fable, or myth
• Profile and history of a character
• Writing and staging of a story with various characters
• Writing and staging of an "everyday life" situation
• Writing and staging of a melodramatic story

 

MAKEUP AND COSTUME DESIGN

1st Year

The history of theatrical costume is closely intertwined with that of fashion and theater itself: costume design, as a functional element of staging (making recognizable from afar characteristics and social status of a character) has over the years also become an expressive tool; from the philological and naturalistic research of models and fabrics to the most daring revisions, the costume is a fundamental element of directorial and stylistic choices. Likewise, makeup has always amplified the actor's expressiveness, aids in the interpretive characterization of the character, and plays with physical transformations from the most illusory to the most expressionist. Costume design in theater takes into account not only the philological accuracy of the model (which can be totally overturned in the most modern interpretations), but also the practicality and functionality necessary for the actor's movements on stage; likewise, makeup, from the simplest to the most complex prosthetic applications, must not hinder but rather enhance the actor's facial expressiveness.
The course aims to provide knowledge and application of makeup techniques (corrective, aging, character, special effects) and the study of costume history, from classical to contemporary, through analysis of texts, iconographic research, and practical exercises.
The practical exercises aim to make students familiar with the use of different materials and techniques for the realization of costumes and accessories, from the most traditional to the use of new technologies (such as 3D printing for the creation of costume elements).

• Makeup: corrective, aging, character, special effects
• Costume history from classical to contemporary
• Costume design: analysis, project, realization
• Use of new technologies in costume design (3D printing)
• Practical exercises in makeup and costume design