On Tuesday 10 March, all Year 8 Italian students participated in a Commedia dell’Arte workshop facilitated by the Fools in Progress Theatre Company and Ben, a Commedia dell’Arte actor trained in Italy.

Commedia dell’Arte is a celebrated form of Italian theatre that originated in Venice in the sixteenth century and has directly influenced the story lines and characters in television shows and movies that we watch today.

In their sixty-minute workshops, Year 8 Italian students reinforced what they know about the history of Commedia dell’Arte and had the opportunity to investigate the movements and on-stage characterisation of one of Commedia dell’Arte’s characters, Zanni. This workshop gave students a practical application to what they had been learning in Italian and explored Italian’s cross curricular connections with drama. It was a lot of fun to put ourselves’ in Zanni’s shoes and explore what this character looks and sounds like on the stage!