We can cater Commedia dell'Arte or other workshops to your curriculum. Our playmaking workshops will help equip students and teachers with practical exercises and technqies to assist in the creation of an ensemble or solo performance.

Workshops Using Some Jacques Lecoq Techniques:

Rosa has recently studied Jacques Lecoq techniques in New York with Movement Theater Studio and was struck by the links between Commedia dell'Arte and Lecoq and saw the relevance to ensemble and solo performance making. The workshops she has developed from this training method, encourage students to use movement, gesture and archetypes to tell stories and create spaces.

Who is Jacques Lecoq?

Jacques Lecoq was a French performer who established the International Theatre School in Paris, whose graduates include, Geoffrey Rush and Philippe Gaulier. His sources included Japanese Noh, Greek Tragedy, Commedia dell'Arte and Parisian Cabaret:

"I recall the performance of a Western, complete with horse chase sequences, saloon-bar fights, all done with thremendous verve on the tiny stage of the Rose Roughe, a famoust post-war Parisian cabaret." (Jacques Lecoq, The moveing Body: Teaching Creative Theatre)

Lecoq initially trained as an athlete and in 1941 attended a physical education college. Later he formed an experimental performance group wihch used, 'movement, mime and dance to express opposition to the prevailing Fascist ideology' of the time.  Lecoq also spent several years in Italy to further inspire his technique. He taught at the University of Padua, collaborated with Dario Fo and worked with Giorgio Strehler at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan where he established the Piccolo drama school.