DOH!
The only way to work in masks is through devising. Believe me! 40 years and 36 shows in, it’s the one thing I hold dear as a truth. You cannot direct a mask what to do and expect it to really live onstage. The mask has to create its own life. And that mask is worn by…an actor! You can try directing a mask, but you’ll end up with an actor walking around on stage with their face covered up, and not much else. What we want is truth, authenticity, transformation!!
IMPRO
The closest to a ‘mask’ script is “The Servant of Two Masters” by Goldoni, reimagined as “One man, two Guvnors” by Richard Bean. This was an old Commedia Dell Arte play, and is often cited as the death knell of Commedia, as it tied the form down to a script. Commedia worked on simple scenarios (from the Greek Skena, the backcloths to each episode – or Scene) and the actors improvised through the scenes, in what was called Lazzi – what we would term “Mucking about on stage until people have stopped laughing…or comic business”. At Trestle Theatre Company we scripted our shows once they were touring, and the scripts were a record of stage directions and actions, accompanied by a video of the show. When we re-mounted the show with a new cast, which we did regularly, we were careful to allow the incoming actors to discover their own voice for the character and hence the action.
Two Ways In
There are two main routes to devising for masks, which are covered in length in the upcoming Members Area of the website. Essentially, it’s about;
- Observation of a situation and the characters in that situation to create the piece; A school playground, or a street corner, a dentist’s waiting room, an airport lounge.
- A narrative approach, telling a story with masks.
Where you start is always the fun bit. Is it an extant story, have they written their own? Is it prompted by a piece of music, a found image or object? Trestle’s ISLAND was inspired by a news item I found in the Observer, about the discovery of the remains of an elderly lady found on a large traffic island in West Bromwich. Nobody knew who she was, she hadn’t been reported missing, she was well-dressed and she had been lying dead for about 3 months. Tragic. We created an imaginary life for this woman, starting when she was 6, right through to her death, highlighting how chance and fate had let her grow old with nobody around her to care for her.
We’ve lots of tips on creating narrative, and the staging of narrative, using a simple technique for making exciting student-led work. And the great thing about the mask, for devising, is that the mask can be an added convention. So masks can be used to depict the past, the dead, the future, a dream, aliens, other realities….