The Gavilan Press (and me) on Commedia dell'Arte

I am especially excited about this article because I think it talks about something that not too many people (outside of the theatre community) are aware of:  Commedia dell'Arte.

Commedia dell'Arte is a theatre performance style that originated in Italy in the 1500s and is best known for its use of stock characters and slapstick comedy. It also had a profound influence on our production of The Taming of the Shrew.

Because of my budding interest in the theatre form, I decided to write an article for The Gavilan Press discussing Commedia dell'Arte and said influence on our production. It was a great opportunity for me to talk about the theatre, something I have a strong passion for, and to educate people about Commedia. Here is the link to the published article on The Gavilan Press.

Through this article, I was also able to talk to some very cool people about Commedia - namely Connor Clark and Dr. Kate Booth. Connor was one of my castmates - he played Tranio, and for his senior project for GECA (the early college program at Gavilan) he researched a great deal on Commedia. Dr. Booth was my theatre history teacher this semester, and I was very excited to talk about Commedia with her because I knew she'd have something to say; she'd taught it in our class just a week or two prior to our interview.

In the photograph above, taken by my own brother, Kevin, on opening night of our Shrew run, you see Andy Garcia as the dottore character, Hortensio, Talia Vlaovich as the Pantlone, Gremio, Alaric Lund as an Innammorato, Lucentio, and me, Megan Brittani Nacionales, as Petrucchio's head servant, the Zanni, Grumio.