Brian Foley’s Commedia Links

Brian Foley (of Circus Bambouk) has started a very nice Commedia Link blog– he’s putting up all sorts of great video regarding commedia, as well as book reviews, photographs, pictures of masks, thoughts, philosophy,etc. I highly recommend checking it out. Visit the blog at http://cdalinks.blogspot.com/

He posted two video links that I was especially interested in– both feature Ferrucio Soleri. I studied with Soleri in 1996 in Copenhagen. (I had gone to Denmark because Dario Fo, Eugenio Barba, and Jerzy Grotowski were all in the same place at the same time. I was able to meet all three. While I was there, there was a large commedia festival. I snuck into Soleri’s class, and afterwards introduced myself, and he graciously allowed me to stay and observe. (I also ended up doing a few exercises as well! The class was taught in broken english, so I ended up translating some, because I had the best command of English in the room.)

In the first, Soleri is teaching commedia on some kind of Italian reality show.

In the second, Soleri is performing a piece as Arlechino. His clarity, and his ability to carry us along in his performance is just wonderful.

Enjoy!

Soleri teaching on Italian TV

Soleri as Arlechino