first, classes. after body weather training, we started back in on commedia, and it's been fabulous. before break in commedia we did a lot of ensemble movement work, learned the different walks and characteristics of the masks, and did some other fabsy acting stuff. now that we're returning to commedia with that background however, we're starting to actually work on improvised scenes and canovacci (structured sets of actions used in commedia to give form to improvisation - the closest thing commedia gets to having a script). it's really difficult, but tons of fun to apply everything we've learned onto the work and actually perform commedia. some of the canovacci/improvs are turning out really hilarious in classwork too - they're all based on the notion of "Capulet's kitchen." essentially, we're improvising what the servants of the Capulets would be saying and going through during Romeo and Juliet. most of all though, it's great to be back working with Michele, our hilarious and very Italian commedia teacher.
last thursday, the accademia took us on a "working excursion" to rome for a long weekend! we switched roles with the dancers - aka, actors took a tarantella class and the dancers took a course with our acrobatics teacher. tarantella was awesome, exhausting, and actually pretty emotional. outside of that class though, rome was actually not my favorite city. there was all sorts of cool old things - i saw the colosseum, the roman forum, some other old important things, etc. and those were all really interesting. the city itself though was kind of boring and ugly, unlike many italian cities that are beautiful in and of themselves. rome was more of an ugly city that happened to have interesting things in it than an interesting city in and of itself. this is not to put down rome too strongly though, because it's packed with awesome old things. i just don't love the city itself. i did, however, have one of my favorite meals there at a place called carlomenta. delicious delicious delicious. i had penne gorgonzola for my primi piatti, pork with prosciutto and wine sauce as my secondi piatti, tiramisu, and all four of us tasted each other's plates. if you, whoever you are, ever go to rome, i will let you know where it is because it is DELICIOUS.
tiramisu. happy.
on friday afternoon, i planned on leaving rome with four other friends (elena, maggiejo, trevor, and jeremy) to head to capri for a relaxing fantastic weekend of beauty. however, as is somewhat typical in europe, there was a train strike on friday so we didn't make it to capri until saturday morning. once we did make it capri though, it was probably the most gorgeous place i have ever been. the island has a chairlift that takes anyone to the top of the mountain/island/hill/cliffs. from up there, there's a 360 degree view of all of the cliffs falling into the mediterranean, and every way you turn is absolutely breathtaking. we packed ourselves sandwiches, ate there, laid out in the sun, and basked in the gorgeousness that is capri. we also visited faro on saturday, one corner of the island where you can swim in the water. massachusetts ocean water is cold, but this water was FREEZING. as in, we jumped in, quickly lost the ability to breathe, exited the water, regained said ability, and jumped in again. it was quite thrilling. but it was still awesome because we swam in the mediterranean.
we look really touristy. also, we are on top of capri and it is GORGEOUS.
again, gorgeous.
on sunday we went back up to our favorite place at the top of the chairlift, then headed back home. it's worth mentioning, however, that "going home" from capri requires passing through napoli. napoli (naples) is fascinating. apparently the mafia controls the garbage collection in the city and decided quite a while ago to stop collecting it. thus, there are heaps of garbage on every block that are as big as ten yards wide. gross. but kind of fascinating nonetheless, and it was also the location of my most terrifying taxi ride ever (never tell a napoli taxi driver that you're late). all in all, naples was interesting.
after this, we returned to the villa to the aforementioned commedia work! it has been a fabulous week. also, the weather has continued to be gorgeous and now reaches the 70s every day. happiness.
No comments:
Post a Comment