In our recently announced and currently available Digital Intro Class to Commedia dell’Arte, we talk about Archetypes VS Stereotypes and thought it was a great thing to share with more folks.

Let’s hit some broad strokes here. A lot of people have never heard of commedia dell’arte. Those who have often get a very specific interpretation by an individual or company. That’s because it’s old, it died for a long time, and now people have fallen in love with it again in different ways.

I had a blast chatting with REP Radio about working with Tut’Zanni and Faction of Fools on our Commedia-on-Zoom show [Digital] Top Rung…

In the show, actor Rachel Brodeur and I jump back and forth between over 20 characters, including the pilot, air hostesses, passengers, hijacker, reporters, Portuguese shepherd children, and even the Virgin Mary herself…

As the longest running American sitcom and a beloved cultural touchpoint that has entertained audiences the world over, there is no better contemporary parallel than The Simpsons to what Commedia dell’Arte was as an art form hundreds of years ago. Almost anywhere you go in the world, people know these characters and might have a favorite episode or catch phrase.

In the words of Tammy Faye Bakker and RuPaul Charles, “Everybody loves puppets!”.

But especially me. Why? It comes down to a certain feeling I get, one that’s kind of hard to explain. But I’ll do my best. I believe there’s a special switch in every person’s brain - the “on” switch position translates to *best Dr. Frankenstein voice* “It’s ALIIIIIVE!” and the “off” position is along the lines of *cue 80s synthpop beat* “I think we’re alone now”.

One thing we are always working on in the company is discovering new archetypes from our world all around us. Now working on [DIGITAL] Top Rung, I had the opportunity to make some new masks for some of the new archetypes and then characters of the show.

Tut’Zanni Theatre Company, in collaboration with Faction of Fools, is excited to announce its newest original masked theatre production, and their first foray into the world of online theatre, [DIGITAL] Top Rung.

I have always loved tiny little film sketches and comedy bits (basically what TikTok is, with a bit of YouTube mixed in there). So when the opportunity came to start exploring, I jumped on it.

Tut’Zanni has gotten various questions about our name over the years.

Big thank you to NET for this opportunity to collaborate and create new connections even if we can’t be in the same room!