Scapin and Commedia dell'Arte Commedia dell’Arte literally means “Artistic Comedy” and was popular from the 12th to the 18th century as traveling troupes of actors hopped from town to town across Italy (and eventually all of Europe) telling interesting tales using typical stock characters (e.g. the Old Miser, the Tricky Servant, the Lover, etc.). These actors would traditionally don a half-mask (each particular character had their own) to cover their eyes which would leave their mouth free to speak. Because the actors were traveling, they had to adopt a language everyone could understand: GIBBERISH! There are over 40 dialects in Italy alone, and these actors not only used their voices, but their bodies to express love, rage, envy, and many other emotions. This physical comedy was popular to all stations of people who would come to enjoy the performances, mostly because everyone who came could identify with one of the characters. The play we chose as the vessel for our art is Molière’s “Scapin” adapted by modern clown Bill Irwin. Scapin is one of the traditional characters in Commedia dell’Arte--a Tricky Servant, or “Zanni.” Jean Baptiste Poquelin de Molière was born in Paris in 1622 and subsequently traveled with an acting troupe and wrote many farcical and satirical plays about love, politics and society. He is considered by most critics to be the greatest comic dramatist of all times and considered worthy to stand with Sophocles and Shakespeare. Molière states in “Tartuffe,” “Tis a mighty stroke at any vice to make it the laughing stock of everybody; for men will easily suffer reproof; but they can by no means endure mockery. They will consent to be wicked but not ridiculous.” We have rented the Disjecta Theater in Northeast Portland and over the next year we plan to provide a community space for the arts. The reason we want to do this is that the community of Portland needs more theatre space. The arts in America are sadly funded, and Portland, Oregon is a city with many arts projects which are full of potential. Please help us serve our community, our country, and the children of the future. About Scapin