_edited.jpg)
Znakovni Ples
Signpulse Between Sound and Silence
Inspired By The R&D Places Faces & Broken Hearts
"Signpulse/Between Sound and Silence" will feature experienced Deaf and Hearing Signdance Theatre performers collaborating to create an epic Commedia-inspired piece with a contemporary edge in the company's first outdoor evening production of Signdance Theatre.
Scroll Down For Story Board
Commedia, Sign Dance & Mask Exploration
R&D Result 3 Excerpt
USA outdoor movement & Ideas research.
Film by Rob Corcoran & David Bower
Paintings by Viviana Molinares
Movement & Character Exploration
NYC Movement Exploration
SDC's work is necessary and valuable to communities and encourages participation and reach to audiences who don’t engage in theatre in buildings which can be off-putting, alien and even inaccessible to audiences. It’s so important to immerse folk in their everyday spaces. Your integrity, determination, generous spirit, and artistic qualities moved me.
Assessment Excerpt by Zoe Partington
"Signpulse-Between Sound and Silence" evolved from SDC's R&D "Places, Faces and Broken Hearts" and will be the company's first Gothic Commedia-inspired Signdance Theatre production. The outdoor evening performance will tour directly within communities, in various spaces such as courtyards, forests, parks, small squares, and playgrounds.
The production features contemporary Commedia dell'Arte actors performing a 16th-century narrative set in Venice alongside parallel stories from its Italian Commedia cast.
The storyline centers around Truffaldino, a clever servant who must deliver a letter from the merchant Pantalone to the widow Smeraldine, while skillfully avoiding the lovestruck Columbine. In the "rehearsal room," the cast's personal stories unfold, revealing their dreams, insecurities, and the unspoken connections that unite them. These individual narratives act as a small representation of the larger world they inhabit, allowing the performers to delve into their roles while blurring the lines between myth and reality.
Shadow Exploration
Croatia
Image Sign & Commedia Research Milano and Venice
A Short History Of Commedia Del Arte By Rob Corcoran -
Project Performer Collaborator Creator
Director 73degreefilms
Click On The Ilink
Artists Reflection
STORY
Mask Character Exploration
PartnerOrganizations
Selly Manor Birmingham U.K
Erasmus + Croatia Latvia Romania
Transmitter Performance Austria
Kino Cinema / Theatre Filipijakov Croatia
Signdance Europe Croatia
The Art of Silence Latvia
Middlesex University London
Slunglow Leeds U.K
Wycombe Arts Centre High Wycombe
Juggling Gypsy Wilmington, North Carolina, USA
Rothschild Foundation UK
73 Degree Films Wales
Vanderbilt YMCA New York City, USA
Waddesdon Manor Aylesbury
The Together Fest U.K
Outdoor
Movement
Training
Visual Script Development David Bower & Isolte Avila Excerpt
Signpulse Dance Score / Dramaturgical Line / Graph Signpulse Part Event Description
A The Performers: In shadow, the performers prepare for their act. This is a piece of Physical Theatre with no dialogue, only sounds from the performers.
A Introduction: The performers, dressed in Commedia costumes, introduce themselves to the audience.
A Beginning: A Gothic Commedia Style dance unfolds, culminating in the performers freezing in place.
A Slow-motion Butho: The performers retreat behind the screen for a slow-motion Butho style dance.
A First Revelation: One actor shares their story, supported by other characters vocalizing as a chorus. A Frozen Tableau: The first frozen tableau representing the Commedia story takes place in Part 1.
B Commedia Story Part 1: The initial segment of the Commedia story is performed.
B Fight Backstage: A conflict erupts backstage, prompting the performers to freeze.
B Reconciliation: A reconciliation in signdance occurs downstage, with the audience's assistance and a vocal choir from the cast.
B Shadow Physical Theatre: The performers prepare for the next segment of the Commedia piece, then freeze again.
B Barbara's Puppet: Barbara narrates her life story to the audience using a puppet and physical theatre, with vocal accompaniment from all performers.
B Signdance Performance: David & Isolte present a brief signdance, enhanced by shadow puppeteering from Rob & Zhiling.
B Audience Participation: The clown and puppeteer engage the audience in song while shadowing the downstage dance, encouraging the audience to sing along with the clowns. B Clown's Request: The clown pauses the dance to request assistance from the audience before calling on others to continue with Commedia story Part 2.
C Backstage Banter: Performers engage in Physical Theatre shadow puppet banter backstage.
C Explosion and Smoke: An explosion and smoke arise from backstage, causing panic as a puppet and puppeteer extinguish the fire.
C Pause: The performers take a break for smoke and whiskey with the audience. C Personal Stories: Rob (the philosopher) and David (the poet/actor) share their personal narratives, intertwined and contrasted by the signdance movements of Zhiling & Isolte.
C Final Dance: Zhiling (the mime) and Isolte (the dancer) perform their stories, with the rest of the cast providing vocal and musical accompaniment, before freezing and retreating backstage for final banter.
C Commedia Story Part 3: The concluding segment of the Commedia story, END.
Commedia History Mask Research by David Bower.pdf
STORY BOARD Part 1
by David Bower
