My work philosphy

The method I propose is based on using masks as a tool for the professional and personal development of actors. Commedia dell'Arte should not be seen as a genre or style, but as a technique for creating theater that focuses solely on the actor, rather than on the script or the director.

The mask, as an object, is a tool that belongs to the artist/creator and serves as a challenge for the actor to overcome in order to develop their ability to communicate and express themselves through their body. This process, which I call "Transformative Defacement," involves covering the actor's face and transferring their expressiveness to their entire body, allowing it to convey dramatic meaning to the audience.
The method is aimed to question what we have always been inclined to believe that there exist only two distinct, if not incompatible, fields of knowledge: theory and practice. It's common to believe that athletes are incapable of thinking about their sport except with their muscles and theorists are not capable of practice without their thoughts. This is a perspective that is binary and in opposition. In reality theory and practice are not separate worlds but interactive levels of science.
For this reason, the acting studio incorporates various disciplines in its research, including hermeneutics, psychology of perception, historiography, and iconography. Commedia dell'Arte serves as a framework for the studies and research of influential teachers of the 20th century, such as Stanislavski, Grotowski, Barba, Copeau, Artaud, and Lecoq.
Ultimately, the goal is to combine theory (laws) and practice (empirical solutions) to achieve knowledge: the practical rules that guide actors. By bridging the gap between theory and practice, we gain the knowledge of how to apply our art, which stems from not only individual experiences but also a broader understanding of our capacity for creative expression.
Fabrizio Paladin