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Clown and Commedia When actors reach their second year at YSD, they participate in clown, a course that counterbalances the serious actor/audience relationship and inspires students to discover their playful selves through exercises in rhythm, balance, generosity, and playfulness. Teacher Christopher Bayes (Faculty), head of the Physical Acting Program, explains, βThe world of the clown encourages innocence, openness, and curiosity.β James Cusati-Moyer agrees, 4 2
βChris taps into a physical vocabulary with the actor that returns us to a place of innocence and abandon, to our younger days, before we knew the word βno.β He takes us back to a place of physical expression without tension, injury, scarsβemotional or physicalβ and into a mindset of play and vulnerability.β βSome people find clown class to be both exhilarating and terrifying,β notes Walton Wilson. βThe two phrases students use to describe it are sheer terror and
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ecstatic bliss.β The physical acting curriculum culminates in the third year in commedia (also taught by Christopher Bayes). The course explores the classical archetypes of commedia dellβarte and how these tap into the more grotesque, abrasive side of the human spirit, involving sex, desire, anger, and selfishness. Chris says, βcommedia demands appetite, great boldness, and physical and vocal transformation.β commedia makes use of mask,