Students highlight Italian with physical comedy

The first M435: Italian Theater Workshop ran its final project, “Illustrissimi IU Italian Players,” this weekend in the Willkie Auditorium to many attendees who didn’t know any Italian.

“Students involved in the production pledge not to speak a single word of English during the entire process,” said Italian professor and co-director Colleen Ryan-Scheutz.

Though most of the 15 IU students involved said they had no previous acting experience, it didn’t appear that way. Ryan-Scheutz said in addition to the actual performance, the set, costumes and props were all designed by students.

The students performed scenes from “La Locandiera” by Carlo Goldoni and “Sabato, domenica e lunedi” by Eduardo de Filippo, as well as the one-act play “La Marcolfa” by Dario Fo.

The production covered themes ranging from love to greed.

“We tried to choose very physical comedies to communicate the language,” Ryan-Scheutz said. “And the subject matter of each show is timeless, so many of the show’s themes are modern enough to be useful to the actors.”

She said she helped the students find their characters through various physical improvisational exercises.  

“Students had to learn that they were no longer these middle-American college kids,” Ryan-Schuetz said. “For instance, several women in the show played Italian men from a different time and of course had to adopt movements and gestures of Italian men to adjust.”

She credited native speakers for helping students understand the physicality involved with communicating a foreign language on stage.

Senior Christina Biancardi said this is her first semester taking Italian, so it was interesting to see such fluidity with the language on stage.

“It was really well-done,” she said. “For this to be an almost entirely student-run production, I think it was amazing. The costumes and set were very elaborate.”

Freshman Julie Zimmerman said she thought the students seemed to be having fun, which she said was even more fun for her to watch.

“They did a really good job with body language,” she said. “It was really enjoyable for me, and I have no Italian experience.”

Bloomington High School South senior Haley Schilling said she was a part of the production thanks to the OPEN Program, which allows high school students to take select IU courses.

She said she once took part in the now-cancelled Italian program at her high school and wanted to continue learning the language.

She said she met professor Ryan-Scheutz when she enrolled in M215: Accelerated Second-Year Italian and decided to take the Italian Theater Workshop course as well.

“Everybody involved was so nice, so it didn’t feel hard to learn how to communicate Italian well enough for an audience to understand it,” Schilling said. “When it comes to theater and Italian, putting those together requires going in with an open mind.”