A joyful lesson in theater and a comic tribute to Italians’ theatrical talent for connecting to anyone, transcending language barriers, La Lezione di Teatro | The Acting Class is a 45-minute play on what it means to be an actor. Set partly in English and partly in Italian without subtitles, this show ironically demolishes preconceived notions of the difficulty of theater language and highlights how communication problems can be solved with theatrical body work; entertaining an audience that speaks or studies Italian, English, or both … or none!
The plot is simple, set along the lines of the tradition of the comedy of errors: an Italian actress receives a student in her apartment for a private theater lesson; he is eager to learn the tricks of the trade and she is thrilled at the idea of making him fall in love with Italian theater. She sits him down and searches through her library, preparing the ideal acting class for him!
The lesson seems to be going well until we realize that there is a small language problem, and communication breaks down until the universal language of the masks of Commedia dell'Arte comes to the rescue!
