What do Pitch Perfect, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Waiting for Guffman, and that one documentary episode of Community have in common? They all served as inspiration for Villanova Theatre’s fourth show of the 2020-2021 virtual season—the devised commedia dell’arte mockumentary you’re watching today. While for many months it was known as “the fourth show” or “the untitled commedia project” because titles are hard, Slaphappy: A Covid-era Commedia has truly been a labor of love for the cast, crew, and production team involved with its creation. But before I get into the devising process, let me take a moment to step back and talk about how we even got here (here being Slaphappy and commedia dell’arte in the first place, of course).

 

The Before Times

Like the Collegiate Commedia Competition within Slaphappy, our original plans for the final show of the season were also derailed. When the 2020-2021 season was first announced in April 2020, the fourth mainstage production of the year was slated to be an adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility by Kate Hamill. Hamill’s adaptation is witty, playful, and physical. The play, which juxtaposed Georgian-era costumes with modern language and a creatively minimal set, was a perfect choice for our student body. It had a large cast, there were plenty of thesis eligible roles (a big consideration VU Theatre takes into account when choosing shows), and there were lots of period costumes for our costume shop to learn how to build.

 

Then Covid happened. Which meant we needed to find something that combined those same features of Hamill’s Sense and Sensibility but was Covid safe. Enter commedia dell’arte and Pitch Perfect.

 

Dr. Valerie Joyce, Villanova Theatre Chairperson, was the director at the helm of this ambitious project and she knew that commedia dell’arte was a potential solution to this problem. Commedia dell’arte, the 16th century Italian theatrical tradition that mixes mask work, stock characters, and comedic scenarios, would be new to most VU Theatre students and would enable our students in the props, scenic, and costume shops an opportunity to learn some new technical skills. Dr. Joyce, however, had some reservations about existing commedia scripts like Servant of Two Masters because of their dated content and wanted to explore the art form without the sexism. Dr. Joyce also had just recently finished re-watching Pitch Perfect with her daughters and that was when inspiration struck.

 

The tradition of commedia dell’arte + the wacky world of Pitch Perfect style collegiate a cappella competition = a devised show about a cutthroat collegiate commedia dell’arte competition. Slaphappy was born and with all of the original creative team on board to work on this massive undertaking, it was now time to find our cast.

 

Show Four 2.0

In late January, the commedia project was announced to the student body and auditions took place the first weekend of February with rehearsals to begin at the beginning of March and filming the second week of April. Yes, we did devise a whole show complete with a choreographed drag number in a month and half (adding another pop culture reference into the mix to quote Elle Woods, “What? Like it’s hard?”).

 

Auditions were a mix of improv games and character building exercises. Auditioners were also asked to prepare a “stupid human trick,” some of which even made it into the film. (Check out the lazzi-off to see some of the wild physical things that our cast of Slaphappy can do!) They were also asked to record themselves making a Reality Television-style confessional as a character who they thought might be on a collegiate commedia team. Many of these confessionals served as a basis for the characters the actors would go on to develop during the devising process.

 

In March, rehearsals began in earnest! Rehearsals started out over Zoom so that the cast could learn the basics of commedia dell’arte and its stock characters. While each type of character has a specific physicality—body shape, walk, and gesture—and motivation—love, money, food—it was important that every actor had a solid understanding of not only the character they would be playing but all the other types as well. Our Commedia Consultant John V. Bellomo, a West Chester University professor and professional commedia artist, instructed the cast over Zoom for the first week of the rehearsal process. During this time, the actors also tried their hands at developing scenarios—or the long-form improvised scenes commedia is known for—with the members of their troupes and the help of Bellomo as well as Movement Coaches, Dr. Andrew Blasenak and our very own Dr. Chelsea Phillips.

 

Once rehearsals moved to being in person, the troupes started working on not only their lazzi—the repeated, comedic bits that make up a scenario—but also the interpersonal dynamics between their troupe members. Who are friends? Who are enemies? Who is stuck in Italy? After talking with the actors, Dr. Joyce decided that she wanted one of the troupes to be from a rival school—The University of Pennsylvania. Lora Margerum, a second-year graduate student who served as the Signora of this troupe deemed the “UPenn Quackers,” said, “The rehearsal process for us was so wonderfully collaborative. We established quickly that all of the troupe except for me was there for the fine arts requirement so after that, everyone had a blast with creating these oddball characters that were suddenly brought together through Commedia.”

 

David Burgess, a second-year graduate student, worked on Slaphappy as his thesis project—the first devised acting thesis in Villanova Theatre’s history! David plays “Uncle Johnny” Speltzer, a professional performer who offers to help his nephew Rob, played by Luke A. Davis, and his commedia troupe compete to win in Nationals. But Uncle Johnny has a secret weapon up his sleeve… DRAG! David is a Philadelphia-area drag performer who has performed with The Dumpsta Players as his alter ego Amanda Playwythe and was excited to incorporate that element into Slaphappy. “This show combines two things I love, improv and drag,” David said, “with hilarious results. Slaphappy has been a perfect capstone to my career as a performer.”

 

Each troupe rehearsed separately so as to maintain Covid room occupancy limits but the stage management team was at every rehearsal. “My assistant stage managers and I became a makeshift Covid task force: guaranteeing that all of the props were completely sanitized before handing them off, checking actors’ temperatures before they entered the room, and thoroughly cleaning the spaces afterwards,” said Stage Manager Kenzie Bradley, a first-year graduate assistant in the props shop. With the help of Autumn Blalock and Emma Miller, the three-person stage management team was crucial to seeing the production through from first rehearsal to final filming day.

 

In addition to the students in the room, students in the many offices and shops were busy building spinning set pieces, designing the final poster, and 3D printing masks. How do you make masks during Covid when you would normally make a mold of the actor’s face to work off of? If you’re the Villanova Theatre costume shop, you 3D print models of everyone’s face from renderings made from photographs and shape masks that way.

 

“That’s a Wrap”

After filming wrapped mid-April, the process moved into post-production, which was easily one of the most difficult parts of the process. Director of Photography and Editor, Hezekiah L. Lewis III, a film professor in Villanova’s Communication department, took the lead and helped all of us theatre folks navigate the film editing process. An arduous task that involved checking for continuity in both plot and the visuals seen on screen; making tough decisions on what to cut or keep; and watching with a keen eye to make sure that the final product we presented to audiences actually told a story and told it well.

 

From a four and a half hour initial rough cut to the final, two and half version we’re presenting to you today, post-production was certainly a process. When we realized that we needed more exposition about commedia dell’arte and the world of competitive commedia in early May, that meant that I had to make a cameo to record those explanations. Dr. Joyce, Professor Lewis, Dr. Phillips, Artistic Director Michael Hollinger, Lighting Designer Jerold R. Forsyth, Sound Designer John Stovicek, and myself all spent many hours watching and rewatching the various cuts of the films to further refine the film. Dr. Joyce and Professor Lewis even spent one night editing in Garey Hall until 5:30 in the morning! From its conception in January to its month and a half rehearsal and filming process to post-production, Slaphappy was truly a sprint to the proverbial finish line the whole time.

 

Making theatre is already hard. Making theatre during a pandemic at times seemed impossible. And yet, not only with Slaphappy but the entire Villanova Theatre 2020-2021 season, we managed to make the impossible possible. We made theatre this year that was important, impactful, and in the case of this show, a whole lot of fun. “V’s up! Villanova!”