Stromboli Character research and preparation:
Stromboli as a character is very two faced, and through the original story of Pinocchio- along with the adapted tale my son Pinocchio we see Stromboli show an exterior kindness and enthusiasm that the characters within the story can't see past, whilst us as the audience always do. When watching Pinocchio and researching the plot line of the musical and performance approaches to Stromboli, I found it common that actors/cartoon designers made his kindness seem slightly off or slightly unauthentic. This is also a common trait that the iconic villains throughout Pinocchio have in common, and its so the audience can identify the future danger without it being too obvious for the characters (specifically Pinocchio) to sense themselves. This characteristic that Stromboli embodies is something I want to highlight in my audition for this character as I'm aware that it is quite an important element within the character portrayal.
Within the play Stromboli also uses his puppets throughout his conversations- along with talking to them himself regularly, treating them like there his friends and the lashing out them even though he's the ones making them talk. For me this highlights a layer of insanity to Stromboli that I want to build off more when preparing for the auditions, as I think it helps exasperate the villain within him and the selfish malicious intent that he has.
Physicality
The physicality of Stromboli is something that is very important and specific to the character, and the way he commands the stage when he enters it. Which is something I wanted to look into more, and find things to take inspiration from when practising my audition.
Greek Theatre- Strombolis physicality
Historical Greek Theatre acting is something that I think is perfect to base Stromboli's physicality off, as within Greek theatre the actors were always very big and loud and flamboyant so to create a visible image for the audience which were seated in a very large outdoor area type space. Very commonly volume and what the audience could see of the actors would get lost because of this, meaning that the actors became bigger in physicality and volume- along with their costumes and the concept of building off characetures. They also commonly wore masks to distinguish character change and character intention, further highlighting how big their physicality had to be show these changes to an already very large and loud audience.
For me this feels like something that could potentially connect with Stromboli and his big movments- especially as a larger male character and trying to mimic that through physicality.
Images of the theatre of Dionysus- one of many performance areas for Greek theatre
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