La Fenice

La Fenice's "table work" is primarily about reviewing the scenario as advocates for the stock characters we're playing. In its earliest stage, our scenarios are extremely malleable, so we like to tackle any problems with plot in a character-driven sort of way. While we do a more "formal" table-work session at the start of the rehearsal process, it usually comes at the end of a series of more informal ones, like this one over beers last week between Genevieve Kinney, who is pl

My name is Kate Meehan, and I'm guilty of shoddy character choices. I was the first person in our company to play Ruffiana, an older female stock character of the Commedia dell'Arte. This was some twelve years ago, and when I played her, I went straight for the laughs. Ruffiana translates to "lady pimp," and in my young mind, the joke was that she was a woman deprived of her sexual comeliness after decades of hard use. I played her drunk, raunchy, sexually forward and repulsi

Kate Meehan has been performing with La Fenice since it's very first show as Austin Commedia Society back in 1999. Over the years, she's played a number of the Commedia stock characters with us, and currently serves as Managing Director. Before joining ACS, she performed on many famous Chicago improv stages, including ImprovOlympic and Second City. How does La Fenice's approach to Commedia differ from other Commedia dell'Arte troupes? Well, I've really only created Commedia