Over the past few days students in Acting II have been experimenting with the ideas of commedia dell’arte and the connection it has to comedy produced today. For their current project students are being asked to create and perform a short sketch utilizing at least three elements of  commedia. So far they have come up with some pretty intriguing ideas- corruption in sports, infantile behavior among politicians, the universal fear of flying, and the facade of family loyalty.  In true commedia fashion they are creating outlines for their scenarios and will soon embark on the task of using improvisation to bring the pieces to their feet.