Newman's Commedia Mask Company

Handmade Leather Performance Masks

Mask maker extraordinaire, Newman makes leather Commedia Dell'Arte and Neutral masks specifically for performers and actor training.

The leather masks are made from 5 to 6 oz (3mm to 4mm thick) vegetable tanned cowhide; wet formed on hand carved wooden matrices and shaped and refined with bone smoothing tools and horn mallets. Using traditional Italian techniques and self discovered innovations; Newman's leather masks are strong, lightweight and comfortable to wear.

"I'm in Barcelona teaching my students at the program I run here, using your wonderful masks every day, seeing them in action with different students, seeing the different risk thresholds they unlock in each actor - these are some of the most outstanding tools I've ever had in the classroom to push students beyond their perceived limits into new space and new creative fire! These masks help them soar. My students are so lucky to work with your masks." .....M.Graham Smith
Director of Movement and Voice at the Barcelona Meisner Program (www.meisner.es)
Movement Instructor,  A.C.T., San Francisco, California, USA.

About Newman

A native of London, England, Newman studied:

• Philosophy at the University of Warwick, England.
• Western Saddle Making with Gail Denman in a program offered by Portland State University, Oregon.
• Mask Carving and Ritual Mask Performance with Ida Bagus Anom in the village of Mas, Bali and Ida Bagus Alit in Lodundtuh, Bali.
• Commedia Dell'Arte and the use of the Neutral Mask for physical actor training at Dell'Arte International School in California under Joan Schirle.
• The Italian techniques of Commedia Dell'Arte and Neutral Mask Making with Donato Sartori in Padova, Italy.

Newman with the Sartoris. Abano Terme, Italy, 1995.

Curriculum Vitae

Newman has made leather performance masks for:

• Cirque du Soleil Saltimbanco (Paris)
• Teatro Zinzanni (San Fransisco)
• Horos Theatro,( Thessaloniki, Greece)
• and many other performance troupes throughout North America, Australia and Europe.

Leather Neutral Masks and Commedia Masks for Theatre training programs at:

• Dell'Arte International, Blue Lake, California
  
• Accademia Dell'Arte, Arezzo, Italy
• The Central School of Speech and Drama (London)
• Globe Theatre (London)
• The Swedish National Theatre (Stockholm)
• The University of California (Berkeley and Fresno)
• Ecole Mondiale (Mumbai, India)
• and countless Universities and Schools throughout Europe, Australia, Asia and the Americas.

Newman and "Black Jesus" the hand carved wooden head of a 3 meter tall Giant Puppet he made for a Passion Play performed in the New Orleans Super dome 1997. Newman has made more than a dozen Giant Puppets with which he toured the West Coast of North America in his own troupe; "The Illuminated Fools" and as part of Canadian Based "Three on the Tree" between 1989 and 2005.

 

Prices

All the Leather Masks on this website are US$175.00 each.
Purchases of six or more masks are US$150.00 each.
Plus Shipping.

The more than forty Leather Stock Commedia Character Masks made by Newman are divided into six "families":

• Arlecchino and Brighella
• The Principle Zannis & Lesser Zannis
• The Capitanos
• The Pulcinellas
• The Dottores
• The Pantalones