Commedia dell'Arte is the 16th century genre of theatre from Italy where characters such as Pantalone, Dottore, Il Capitano and Arlecchino reappear in performances showcasing human frailties in comic ways. The term Commedia was initially used to describe "theatre" and Arte to describe one's trade or business. Now, commonly referred to as "the art of comedy", Commedia dell'Arte is often taught within the middle years of Australian secondary schools, where it is explored not just for the understanding of the genre itself, but more importantly to impart a number of theatre and life skills. Sometimes aided by an artist in residence or through viewing live Commedia dell'Arte performances, the slapstick manner and ensemble characteristics of Commedia dell'Arte players can serve as pedagogical tools to enrich the academic and personal lives of 21st century students. This article refers to a devised theatre play, The Marriage of Flavio and Isabella, which was developed as a contemporary Commedia dell'Arte performance and aims to show how the intrinsic characteristics of the genre can be translated to suit a contemporary Australian context. In doing so, the performance targets student-learning outcomes within Australian secondary schools. To devise the performance, I drew on my training and ten years of experience as a Commedia dell'Arte practitioner, the ideas and work of Antonio Fava, a leading expert in the genre, data collected from interviews with five professional Commedia dell'Arte practitioners, and interviews and participant observations with ten secondary school drama teachers. The purpose of drawing on a variety of sources was to explore the place and potential for Commedia dell'Arte in curriculum practice and to determine how Commedia dell'Arte could be better understood in a context where the genre is not part of the day-today culture. This article includes a discussion on Commedia dell'Arte's influence in

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Identity shifts frequently in Shakespeare's Macbeth, on both an individual and nationalistic level. Macbeth transforms from loyal thane to regicide, and Scotland enlists England's aid to end its civil war. The Macbeths switch roles during the banquet scene, his ruthlessness eclipsing hers. Eve Best's 2013 Globe Macbeth adds another dimension to this scene, allowing a moment of reconciliation between Macbeth and Banquo's ghost. It inspired my own allegorical response to Macbeth in my prose novel The Green Fairy, a modern meditation on identity, loss and redemption that forms the creative artefact of my PhD thesis. My creative dialogue with Macbeth is informed by Bakhtin's heteroglossia, where contemporary questions of identity are explored through the lens of the Scottish play's background voices. These include the historical Macbeths, and film and theatre representations of Shakespeare's couple. In this article I combine excerpts of my novel with exegetical commentary to address contested notions of identity in the Scottish play. Benefits of adapting Macbeth into a contemporary novel include the ability to dwell at length on the internal lives of characters, and tease out a particular moment in performance of the play, to explore the modern relevance of the problems posed within it.