Commedia dell’arte

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Commedia dellarte

• Italian Renaissance Theatre
• 1400 - 1600

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Commedia dellarteInfluences

• Trace back to early Roman street theatre
• Public performances
• Partially improvised
• Troupes settled in cities, but moved locations
  within the city
• Roman playwrights Terence Platus
• borrowed story-lines from the Classics

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Commedia dellarteTerms to know

• Commedia dellarte
• - play of professionals
• Scenario
• - Standard plot outline
• Intermezzi
• - short in-between shows
• Lazzi
• - bits of comic business
• Stock characters
• - characters who remain the same in many
  different plays

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Commedia dellarteConventions

• Stages
• Sometimes performed on the street or in a public
  square with no set
• Also performed in theatres or music halls with
  wide variety of set
• Helped develop the PROSCENIUM
• ARCH (picture frame) theatre style
• that is still the standard today
• Karel Dujardins , 1657

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Commedia dellarteConventions

• Scenarios
• Most performances, the performers would agree on
  a basic scenario, the characters involved and the
  eventual outcome everything else was left as
  improvisational material.
• Sample Scenarios
• A - Pantalone enlists Arlecchino's help in
  getting a date with Lavinia, who doesn't know he
  exists.  Arlecchino gives him a lot of bad advice
  about his clothes and how to act.
• B - Alessandra tries to get her father
  Pantalone's permission to marry Fabian.

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Commedia dellarteConventions

• Set
• SET no standard set was used playing space
  could be a plain street, a pageant wagon, a
  ballroom or dining hall

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Commedia dellarteConventions

• PROPS
• The battacchio (called a slap stick in English)
  a club-like object composed of two wooden slats
  produces a loud smacking noise, though little
  force is transferred from the object to the
  person being struck. Actors may thus hit one
  another repeatedly with great audible effect
  while causing very little actual physical damage.
  Typically carried by Brighella
• The origin of the modern term slapstick comedy
  comes from this Italian device (think Charlie
  Chaplin, the 3 Stooges)
• Characters carried other misc. props befitting
  their occupation station
• Many characters had signature props. For eg
  female lovers carried fans, male lovers carried
  handkerchiefs a posy

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Commedia dellarteConventions

• Costumes Masks
• Actors wore stylized versions of modern clothing
• stylized theatrical costumes can exaggerate some
  aspect of a character
• Specific colors/patterns/cuts were used to
  portray characters' age, gender role, profession,
  social class, personality
• Each stock character had his/her own stock
  costume mask

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Commedia dellarteConventions

• Actors (CALLED PERFORMERS)
• Skills needed acrobats, dancers, musicians,
  singers, orators, quick wits, politically savvy
  (satire)
• An actor often portrayed an individual character
  for so long that they were known by the
  characters name, not their own.
• WOMEN ALLOWED ON STAGE!!! Only place accepted
  until late 17th Century England
• Acting companies that stayed traveled together,
  approx. 10-12 people
• I Gelosi famous commedia acting company, all
  family Francesco Isabella Andreini

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Commedia dellarteConventions Stock Characters

• Inamorati - The lovers
• RANK - The lovers are of high status in their
  own.  They are the sons and daughters of
  characters who are also high on the social
  ladder very often the female lover is
  Pantalone's daughter (when she is not his
  daughter, the male lover is his son, and
  Pantalone lusts after her)
• NAMES - usually have beautiful, flowery, romantic
  names
• COSTUMES they wore the latest Italian fashions.
• MASKS Lovers do not wear masks.  They wear
  heavy makeup.
• MOST COMMON LOVERS (female) Donatella, Fabiana,
  Isabella, Ottavia (male) Benedetto, Fabian,
  Giancarlo, Ottaviano

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Commedia dellarteConventions Stock Characters

• The Innamorati

These characters never developed, but were
necessary for the action of the plays
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Commedia dellarteConventions Stock Characters

• Vecchio (foolish elders)
• RANK rich, old, high ranking but not always
  well-respected
• WHO A category of aged, male characters. The
  primary members of this group are Pantalone, Il
  Doctoro and Il Capitano. The word means "old one"
  or simply "old" in Italian. They are
  overwhelmingly the antagonists, opposing the love
  of the inamorati the comic ending is produced
  when the zanni manage to overcome them and unite
  the lovers.
• MASKS wore ½ masks with long noses, the longer
  the nose, the dumber the person
• COSTUMES dress to show wealth look
  pretentious, often wear layers

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Commedia dellarte

• Il Dottore Il Capitano Pantalone
• Vecchio Masks Costumes

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Commedia dellarteConventions Stock Characters

• Zanni (clever servants) (Columbina Arllechino,
  Brighella)
• CHARACTER (the name is where we get our word
  "zany") is a servant character who serves one of
  the Vecchi.  He never does well at his job, since
  all he thinks about is food or sleep.  Often, he
  is distracted while on a mission, after hearing
  the name of a fruit--or after falling asleep. 
  Zanni is stupid, poor, and slow, and therefore is
  the lowest character on the social scale. 
• COSTUME usually consists of a baggy white
  jumpsuit or shirt-and-pants outfit, since he is
  too poor to afford anything else.
•  MASK has a wrinkled forehead with low
  eyebrows, giving him a stupid appearance.  He
  also has a very big, wide nose with nose hair. 
  The larger the nose, the stupider the Zanni.
•  MOVEMENTS are very big, broad, and
  exaggerated.  He leads his body with his head and
  nose (his nose sticks out way in front of the
  rest of his body, and wherever his head goes, his
  body follows).

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Commedia dellarte

• Zanni the servants
• Columbina Arllechino Brighella

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Commedia dellarteInfluences

• Here are just some of the ways Commedia has
  influenced the world since the Renaissance
• English vocabulary "pants" from Pantalone,
  "zany" from the Zanni, Harlequin from Arlecchino.
  
• Romeo Juliet a translation of Flaminio la
  Scala's collection of scenario (published in
  1611) (taken from the argument, or introduction
  to the play) There lived in Florence two
  gentlemen called Pantalone and Gratiano. They
  were of old and noble families, and bore a long
  hatred for each other ... (can you guess whats
  next?)
• Moliere used stock characters in his plays.
• Modern screenplays follow common scenarios, use
  stock characters (teen films)
• TV shows scenarios characters (The Simpsons
  and many others)