Commedia dell’ Arte
• Commedia dell'Arte is a type of comedy developed in 16th and 17th century Italy, it was called improvised theatre as it used lazzi ( bit of rehearsed stunts or phrases ) these were slotted into convenient points. Commedia dell’Arte provided comedy, entertainment and much much more.
The commedia dell'Arte was a highly disciplined art requiring both virtuosity and a strong sense of ensemble playing. The unique talent of commedia players was to improvise comedy around a pre–established scenario. Responding to each other, or to audience reaction, the actors made use of
the lazzi (special rehearsed routines that could be inserted into the plays at convenient points to heighten the comedy), musical numbers, and certain dialogues to vary the happenings on
stage.
• Some of the better Commedia troupes performed in Renaissance theatres such as Palladio's theatre in Vicenza or the Petit Bourbon in France.
Most Commedia troupes performed outdoors in city and town piazzas on
stages they brought with them in horse-drawn carts, along with their
equipment, props, costumes, curtains, and ladders. The stages
were usually built high (up to 2 meters), allowing spectators an
unobstructed view of the action, and giving actors a storage area and
change room underneath.
The characters were stock characters meaning they were typical characters. Each character had a certain costume and mask and certain characteristics. There
were load of characters here are a few:
Arlecchino
Brighella
Pantalone
Lovers
ll Capitano
ll Dottore
Columbina
zanni
The longer the nose
the funnierZanni's costume usually consists of a baggy
white jumpsuit or shirt-and-pants outfit, since he
is too poor to afford anything else. His mask has
a wrinkled forehead with low eyebrows, giving
him a stupid appearance. He also has a very
big, wide nose with nose
hair. Zanni's movements are very big, broad,
and exaggerated. While sleeping, Zanni makes
lots of noise snoring, belching, snorting, and
farting.
The longer the nose
the funnier
Pantalone is a rich, old, lecherous man
whose whole reason for being is money
and losing his money would make him drop in status, something that he fears more
than anything.His servants, the Zanni, are working for
him day and night. Pantalone will offer
money to get whatever he wants. He will not,
however, pay for anything, insisting
that he's already paid. Mr. Burns from "The Simpsons" walks in extremely similar
manner
Arlecchino is the head zanni but is still only a servant. Much of the humour
comes from his plans and schemes. The character is a lot like a cat and this is
portrayed through his mask. The features of the mask show many cat-like
qualities as do the actions of the character. Arlecchino is also led by his nose, meaning that his head turns first and then the rest of the body follows
after.
• The lovers were the only characters that were not masked as their beauty was natural, applied only with makeup. They are deeply in love but never touch or get to close as thought something bad would happen if they did. The lovers bring the soap opera into the scenarios.
CostumesThe audience was able to pick up from each character's dress the type of person he was representing. For elaboration, loose–fitting garments alternated with very tight, and jarring colour contrasts opposed monochrome outfits. Except for the inamorato, males would identify themselves with character-specific costumes and half masks. The zanni (precursor to clown) Arlecchino, for example, would be immediately recognizable because of his black mask and patchwork costume.
Masks were used in Commedia dell Arte to firstly help identify the characters. As
Commedia was performed by different travelling companies, this meant that they each would
have different costumes, yet the masks would retain much of the information that was needed to know who was who. The second purpose of
the mask was to limit the view of the actors, making them snake their head from side to side
to see what was going on. The characters all had characteristics that governed the way they moved and this would directly affect the way
they did things on the stage.
I hope you have
enjoyed today’s show
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