Renaissance: Commedia dell’ Arte
Italian Renaissance:
The word Renaissance means “a rebirth” or a renewed interest in the arts and sciences. The Renaissance began in the fifteenth century in Italy. Theater was part of this rebirth. During the Renaissance, elaborately staged productions entertained the royal courts and the upper class. At the same time, forms of popular theater entertained the middle and lower classes.
The formal theater moved indoors and designers developed better methods of lighting the stage. They also created realistic, three-dimensional scenery. The Italian stage was set within an arch. This arch, called the proscenium, served as a “picture frame” through which the audience viewed the beautiful scenery. Technical elements such as scenery and costumes became more elaborate. Music, song, and dance became important parts of the theater. The elaborate productions evolved into opera.
During this time, a type of theater known as Commedia dell’arte became popular with the middle and lower classes. Commedia dell’arte (“comedy of the profession”) was professional improvised comedy. Wandering troupes of actors and actresses performed the Commedia throughout the countryside. They did not use scripts, but improvised their lines as they went along. These troupes played out their comic scenarios, plot outlines posted backstage before each performance. A manager who usually was the company’s author led each troupe. The plots were almost always comic intrigue involving fathers who put obstacles in the way of their children’s romances. Servants were very important characters. often successfully completing the matchmaking. There were no fully composed play scripts. Instead, the scenarios were detailed plot outlines that included lazzi and certain memorized lines. The lazzi were special humorous bits of stage business, usually set apart from the main action. A well-known lazzi was one in which the stage action continued while a comic actor laboriously caught a fly. Actors memorized set speeches, such as declarations of love, hate, and madness that they fit within the scenes. The troupes also learned stock jokes, proverbs, songs. and exit speeches.
Stock Characters:
The Commedia troupes used the same types of characters, called stock characters, in each play. All the characters of the commedia dell’arte were stock types representing two social classes: the upper class and the servant class. The stock characters were identified by their costumes and their masks.
The zanni were clever male servants, excellent at ad-libbing and acrobatics. There were basically two kinds of zanni. The clever prankster, agile in mind and body; and the dullard, blundering in thought and action. Of the first type, Arlecchino (French name, Harlequin) was probably the most popular. Harlequin is best known today for his costume decorated with a diamond design, like a patchwork quilt.
Pantalone was the foolish old man whose costume included baggy trousers. Our word pants comes from his name and costume. Capitano was a mustached, boastful, but cowardly Spaniard who claimed bravery but quaked at his own shadow.
Another name used for a servant was Pulchinello. This malicious character with his hooked nose and high-peaked hat was the ancestor of Punch of the Punch and Judy shows. Still another of the male servants was Pedrolino, who later became known as Pierrot, the moonstruck eternal lover - melancholy and gentle, but always too romantic and too sad. Later, a sincerely devoted sweetheart, Pierrette, was paired with him, and they became the eternal lovers. One other variation of the zanni must be mentioned--Pagliacci, the nun who must make others laugh while his own heart breaks.
There were usually two young male lovers, the innamorate, and their female counterparts, the innamorata. All four were beautifully dressed and spoke in refined language. The lovers did not wear masks.
The only other character to perform unmasked was the fontesca, a serving maid. She appears in many plays as Columbina, a clever and high-spirited flirt.
Elsewhere in Europe:
From Italy, the Renaissance spread to the other countries of Europe. The French theater imitated the Italian opera. At the same time, popular troupes similar to the Commedia performed in Paris and the countryside. Moliere became the most important playwright of the French Renaissance.
In Spain, troupes performed religious dramas similar to those of the Middle Ages. The people also enjoyed popular adventure plays. Spain produced two major Renaissance playwrights, Lope de Vega and Calderon. Both wrote religious plays and adventure plays. De Vega was a soldier, explorer, sailor, and priest. Over 700 plays are attributed to him.
The Renaissance came later to England during the Elizabethan Age. It was during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I that Christopher Marlowe wrote important tragedies and Ben Jonson wrote popular comedies. However, their fame was overshadowed by the greatest English playwright of all time, William Shakespeare. Shakespeare wrote and produced about 36 comedies, tragedies, and histories, leaving a rich legacy in the theatre.
Commedia / Renaissance Worksheet
Name______________ Period_________
Read the Renaissance/Commedia Handout. Complete the following vocabulary items:
1. Renaissance:
2. commedia dell' arte:
3. scenarios:
4. lazzi:
5. stock characters:
6. innamorate:
7. innamorata:
8. fontesca:
9. zanni:
10. What does Renaissance mean?
11. What country was the birthplace of the Renaissance?
12. What is the name of the arch in front of a stage?
13. What developed out of the elaborate Italian productions?
14. What was the popular entertainment performed by wandering troupes?
15. Whose costume looked like a patchwork quilt?
16. What modern word comes from the character Pantalone’s name?
17. Who was the most famous French playwright?
18. What Spanish playwright wrote over 700 plays?
19. What name is given to the English Renaissance era?
20. Who is the most famous of all English playwrights?
1’
in a seperate google doc.,
name as many stock characters as you can find and give a brief description of each one.
Keep that Doc for further reference!!
Share both Doc's with me.