wHAT iS
cOMMEDIA dELL'aRTE
Commedia Dell'Arte is an incredible artform that developed in Italy during the 1400's. It continues to thrive today as an exciting and electric way to produce theatre.
Commedia is based on stock characters who act based on particular characteristics. The old money pinching money, the bumbling doctor, the lovers who are desperatly in love with one another, and the drunken hunchback servant are all characters from Commedia.
The story lines always centered around lovers and their plight to be together. Usually some of the characters served as a catalist for why they are not able to be together, while other characters came to their aid to bring the true love together.
The actors would wear masks to represent these stock characters, with the exception of a few characters who represented truth- such as the lovers or Il Cavilier, who represented the true hero. The audiences in Italy would know who the characters were from seeing the masks. They had a sense of how the characters should behave, allowing the actors to fly through exposition and dive right into the comedy. This device is used today by popular sketch comedy shows like Saturday Night Live, who utilize re-occuring characters as a source of comedy.
Most often Commedia was performed out on the streets, where passer-bys would stop to take in the show. The actors needed to be loud and larger then life.
The comedy developed during this time period plays a major role in contemporary art. Commedia employed everything from high brow, verbal comedy and wit, to fart and poop jokes.
In Commedia, the Lazzi is king. A Lazzi is when the actors allow themselves to break away from the exposition of the story to deliver a joke. The goal of the troupe was to develope as many pieces of Lazzi as possible during the course of the show.
Commedia functions without a director, at least in the contemporary sense. The group has to work together to decide what the story is going to be, who is going to play what roles, what the jokes are going to be, how to act everything out, etc. etc. This is an amazing process and very different from what most modern actors are used to.
Lastly, there is not a script for a Commedia piece. It is always original and created by the company performing it. Often the actors will get together and figure out what is going to happen. The piece is developed through improvisation. And indeed, anything goes. The actors in our company have an idea of what we are going to do the night of the performance, but in the end of the day, anybody can do anything. So who know's for sure what it is going to happen!!!