Commedia Dell’Arte

( Comedy of the craft)

Commedia Dell'Arte is a form of theatre that began in Italy in the year 1560, characterized by masked "types", the advent of the actress and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. It became the first entirely professional form of theatre and is commonly referred to as the origin of comedy.Sometimes the performers were referred to as "mountebanks" because they played outside on temporary stages, and relied on various props in place of extensive scenery. They used short funny sketches called lazzis between the main shows which are very familiar stories that are repeated but each group has their own interpretations. Three main ones are the rotton tooth, the fly and one where certain characters are drunk.
They use exagerated movements so that you can tell the story from afar and also to catch the audiences attention when they walk past them. The set characters are used so that they are easily identified quickly. During a warm up we did walks to show differnt emotions for example with happiness you would run and jump and skip, however if you were sad you were very slow, slouched and looked down a lot. We did this to introduce us to how the character walks are used to show emotion. Each character has set movements to further help identify them. They use half masks to show the characters even more my physical features like the long nose, or round almost swollen features. Most of the characters had with them a certain stereotype like the old perverted man, the hansom but dumb hero/ prince. To help us to physically embody these some students were taken out of the class and asked to show a stereotype that the rest of the class had to ques just by holding a pose. I was one of these students and I was given the sterotype of jock. I decided to do a persition of a muscly man kissing his biceps or often refered to as their guns.

Characters

	Zanni The character of Zanni was an older, impoverished man and hired servant of one of the other characters, typically Pantalone. Zanni's costume was loosely fitting white smock and pants. He wore a black mask similar to his more popular descendant, Arlecchino. His behavior is a cartoon imitation of the impoverished rural folk of Bergamo who were forced to move to Venice in order to make a living. As such, his interests do not always coincide with those of his master. His primary goals are his own comfort and the satisfaction of various immediate desires.
	Pantalone Pantalone is one of the most important principal characters found in commedia del arte comedies. With his exceptional greed and status at the top of the social order, Pantalone is "money" in the commedia world. The costume of Pantalone brings his most ominous features to life. Pantalone is the most constant character within the commedia world, which is presumably why his costume has not been dramatically altered. He traditionally wears red tights and a red jacket, and at his belt, a dagger or sword. He wears a black hat and a black cloak with black slippers or shoes. A brown, muddy colored mask, complete with a hooked nose and beard or mustache completes Pantalone's traditional look. Some variations have been recorded, including "additions of spectacles and a [money] pouch".
	Il Capitano Il Capitano often talks at length about made up conquests of both the militaristic and carnal nature in attempts to impress others, but often only ends up impressing himself. He gets easily carried away in his tales and doesn't realise when those around him don't buy his act. He would be the first to run away from any and all battles and he has trouble enough talking to and being around women.
	Columbine  She is Harlequin's mistress, a comic servant playing the tricky slave type, and wife of Pierrot. Rudlin and Crick. She is dressed in a ragged and patched dress appropriate to a hired servant. Occasionally, under the name Arlecchina she would wear a motley similar to her counterpart Arlecchino (or Harlequin). She was also known to wear heavy makeup around her eyes and carry a tambourine which she could use to fend off the amorous advances of Pantalone. She was often the only functional intellect on the stage. Columbina aided her mistress, the innamorata, to gain the affections of her one true love by manipulating Arlecchino and counter-plotting against Pantalone while simultaneously managing the whereabouts of the innamorato. She may be a flirtatious and impudent character, indeed a soubrette, but without losing her judgment.
	Pulcinella His main characteristic, from which he acquired his name, is his extremely long nose, which resembles a beak. Ever white dressed and black masked (hence conciliating the opposites of life and death), he stands out thanks to his peculiar voice, the sharp and vibrant qualities of which contribute intense tempo of the show. According to Pierre Louis Duchartre, his traditional temperament is to be mean, vicious, and crafty: his main mode of defense is to pretend to be too stupid to know what's going on, and his secondary mode is to physically beat people.