Masks Can Be Used to Create Stereotypes Similar to Stock Characters.

Commedia dell'Arte

Recognising Commedia dell'Arte

Definition

Commedia dell'Arte can be translated as: 'theatre of the professional creative person' or 'the comedy of skills'. Its full name is commedia dell'arte all'improvviso ('one-act through the fine art of improvisation') and information technology is too known as 'Italian comedy'

Origins

Commedia began in Italian republic during the Renaissance in the sixteenth century, but there is some evidence that its origins are in ancient Greek and Roman theatre.

From the kickoff performances in Italia around 1570, Commedia apace spread throughout Europe. It is a colourful and extremely theatrical art form, based on the interaction of traditional stock characters in improvised scenarios that drive a comic plot towards a humorous climax.

The legacy of Commedia includes the first incorporated (i.e. professional) theatre companies, the commencement European actresses and many of the themes and storylines even so enjoyed by audiences today.

Functioning style

Accessible improvisation

Commedia troupes consisted of twelve or and so professional performers, each a specialist in his or her stock character. In that location were no playwrights or directors. The visitor director (capocomico) would announce the title and theme of an evening's functioning, making a scenario or canovaccio available to the performers. The scenarios were approximately three pages long and described the basic plot points of the story with character entrances and exits. The dialogue was never scripted and the actors would collaborate together to improvise a unique performance at every show.

Performances were accessible to all social classes because the actors used mime, stereotyped stock characters, traditional lazzi'south (signature stunts, gags and pranks) wide physical gestures, improvised dialogue and clowning. Each functioning was a showcase of skilful technique; carefully apposite physical comedy routines and live improvisation.

Props, costumes and masks

Commedia troupes travelled with everything they needed; costumes, props and portable staging that could be fix upward in any outdoor public space. Fifty-fifty successful troupes with wealthy patrons and indoor performing spaces kept props and scenery to a minimum to continue the focus on operation skills, rather than spectacle. Props included animals, food, furniture and weapons. The character Arlecchino (Harlequin) carried 2 sticks tied together, which made a slap-up noise on affect. This gave nascency to the give-and-take 'slapstick.'

Commedia performers wore masks with exaggerated comic features to describe attending to themselves and to complement their physical and acrobatic skills. Masks forced actors to projection their characters' emotions through the body. Leaps, tumbles, stock gags (burle and lazzi) and obscene gestures were incorporated into their acts.

Plots

All Commedia plots were simple; ii young lovers (the innamorati) were kept apart by the old men (il vecchi) who were either fathers, guardians or elderly suitors. The servants (zanni) helped to outwit the old men and bring the lovers together.

Stock characters

Types

The actors of the Commedia represented fixed stereotypes (tipi fissi), for example, foolish old men, devious servants, or armed forces officers full of faux bravado. A Commedia actor usually played the same stock character for virtually of his or her career. The master characters were equally follows:

Il vecchi (the old men)

Master characters who were noblemen:

Pantalone — The master

A wealthy, miserly one-time man from Venice, who was always being cuckolded. (picture) In many storylines, his aim was to control his daughter and protect his money from thieving servants, only he was ever thwarted.

Costume: Tight-fitting long red trousers or red breeches and stockings, a short, tight-fitting jacket, a loose long black cloak with plain sleeves, blood-red-woollen skull-cap and yellow Turkish slippers. He wore a money purse on his chugalug and carried a huge dagger
Mask: a large hooked nose, wrinkled face and bushy eyebrows
Examples: See Shakespeare's As Y'all Like Information technology (Human activity 2 sc seven) 'the lean slipper'd pantaloon / With glasses on nose and pouch at side'.

Il Dottore — The Doctor

Pantalone's heart-aged neighbour from Bologna was a know-it-all, who claimed to exist educated and spoke fake Latin. (picture) He was either Pantalone's devoted friend or biting enemy, and he was always jealous of Pantalone'south success. Sometimes he was the father of one of the lovers.

Costume: Black academic apparel, satirising Bolognese scholars. A long jacket and a black coat to his heels, black shoes, stockings, breeches and a black skull-cap
Mask: Covered the nose and forehead only. The actor's cheeks were revealed and oft reddened to show Il' Dottore'southward fondness for alcohol.

Il Capitano — The Captain

This character was a boastful, arrogant soldier frequently portrayed as a Spaniard. (picture) He tried to impress people with stories of his bravery in battle, but he was a coward at heart. Hands frightened, he would scream like a girl if he was surprised. He was often the butt of the jokes and the target of the lazzi.

Costume: A very fancy exaggerated military uniform, with a plumed chapeau and a very long sword
Mask: A very long nose, wide eyes and sometimes a big handlebar moustache
Examples: See Armano in Shakespeare's Loves Labours Lost and Pistol in Henry IV Role 2

Usually Pantalone and Il Dottore worked as a pair and Il Capitano played the new confront in town.

Il zanni (the servants)

Zanni is a diminutive form of the name Giovanni and is common to Bergamo, in Lombardy, where the zanni grapheme originated. The English language word 'zany' is derived from the antics of these Commedia characters.

Zanni were male person servants, clowns and jacks-of-all-trades. They enjoyed practical jokes and intrigue but could be quarrelsome, cowardly, and treacherous. Dei Zanni ('the zanni') was also a generic term for the Commedia dell'Arte itself.

Arlecchino ('Harlequin')

Image of Harlequin character taken from Wikipedia The main comic figure and the nearly popular and famous character of Commedia dell' Arte. A tricky servant, commonly to Pantalone, merely as well frequently Il' Capitano, or Il' Dottore. He was the second zanni if Brighella or Pasquariello were in the visitor, otherwise he was the near important.

Harlequin was not too bright and often resorted to agility and acrobatics to become out of gluey situations; failing that, he ever carried effectually a slapstick with which to hit people. He was a primal effigy in Goldoni'south Commedia-based plays written in the first half of the eighteenth century.

Costume: Tight fitting tunic and pants patterned with multi-coloured, triangular patches
Mask: A sly, true cat-like face, with a blunt, black nose.

Columbina (also 'Columbine' or 'footling dove')

The just female servant graphic symbol, she was Arlecchino's female person opposite and sometimes his sweetheart. (picture) She was impudent simply often very charming and one of the few genuinely intelligent characters on stage. As confidante of the leading lady (inamorata), she was oftentimes employed past the lovers to assistance them convince their feuding parents to let them marry.

This character type was originally chosen sobretta and the French translation soubrette is still in employ in opera and musical theatre.

Costume: Dressed like her mistress or in the same pattern of fabric as Arlechinno, but always wore a small frock to show she was a servant. She often carried a tambourine or a basket
Mask: Sometimes wore a small half mask, but often appeared unmasked.

Brighella

Arlecchino's older blood brother or his dishonest, rascally friend. He played a high status retainer, a bartender, innkeeper or shopkeeper. He was a cowardly villain who would do anything for coin. He was thieving, mean-spirited, and occasionally violent, particularly to characters who had a lower social position.

Costume: His wore white outfits with a green trim. (motion-picture show) His main prop was a knife which he used not to stab others, but to cut the strings of their coin bags to steal their money. Sometimes, similar Arlecchino, he carried a slapstick
Mask: A green half mask.

Pulcinella ('Mr Dial')

Pulcinella's grapheme was directly descended from classical Roman theatre characters called Bucco and Maccus and he would place himself with either 1 or the other in functioning. His character changed with the locale and the player portraying him. Mostly Pulcinella represented the poor worker from Naples, the man with very niggling to lose. He often had nothing to do with the plot, just provided an external source of one-act.

Pulcinella was ever cocky-centred; either stupid but pretending to be clever, or clever however pretending to be stupid. He loved to pick a fight and then to shed blood. He talked about himself in the 3rd person and was unable to go along a secret. Physically portrayed equally a potbellied hunchbacked wife beater, with a distinctive vox sounding similar a chicken squawk, he became the 'swazzle' vocalism used in Punch and Judy shows.

Costume: He more often than not wore a long baggy white blouse, tied around the waist with a leather belt; amorphous white trousers and white saccharide-loaf lid or a white skull cap. He carried a large club and a purse and had a hump on his dorsum and a huge pot belly.
Mask: Pulcinella'southward mask was dark brown or black, with a worried, wrinkled brow, many warts, and a very large, parrot-like olfactory organ.

Other zanni

Pedrolino – A comic servant or clown (Pierrot in French and English) oftentimes pining with unrequited dearest for Columbina

Mezzetino – A male person comic retainer

Scapino – A male comic servant who flits from 1 idea/activeness to the next, creating defoliation

Scaramuccia – A male comic retainer (Scaramouche in French) often affecting high flown language

Coviello – A similar character to Pulcinella. He could also exist a friend of the Capitano.

Tartaglia – An older human, frequently a friend of Il Dottore

Rosetta - A female person servant, a maid or the wife of Pulcinella.

Gli inamorati — The immature lovers

These characters were usually the daughters and sons of the vecchi, and thus enjoyed a high status in society. They almost always illustrated the play's dilemma — whether to follow their hearts or obey the wishes of their parents. They were more serious than the other characters and did not article of clothing masks. They were ever youthful, argumentative, scheming and either handsome or beautiful.

They could be (and often were) children of other principal characters
They were expert in the arts of courtship and loved to write sonnets
They brutal madly in love, and then into despair, and were suspicious and jealous
They argued, made up and, in the cease, flew into each other's artillery on their way toward an platonic matrimony
A male lover (innamorato) normally had a romantic name like Flavio, Lelio or Ottavio
The lady (innamorata) was the 'beloved' with a proper noun similar Isabella, Flaminia, Vittoria or Lavinia.
Costume: Whether male or female, the lovers are always dressed in the height of way
Mask: Considering the greatest appeal of the lovers was their dazzler, they did not wear masks
Examples: Romeo in Shakepeare's Romeo and Juliet and Claudio in Much Ado Most Aught showtime out as typical inamorato.

Physical and situational one-act

The lazzi

Many of the Commedia scenarios reference 'lazzi' or an individual 'lazzo'; a comedic routine that was well rehearsed and known to the individual actors portraying the characters. These routines ofttimes needed to be very well rehearsed, because otherwise someone could get hurt, as the routines involved a lot of physical comedy.

Some typical lazzi were:

Lazzo of the hunt: With a drawn sword, the Captain chases Coviello. They remain on the phase in a stationary position as they mime running, each slightly out of reach of the other. As they run, each begins to acknowledge the audience's response
Lazzo of the chairs: Brandino is guarding Ottavio as they both sit in chairs. Attempting to escape, Ottavio moves his chair slightly. Brandino follows. Ottavio drags his chair halfway across the stage with Brandino in pursuit. They grinning at each other equally the bid to escape continues
Lazzo of the baggage: Arriving in the urban center, the Captain and Burattino both carry heavy luggage. The Captain asks Burattino if he can concur onto his luggage for a minute and starts to walk abroad. Burattino replies that he has to necktie his shoe and gives the Captain all the luggage, who promptly throws it dorsum at Burattino
Lazzo of looking everywhere and finding nothing: Zanni is asked to notice an object or person correct in front of him. Looking everywhere but at that spot, Zanni announces that it's not there
Lazzo of learning French: The inamorata is learning French (or any other language) from an instructor, and every discussion which she is taught sounds like a swear discussion, appalling her. Shakespeare used this lazzo in Henry V Act 3 Sc 4 where the French Princess Katharine is learning English language and is offended at being taught words similar 'pes' and 'gown' which sound obscene in her own language.

The influence of Commedia dell'arte

The influence of Commedia has been widespread throughout European performing arts.

The characters and theatrical styles of Commedia can notwithstanding be seen in:

Theatre (Shakespeare's The Tempest, Much Ado About Nada; Retainer of 2 Masters by Carlo Goldoni; One Man, Two Guvnors by Richard Bean; Les Fourberies de Scapin by Molière, The Figaro plays of Pierre Beaumarchais, Steven Berkoff's accommodation of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis)
Opera (Mozart'southward Cosi fan tutte, Le Nozze de Figaro, Don Giovanni and Leoncavallo's tragic melodrama Pagliacci)
Ballet (Igor Stravinsky'due south Petrushka and Pulcinella)
Contemporary musical theatre (The Rocky Horror Film Testify, Sweeney Todd)
Television sit-coms (Blackadder, Fawlty Towers)
Improvisational comedy (Whose Line is it Anyway?)
Silent films of the 1920s (Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Laurel and Hardy)
British Deport On films from the 1950s-70s
Pantomime
Dial and Judy shows
Vaudeville
Victorian melodrama
Pierrot shows (concert parties)
Classic cartoon characters (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote).

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