Commedia Dell Arte Essay

Commedia dell’Arte of the 17th century was popular in Italy. According to Winifred Smith’s The Commedia dell’Arte, the major characteristics of Commedia dell’Arte was “improvised dialog on an outline plot, set speeches, and masked clowns.” According to La Commedia Inglese, by Talia Felix, the literature of which they used was a theme of which told the outline of the story and the actors had to act according to the given theme. There were no playwrights for Commedia dell'Arte, the performers were full-time professionals of which also included women. Commedia dell’Arte was full of merriness, that it can be inferred that the music was of a merry, lively sort. Some stock characters wore conventional dresses and each stock character was represented by the article of clothing they wore. For example, Capitano would where a military outfit. The set wasn’t too fancy but they had a lot of props. They had sound of effects, such as Arlecchino slapping two sticks together (the birth of “slapstick”)

Commedia dell’Arte was …show more content…
The performers were all professional actors and include females. According to Shane Arts, the troupe performed and “were accessible to all social classes.” According to the Faction of Fools, “there were no playwrights or directors. [However, they had a] company manager [who] would announce the title and theme of an evening’s performance, making a scenario or canovaccio available to the performers.” Also, Commedia dell’Arte was directly associated with Carlo Goldoni, “[of whom it] has been argued that...“killed” Commedia.” Commedia dell’Arte was also associated with Shakespeare and Molière indirectly. According to Winifred Smith’s Commedia dell’Arte, there was an unspecified designer who created backdrops with “whoever the designer of the scene, three main houses shown, one at each side and one at the back, leaving two streets as well as the house