What is the style of Commedia delarte theatre?
Commedia dell’Arte was born in Italy in the XVI Century. It’s a complete form of theatre based on the use of masks (although not all the characters wear them) and stock characters taken from the Italian Renaissance. It has been the first form of theatre to allow women to play the female roles in a play. Commedia dell’Arte means: Art of Commedy. But in Italian Art meant “craft”(and eventually… “job”… “artisan”).It has been the first form of professional theatre. They started to get paid to perform. Commedia actors invented the concept of ticket. Traditional Commedia dell’Arte is very physical and each character moves in a particular and distinctive way. The use of stock characters and high skilled physicality was necessary because in that Historic period Italy was divided in lots of different independent states and in each state a different language was spoken. So the actors (moving from one place to the other) relied on their physicality (not every actor could talk every dialect) t
