THE COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE AND ENGLISH DRAMA IN THE SIXTEENTH AND EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES

The Style of Commedia dell'Arte Acting: Observations Drawn from the Scenarios of Flaminio Scala

New Theatre Quarterly ◽

10.1017/s0266464x12000620 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 28 (4) ◽

pp. 325-333 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Natalie Crohn Schmitt

Keyword(s):

Golden Age ◽

Primary Source ◽

Renaissance Drama ◽

Commedia Dell'arte ◽

John Cage ◽

English Drama ◽

University Of Illinois ◽

And Performance ◽

Source Of Information

The only collection of commedia dell'arte scenarios to have been published in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is that of the actor-manager Flaminio Scala, in 1611. This can serve, among other things, as a primary source of information about the style of acting in commedia dell'arte performance in its golden age, from 1570 to 1630. While English drama of the same period provides us, in the main, with only the words the actors were to have spoken, the Scala collection rarely provides us with these, but rather, with a wealth of descriptions of actions and emotions. These descriptions enable us to make inferences about the style in which they were acted – that is, about the particular way in which the stories the actors presented were said, performed, or expressed. Natalie Crohn Schmitt is Professor of Theatre, Emerita, University of Illinois at Chicago. She has published on commedia dell'arte in Viator, Renaissance Drama, and Text and Performance Quarterly, and previously in New Theatre Quarterly on Stanislavsky (NTQ 8), on theatre in its historic moment (NTQ 23), and on John Cage (NTQ 41).

Download Full-text

A History of English Drama 1660-1900

10.1017/cbo9780511897764 ◽

1955 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Allardyce Nicoll

Keyword(s):

English Drama ◽

History Of

Download Full-text

Commedia dell'arte Actresses and the Performance of Lovesickness

The Brock Review ◽

10.26522/br.v10i2.85 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 26-37

Author(s):

Clarissa Hanora Hurley

Keyword(s):

Medical Condition ◽

Commedia Dell'arte ◽

Cultural Attitudes ◽

Gender Based

In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries there was a conjunction of interest in erotomania as a “real” medical condition and the representation of that condition in literature and on the popular stage. This period corresponds with the rise of the professional actress of the commedia dell’arte. This paper explores some instances of pazzia (madness) scenes in the scenarios of Flaminio Scala and contemporary accounts of commedia performances with a view to better understanding the role of the professional theatre and professional actress in shaping and reflecting cultural attitudes towards gender-based erotic “distraction”.

Download Full-text