The Dramaturgy of Commedia dell'Arte

Description

This book examines Commedia dell'Arte as a performative genre, and one that should be analysed through the framework of dramaturgy and dramaturgical practice. This volume examines the way Commedia has been explored in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and details its reinventors’ dramaturgic approaches, both focusing in on specific examples such as Jacques Lecoq, Dario Fo and Antonio Fava, and also suggesting how modern discoveries may aid the study of historical performance practice. It also discusses how audiences read and receive masks; the relationship between the different masked and unmasked roles; the range of performance activities that come under the umbrella term ‘improvisation’; the performative construction of a role performed ‘live’ from a scenario; the role of language and embodied locality in performance; and the performative relationship between performative commedia and literary tragicomedy. Its focus is dramaturgy, and so it may be read both as a text describing various theatrical practices from 1946 onwards and as a way of creating one’s own contemporary Commedia practice. It is an important read for any student or scholar of Commedia dell'Arte and theatre historians grappling with the status of this unique and influential performance form. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of figures Author and contributor biographies Prologue 1 The founders of Neo-Commedia 1.1 Context and pre-1945 1.2 Giorgio Strehler (1921–1997) and Arlecchino Il Servitore di due Padroni (Harlequin, A Servant of Two Masters) 1.3 Carlo Mazzone-Clementi (1920–2000) 1.4 Jacques Lecoq (1921–1999) 1.5 Giovanni Poli (1917–1979) 1.6 Dario Fo (26 March 1926–13 October 2016) 2 The second and third generation of reinventors 2.1 Carlo Boso (1946–) 2.2 Antonio Fava (1949–) 2.3 The schools of Mazzone-Clementi 3 Commedia archetypes 4 Fixed types and stock roles 4.1 Masks as embodied locality 4.2 Masks as embodied positions of power 4.3 Commedia and Gestus 4.4 The Commedia Mask set: what we may learn from structuralist anthropology 4.5 Katrien Van Beurden and Hotel Courage: a case study 4.6 The Corn Exchange and the Rude Mechanicals: a case study 4.7 One Man, Two Guv’nors: a case study 5 Actors, parts and roles by Sergio Costola 5.1 Parts and roles: Commedia dell’Arte 5.2 The scenarios of the Commedia Dell’Arte 5.3 The generici or zibaldoni 6 Improvisation and Commedia 6.1 Definitions and descriptions 6.2 Rhetoric 6.3 Women and improvisation 6.4 Why improvise? 6.5 Modern improvisation and Commedia 6.6 Conclusion: a typology of Commedia-related improvisational practices 7 Grammelot and the performance of language (Alt. Grommelot/Grumelot) 8 Neo-Commedia and the ensemble 8.1 Ensemble or individual? 8.2 The business of Commedia 8.3 Ensemble politics 8.4 Ensemble and family 8.5 Ensemble performance 8.6 The Capocomico 8.7 Ensemble and Clown theory 9 Masks in Neo-Commedia 9.1 The masked and the unmasked 9.2 Masks, distributed cognition and agency 9.3 Masks and neuroscience: why do we react like that? 10 Epilogue Index