Italian Renaissance Theatre

Drama 1Fall 2003

When?

The Italian Renaissance was from 1550-1700 AD.

The plague was still around, so theatre was not incredibly popular.

As before, it was kept alive by wandering troupes.

New forms of theatre Opera

– Dialogue is sung rather than spoken– Actually a mistaken recreation of the Grecian

chorus led to the development of the form of theatre we now know as Opera

Commedia dell’arte– Performed by a troupe of actors that traveled

from town to town– Entirely improvised (made up)

Characters in the commedia

All characters were stock characters There were three main groups of

stock characters–The lovers–The masters–The servants

Dottore

The Lovers The lovers were the only

characters that did not wear masks They were beautiful, well-educated,

innocent, noble, and witty They are often opposed in their

love by one or more of the masters

Columbina

The Masters Il Capitano (The Captain)

– a braggart, cowardly soldier who claimed prowess in both love and battle but was often a failure in both

Il Dottore (The Doctor)– a physician or professor who often spouts

inaccurate Latin Pantalone (The Merchant)

– a greedy, lustful, meddling man

Pantalone

The Servants

The servants were called zanni. There were usually at least two

servants, typically one smart and one less smart.

The leader of the zanni was Harlequin. Much of the humor comes from the

actions of the servants.

Harlequin

Commedia Design They were based

on scenarios often given by the audience

Interspersed in the action were lazzi, or comic bits

Most of the lazzi were low comedy using physical humor

Slapstick comedy developed and was named after the actual slapstick used to beat characters

Capitano

Commedia Costumes All characters except the lovers

wore masks.–Masks covered only the top half of

the face and often had distinguishing features

The costumes were stock (repeated for characters in all scenarios)

Set Design in Theatre

Perspective was used in all theatres including opera.

Scenery was layered to create a three dimensional effect.

The floor of the stage was painted with tiles using perspective to show depth.

More Scenic Inventions

Created a chariot and pole system to enable multiple flats to be moved at the same time.

Stages were raked to create upstage and downstage areas.

Humanistic Theatre

Highly formal. Was performed by the upper class for

the upper class. Purity of form--tragedies were tragic,

comedies were comic and there was NO mixing of the two.

The Rules

Verisimilitude--events in the play must be realistic.

No violence on stage--do not offend the audience.

No low language--do not offend the audience.

Follow the unities of time, place, and action.