Renaissance Italy

Around 1400-1700

Theatre around 1500-1700

RENAISSANCE = REBIRTH

Mona Lisa (Da Vinci, 1503-1506)

2 Forms of Italian Theatre

Commedia dell’arte

Courtly Dramas

Commedia dell’arteRefresher

Italian, 1500s-1700s

Improvisational Theatre

Unscripted, Free to watch

First female performers

Commedia dell’arteRefresher

Lazzi, burle

Innamorati, vecchi, zanni

Stock characters including Arlecchino, Pantalone, Flavio, Isabella, and Pedrolino

Courtly Dramas and Neoclassicism

… … … …

Neoclassicism or What’s With the Fancy Word, Mr. S?

ALL you need to know: Neoclassicism

means new classicism

After discovering classic books by Aristotle, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, artists of all sorts wanted to create art based on Greek models

Italian Courtly Dramas

Members of the wealthy class built permanent indoor theatres

Era is not well known for dramatic lit, most scripts are lost

Comedy/tragedy after Roman model Major example:

Mandragola (The Mandrake) by Machiavelli

Italian Courtly Dramas

Pastoral Drama Nymphs (?) &

shepherds in love. Appeal: nostalgia,

simple life

New style: intermezzi Allegorical plot +

spectacle Courtly audience

Plays are written in the Neoclassical style

Structures & Stages

Teatro Farnese, 1618

First permanent proscenium arch stage! Creates

perspective (connects to painters of the time)

Scenic Technology

WINGS! Angled Vs. Flat Groove system (wings

slide in grooves)

Scenic Technology

Famous Renaissance Italians Niccolo Machivelli

Petrarch

Leonardo Da Vinci

Copernicus

Descartes

Galileo

Michelangelo

What Can We Do? A Play

A Presentation

A Song

A PowerPoint

A Poster Wall

Requirements: Everyone must speak Treat whatever you do

like a performance