commedia dell'arte started in the sixteenth century during the renaissance it has a form resembling ancient mime and early atellan farce with its masks,stock characters, local types, and improvised form springs to life(felner,orenstein)
mask















stock characters

arlechinno-From a primitive naïve and simple character, he evolves into a smart, more sophisticated one, that with his simplicity outwits all the arrogant and greedy personages with whom he interacts.
capitano- The mask of the Captain with all certainty widely pleased the population which was oppressed by those mercenary occupation armies, as very often happened in the Italy of 16th century, kind of a platonic revenge toward the oppressor, and especially toward the mercenary soldiers, mainly ignorant, violent brutes who would take advantage in all senses of the poor subordinate populations.






columbina- is what the Innamorata is not: free, insolent, not slave of love bonds,
sometimes brilliant, vane always, chatterer, gossiper, always prone to intrigue at somebody else's expenses. A sort of Harlequinn in female clothes, and in fact she comes up in certain setups as Harlequina , with a patched costume duplicate of Harlequin's.She is usually Harlequin's companion, and only woman to sometimes wear a mask on stage, Colombina brings that female pepper and intransigence to the plot.

dottore-The Doctor is the second old folk together with Pantaloon in the Commedia dell'Arte, and first appears on stage in the mid 16th century, with the name of Graziano, which later became Dottor Balanzone. The Doctor character is normally used in the Commedia dell'Arte plays to put a break in the action, with empty, pre-fabricated and supposedly erudite monologues.Sort of a drums or bass solo in Jazz, which gives the time to the other musicians to take a break and go drink something or put a new reed on their saxophone.

the innamorati-The Lovers bring into the Commedia dell'Arte those little touches of soap opera and feuilleton around which the action may easily be developed. Important in their role as much as with a flat personality the Innamorati helped the public to identify and sink deep in the stories
isabella-The Isabella character is certainly the most known among all female Lovers, due to the great intelligence and stage performance of Isabella Andreini

pantalone-Pantaloon plays the ideal counterpart of an Harlequin always without money, the Zanni, poor immigrant always hungry, Brighella, and countless other characters.

pulcinella-Philosophical, eternally melancholic, dreamer as only a representative of the Neapolitan culture could be, Pulcinella has a spirit all of his own. No tensions or despair, his melancholic approach to life makes him coast problems, situations, live adventures and at the end simply getting out of everything, in the same simple manner as how he got involved

vittoria- one of those characters which appeared in the Commedia dell'Arte in almost all plays, although keeping a low profile which got more personality with time, developing into more elaborate and important characters such as Colombina, Corallina, Franceschina, Mirandolina and, in one of her disguises, also Arlecchinetta

zanni-Zanni, as much as Harlequin, is originary from Bergamo. The lower Bergamo of course, "Bergam de hüta", where all the poor come from, and he's part of that emigrant population that has to mingle into an hostile environment to survive.Zanni means the first name Giovanni in the dialect of Bergamo, the most common of all Italian names, sort of a John Doe of the times

the scenarios
gone fishin
the rat hat
sausage
the picture

all by i sebastiani

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http://www.ehow.com/video_2375853_commedia-dell-arte-theatre-masks.html



























































work cited

http://www.natalieharrower.com/

http://www.delpiano.com/carnival/html/servetta.html







http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://theperformersecurityblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/masque-de-venise-commedia-dell-arte-trifaccia-1490.jpg&imgrefurl=http://theperformersecurityblog.wordpress.com/&h=300&w=300&sz=34&tbnid=x0uigDSlfEcsKM:&tbnh=116&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcommedia%2Bdell%2527arte%2Bmasks&hl=en&usg=__jpVbzDh13CfrH3jjlBK4hvO_tCA=&ei=1rF8S4WQHM2vtgfP8OyaBQ&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=7&ct=image&ved=0CBUQ9QEwBg




http://www.shane-art.com/
http://www.isebastiani.com/


The Red Hat: A Commedia dell'arte scenario
Copyright 1993, by Jeff A. Suzuki http://math.bu.edu/people/jeffs/scenario.html