1. By S. Russell Mercer schools

2. Commedia dell'arte, (Italian, meaning "comedy of professional artists") was a form of improvisational theater which began in the 16th century and was popular until the 18th century, although it is still performed today. Traveling teams of players would set up an outdoor stage and provide amusement in the form of juggling, acrobatics, and, more typically, humorous plays based on a repertoire of established characters with a rough storyline, called Canovaccio.Italian improvisational theater16th century18th centuryjuggling acrobaticsCanovaccio

4. The commedia dell' arte was a remarkable art form where the script was improvised, and actors took on a single stylized role for their acting lives.

5. The performances were improvised around a repertory of stock conventional situations, adultery, jealousy, old age, love, some of which can be traced in Roman comedies of Plautus and Terence. The dialogue and action could easily be made topical and adjusted to satirize local scandals, current events, or regional tastes, mixed with ancient jokes and punchlines. Characters were identified by costume, masks, and even props, such as the slapstick. adulteryjealousyold agelovePlautusTerencesatirizecostumemaskspropsslapstick

6. Shakespeare refers to the commedia in Jaques' "seven ages of man" speech; touring companies visited England several times during his life. Click (for modem) on this site to hear the speech. The passage is spoken in the dialect Shakespeare"seven ages of man" speech

7. The characters: The stock characters, wearing masks to exaggerate the characteristics of their roles, of the Commedia must have produced something like the "comedy of humours" developed by Ben Jonson. humours

8. There was the Pantalone, the old man, meddlesome and fussy, often a cheated father like the senex of Roman Comedy (compare Polonius). Pantalonesenex

9. Pulchinella survives still as Punch, cunning, violent, and always a winner. The fantastic Harlequin, or Arlecchina survives too in pantomime

10. There were also serious characters: the Inamorata, the young heroine, in love of course, attended by her servant Columbina (who is far from serious), and her lover the Inamorato

12. Learn more about the characters: http://home.flash.net/~trshane/scharacters. htmhttp://home.flash.net/~trshane/scharacters. htm

13. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://commediadellarte.za palot.de/bilder/allgemein/commedia.jpg&imgrefurl=http://commediad ellartehttp://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://commediadellarte.za palot.de/bilder/allgemein/commedia.jpg&imgrefurl=http://commediad ellarte http://ise.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/drama/commedia.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commedia_dell'Arte