A History of Italian Theatre PDF Download

Author: Joseph Farrell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521802652
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
A history of Italian theatre from its origins to the the time of this book's publication in 2006. The text discusses the impact of all the elements and figures integral to the collaborative process of theatre-making. The distinctive nature of Italian theatre is expressed in the individual chapters by highly regarded international scholars.

Author: Judith Chaffee
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317613376
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 540

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Book Description
From Commedia dell’Arte came archetypal characters that are still with us today, such as Harlequin and Pantalone, and the rediscovered craft of writing comic dramas and masked theatre. From it came the forces that helped create and influence Opera, Ballet, Pantomime, Shakespeare, Moliere, Lopes de Vega, Goldoni, Meyerhold, and even the glove puppet, Mr Punch. The Routledge Companion to Commedia dell’Arte is a wide-ranging volume written by over 50 experts, that traces the history, characteristics, and development of this fascinating yet elusive theatre form. In synthesizing the elements of Commedia, this book introduces the history of the Sartori mask studio; presents a comparison between Gozzi and Goldoni’s complicated and adversarial approaches to theatre; invites discussions on Commedia’s relevance to Shakespeare, and illuminates re-interpretations of Commedia in modern times. The authors are drawn from actors, mask-makers, pedagogues, directors, trainers and academics, all of whom add unique insights into this most delightful of theatre styles. Notable contributions include: • Donato Sartori on the 20th century Sartori mask • Rob Henke on form and freedom • Anna Cottis on Carlo Boso • Didi Hopkins on One Man, Two Guv’nors • Kenneth Richards on acting companies • Antonio Fava on Pulcinella • Joan Schirle on Carlo Mazzone-Clementi and women in Commedia • and M.A. Katritzky on images Olly Crick is a performer, trainer and director, having trained in Commedia under Barry Grantham and Carlo Boso. He is founder of The Fabulous Old Spot Theatre Company. Judith Chaffee is Associate Professor of Theatre at Boston University, and Head of Movement Training for Actors. She trained in Commedia with Antonio Fava, Julie Goell, Stanley Allen Sherman, and Carlos Garcia Estevez.

Author: Antonio Fava
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
"The mask - as object, symbol, character, theatrical practice, even spectacle - is the central metaphor around which Fava builds his discussion of structure, themes, characters, and methods. His book combines historical fact, personal experience, philosophical speculation, and passionate opinion. Including period drawings, prints, and color photographs of leather masks made by Fava himself, The Comic Mask in the Commedia dell'Arte is a rich work of singular insight into one of the world's most venerable forms of theater." --Book Jacket.

Author: Robert Henke
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521643245
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
This book explores the commedia dell'arte: the Italian professional theatre in Shakespeare's time. The actors of this theatre usually did not perform from scripted drama but instead improvised their performances from a shared plot and thorough knowledge of individual character roles. Robert Henke closely analyzes hitherto unexamined commedia dell'arte texts in order to demonstrate how the spoken word and written literature were fruitfully combined in performance. Henke examines a number of primary sources including performance accounts, actors' contracts, and letters, among other documents.

Author: Meredith Chilton
Publisher: New Haven : George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art with Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300090093
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
"The volume focuses on nearly 150 porcelain sculptures, representing more than twenty European ceramic manufacturers. The authors investigate the history of the commedia dell'arte's transformation into sculpture: Why were the figures made? Why do they appear as they do? What inspired their gestures and costumes? How did street theatre themes become integrated into court life and entertainment? Examining these porcelain figures in greater breadth and detail than any publication ever has done before, this book is essential for those interested in theatre, painting, costume, and the decorative arts."--BOOK JACKET.

Author: Peter Jordan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136488243
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
The Venetian Origins of the Commedia dell'Arte is a striking new enquiry into the late-Renaissance stirrings of professional secular comedy in Venice, and their connection to the development of what came to be known as the Commedia dell’Arte. The book contends that through a symbiotic collaboration between patrician amateurs and plebeian professionals, innovative forms of comedy developed in the Venice region, fusing ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture in a provocative mix that had a truly mass appeal. Rich with anecdotes, diary entries and literary – often ribald – comic passages, Peter Jordan's central argument has important implications for the study of Venetian art, popular theatre and European cultural history.

Author: Natalie Crohn Schmitt
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429663064
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
Performing Commedia dell’Arte, 1570-1630 explores the performance techniques employed in commedia dell’arte and the ways in which they served to rapidly spread the ideas that were to form the basis of modern theatre throughout Europe. Chapters include one on why, what, and how actors improvised, one on acting styles, including dialects, voice and gesture; and one on masks and their uses and importance. These chapters on historical performance are followed by a coda on commedia dell’arte today. Together they offer readers a look at both past and present iterations of these performances. Suitable for both scholars and performers, Performing Commedia dell’Arte, 1570-1630 bears on essential questions about the techniques of performance and their utility for this important theatrical form.

Author: Allardyce Nicoll
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521058346
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
The commedia dell'arte was an improvised drama performed by masked players. How did the actors react to these demands and limitations? What force kept this form of theatre alive for more than two centuries and made Harlequin such a potent image? In this study of the commedia dell'arte, originally published in 1987, Professor Nicoll's concern is not to provide an historical survey of its origins or to trace the ascent and descent of Harlequin or any or any other character or 'mask', but rather to explore critically the answers to these and related questions. His arguments are based on the evidence of the play scenarios and contemporary documents as far as possible, and are illuminated by many illustrations that are either little-known or had not previously been reproduced.

Author: Anne MacNeil
Publisher: Liturgical Press
ISBN: 9780198166894
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 470

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Book Description
Music and the Commedia dell'Arte narrates the story of the most famous commedia dell'arte troupe of the late Renaissance, focusing in particular on the representation of women on stage and on the role of music-making in their craft. In its thorough integration of the fields of music history,theatre history, performance studies, women's studies and Classics, this is the first comprehensive analysis of the leading actresses of the Compagnia dei Gelosi and their contributions to the Renaissance stage. Including an extensive survey of documents concerning comedians, their patrons,colleagues and audiences, Music and the Commedia dell'Arte provides a rich context for the study of musical-theatrical performance before the advent of opera and re-defines our perceptions of women, music and theatre in the Renaissance.

Author: Lynne Lawner
Publisher: ABRAMS
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Commedia dell'arte is the first modern theater - inspiration to Shakespeare, Moliere, Goldoni, Mozart, and Balanchine and forerunner of the modern stage comedy. This book traces the history of commedia from its beginnings through many transformations to its rediscovery in the experimental theater of today. The depiction of commedia in the visual arts has a rich history. From Tiepolo and Watteau to Beardsley, Picasso, Hockney, and other modern masters, painters have found great resonance and meaning in the clowns and lovers of commedia. Lynne Lawner traces all these threads, unearthing rare texts of commedia plays, discovering myriad versions of the ever-fascinating Harlequin, Pierrot, Columbine, and Pulcinella, relating the gossip of courts and theaters, and revealing the ways in which these figures and their classic stories - the sly servant, the foolish soldier, the clever maid, the quack doctor - have arisen again and again in art.