1st Edition

Performing Commedia dell'Arte, 1570-1630

By Natalie Crohn Schmitt Copyright 2020
120 Pages 11 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

120 Pages 11 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

120 Pages 11 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

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... Read more

List of figures; List of tables; Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. Improvisation: why, what, how  2. Acting styles: dialects, voice, gesture; 3. The uses of masks; 4. Coda: commedia dell’arte today; Index

Biography

Natalie Crohn Schmitt is Professor Emerita of Theatre and English at the University of Illinois, Chicago, USA. Her wide-ranging scholarship includes Befriending the Commedia dell’Arte of Flaminio Scala: The Comic Scenarios (2014) and essays on commedia dell’arte in New Theatre Quarterly, Viator, Renaissance Drama, and Text and Performance Quarterly. She is the recipient of two National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships and of Humanities Center fellowships at Stanford University and at the University of Illinois.