Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Commedia dell'Arte : characters, scenarios, and rhetoric

2004; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 24; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/1046293042000239438

1479-5760

Natalie Crohn Schmitt,

Theater, Performance, and Music History

Commedia dell'arte, performance improvised upon a scenario by itinerant Italian professional players from the mid‐sixteenth to the late eighteenth century, has continued to live on in memory primarily due to the extensive iconography of it. Commedia dell'arte widely influenced the arts of the twentieth century. And presently a considerable number of performance groups are inspired by it. Increasingly scholars have discovered and learned to make use of the extensive documentation of the commedia dell'arte other than its iconography. I here review a new edition of commedia dell'arte scenarios, two scholarly works, both of which set the form in a context of rhetoric, and two new performance guides. Finally, I compare and contrast commedia dell'arte to Chicago long‐form improvisation.