- “Il Dottore woos Isabella as Colombina empathizes.”
- “Isabella, a young lover and Colombina”
- “Pantalone” “Pantalone and his servant Columbina”
- “The motley crew”
The What is Theatre arts block class is studying Commedia dell’Arte, an important form of theatre that flourished in the second half of the sixteenth century in Western Europe. The stock characters performed improvised scenarios and it was the first form of theatre with ‘professional actors’. In our class, each student was assigned a different stock character to research. They studied the particular movements, social status, vocal patterns, clothing, etc. Then we found classic scenarios to improvise for each other. Needless to say, there were many laughs. We’ve enjoyed finding contemporary references to the Commedia in film, television, and animation.
“Il Capitano tries to impress Columbina and Arlechinno with tales of war before being dreadfully frightened by a mouse!”
