Commedia dell Arte was Improvised Comedy Developed in Italy

History Commedia dell arte was developed in 16th and 17th century. It was a form of comedy that started around Italy. The actors improvised text based scenarios so they didnt have to write down scripts. It came from people first starting performing in the streets and markets of the Italian Renaissance, but it can be traced all the way back to Ancient Greek. The actors wore masks and colourful clothes to draw attention to them and their acrobatic skills increased that chance. They soon teamed up in troupes with more actors and moveable stages to establish it as a genre of its own. These performances were open to all classes from the rich to the pore. They didnt care about language barriers because they used mime, stereotyped stock characters, signature stunts, gags, pranks, masks, physical gestures, clowning and improvised dialogue so they would know what was happening. Later the tradition spread all over Europe. It then gave the idea to the French which turned most of the ideas into commedia style shows. The Stock Characters The Stock Characters are the characters that they use as a base for their show. They are Arplechinno, Capitano, Columbina, Comico, Dottore, Flavio, Isabella, Lelio, Pantalone, Pedrolino, Pulcinella, Vittoria, Zanni. Arlechinno is got a status of being a servant. It is mainly a servant to Pantalone but sometimes to the others. His costume was a tight multi-coloured patches sowed on to one main top and pants. His mask looked just like a persons