Download or read book Performing Commedia dell'Arte, 1570-1630 written by Natalie Crohn Schmitt and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-09-23 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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. This book is winner of Ennio Flaiano Award in Italianistica, 2020. 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.