Tag Archives: theatre education

The origins of mask (Part 2 – From rites to early plays)

As we humans settled down, started to cultivate the earth and become domiciled other rites and festivities started to develop. It was harvest, fertility, initiation or transition rites among other. Those rites demanded more human masks, representing human types such … Read the rest of this entry

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The origins of mask (Part 1 – The hunt)

Masks are developed from hunting. When the hunters were trying to get closer to their pray they dressed in hides and furs from the animals they were hunting. It was not only the looks and the scents from the hunters … Read the rest of this entry

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Carnival and the popular feast (Part 5 – From the May feast to comedy)

From the material that are available there are lots of examples from primitive sketches to more sophisticated plays that can stand by their own, but have been a specific part of a wedding or another official feast. Let’s see a … Read the rest of this entry

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Carnival and the popular feast (Part 2)

The carnival can be derived from ancient Rome and the Saturnalia. It was celebrated in Rome between 17 and 23 of December, up until the 5th century, to the glory of Saturn, the God. The coming golden age ruled by … Read the rest of this entry

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Carnival and the popular feast (Part 1)

As we have seen in Charlatano and the square in Commedia dell’Arte the market square and the life in the streets were a form of refuge from the hard everyday life and the oppression of the state and the church. … Read the rest of this entry

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Dottore’s prolog

Here comes another prolog. It is a later text from Lo spirit delle maschere (The spirits of the masks) by Giueseppe Petrai written 1901. But it is a good example of a Dottore’s prolog. “Do you laugh because I happened … Read the rest of this entry

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Charlatano and the square in Commedia dell’Arte (Part 2)

Off course there has been jesters and actors around all the time despite prohibitions and censorship. It is just that we have no written witness descriptions since it mostly played in the country side for ordinary people who could not … Read the rest of this entry

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Charlatano and the square in Commedia dell’Arte (Part 1)

In the marketplace, that had its own popular, unofficial laws impregnated by an atmosphere of freedom from severity; where yelling peddlers, the Cris de Paris and merry citizens “entertained the public in loud swearing duels, rhythmic chants, organized festive performances … Read the rest of this entry

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Grammelot

The onomatopoetic, language mimicking, voice illustrating, sound that Dario Fo calls Grammelot was born in France when the Commedia dell’Arte actors where antagonized by the church in Italy during the counterreformation. They turned to Europe instead, but not only to … Read the rest of this entry

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The roots to all western popular comedy

I see Commedia dell’Arte as the roots to all western popular comedy. There are naturally roots to Commedia dell’Arte as well, but if we see it as the first professional form of theatre in Europe and if we consider that … Read the rest of this entry

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