Tag Archives: women in theatre

Posted on 2021-03-01 by Micke Klingvall

Commedia dell’Arte troupes in comparison with the Elizabethan theatre

Even though the Commedia dell’Arte actors were professional they could not live on their art itself. They had to find other ways were they could use their craft to survive, just like many struggling theatre groups today. While the successful … Read the rest of this entry →

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Posted on 2020-11-18 by Micke Klingvall

Accesi (the Lightened) 1590 – 1628

Accisi had probably existed for a while when we first hear about them in 1590, when they get a permit to play in Brescia.As early as 1583 Pier Maria Cecchini says that he played for Alfonso II d’Este, the Duke … Read the rest of this entry →

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Posted on 2020-04-30 by Micke Klingvall

Commedia Erudita – Music and performance spaces (Part 4)

Commedia Erudita, just as Commedia dell’Arte, was very musical genre. It has also contributed to the birth of opera as an art form, with composers as Orazio Vecchi and Adriano Banchieri and even Alessandro Striggio and Giovanni Croce. As early … Read the rest of this entry →

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Posted on 2020-03-21 by Micke Klingvall

Commedia dell’Arte abroad

Commedia dell’Arte was definitely not just an Italian matter. It spread very soon all round Europe, above all in France, where Commedia dell’Arte was almost as at home as in Italy. When Gelosi and Zan Ganassa came to Paris in … Read the rest of this entry →

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Posted on 2017-02-13 by Micke Klingvall

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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Posted on 2016-12-12 by Micke Klingvall

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 →

Filed in 2 Vulgar Comedy | 1 Comment
Posted on 2016-12-05 by Micke Klingvall

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 →

Filed in 2 Vulgar Comedy | 2 Comments
Posted on 2016-11-27 by Micke Klingvall

The language of the marketplace

A street vendor starts to call out his products in the square. The peddler in the booth beside him starts to yell out his products even louder in order to be heard and get anything sold. It works well. A … Read the rest of this entry →

Filed in 2 Vulgar Comedy | 5 Comments
Posted on 2016-11-08 by Micke Klingvall

A Servetta’s prolog

Here is a prolog by a Servetta from Domenico Brunis, from 1621, in my translation from Swedish. This might be one of the most used prologs today. It is one of the few saved prologs that are dramatic and can … Read the rest of this entry →

Filed in 1 Commedia dell'Arte, Example texts | 1 Comment
Posted on 2016-10-31 by Micke Klingvall

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 →

Filed in 1 Commedia dell'Arte, 2 Vulgar Comedy | 2 Comments