Comedia Dell'arte

Question 1

Arlechinno

Answer 1

status - Servant

costume - tight fitting long jacket with tights sewn over with odd patches

appearance - clumsy yet nimble

speech - guttural and hoarse

movement - on the toes, lower than the royalties and hunched over from excessive lumbar curvature

characteristics - absent minded, very physicalised movements

Props - batocchio

Question 2

il’ Capitano

Answer 2

status - bluff as a mercenary (loner)

costume - (satire on military uniform) feathered hat, huge boots with exaggerated garters, spanish varieties with exaggerated ruff. Costume diagonally striped or slashed.

appearance - egotistically and physically large

speech -

movement - mountain walk, slow deliberate and mechanical

characteristics - very bold and daring until he actually has to do anything

props - sword

Question 3

il’ Dottore

Answer 3

status - head of another family

costume - black academic dress, long jacket with black coat over-reaching his heals, black shoes, stockings and breeches, black skull-cap

appearance - very large, belly forward and weight on heals

speech - full of malapropisms and gibberish

movement - moves in figures of eights and jumps like a spring once an idea has been thought of. walks quickly and in irregular intervals

characteristics - specializes in everything and can talk loads of lies about everything.

Question 4

Columbina

Answer 4

status - personal maid / perky servant

costume - mob cap, apron, waearing a ‘folly’ dress underneath

appearance - strong and attractive, then pretty and petite

speech - gossipy and sharp with variations of pitch

movement - little flick of the foot

characteristics - very witty and rational

props - her basket (endless)

Question 5

The Innamorati

Answer 5

(Isabella, Lelio, Flavio, Vittoria)

status - high, but brought low because of their hopelessness

costume - the latests fashions (even sometimes soldiers for the males and the females would change many times)

appearance - young, attractive, ballet positioning

speech - musical like sentences, intelligent (whole poems off by heart)

movement - they tweeter, their bodies’ sway to where they want to go

characteristics - fidelity, jealousy and fickleness

props - handkerchief, fan for women

Question 6

Pantalone

Answer 6

status - top of the pecking order

costume - dark colours of black, grey and red.

appearance - lean and scrawny

speech - high-pitched chicken squawk

movement - same as zanni except smaller steps

characteristics - obsessed with money, cheap and ridiculously gullible

props - gold chain, money pouch

Question 7

Zanni

Answer 7

status - bottom of pecking order

costume - baggy, white flour sack like

appearance -

speech - loud, open-mouthed. Coarse and hoarse

movement - very different depending on the type of zanni (eg. small zanni move small stepped with foot changing)

characteristics - strongest of all survival instincts, suffers from spasms of ancestral hunger

props - temporary custodian of anything that belongs to someone else

Question 8

techniques

Answer 8

vocal - I learnt how to give texture to my voice in the way I represented my characters voice, and I learnt how to control my breathe in order to continuously talk with no pauses.
physical - I learnt how to exaggerate my movements and express what i am saying through the use of movements. I learnt how to emphasise comedy and satire through the use of my walk

Question 9

characters

Answer 9

• Arlechinno
• il’ Dottore
• il’ Capitano
• Columbina
• Flavio
• Isabella
• Pantalone
• Zanni