What genre is commedia dell arte?

Commedia dell'arte heeelp?

• Commedia dell'arte helpp? okay so my school is doing a project and i need to know stuff about commedia dell'arte genre/style. im having a hard time finding info on it! i was wondering if anyone knew who the well known actors and authrs were. and what the well known plays were. THANKS

• Answer:

  Comedia Dell'Arte, originated in Italy I believe. It is very much linked to the Italian Carnival, the actors are usually wearing masks ( Lover characters do not, others do). The main feature is improvisation. They didn't basically have a script, but they followed a general idea. There were 'tipi fissi' - usually there was a Lord and a servant, the servant helping the Lord with women. It can also feature two servants, one usually stupid and the otherone taking advantage of it. There was a lot of music and dancing involved, there weren't many monologues or dialogues (basically it was more like a modern day musical.) Hope that helps.