Staging Commedia dell'Arte



Commedia dell’Arte was performed first during the 16th century, and would often be staged in open air theatres or public meeting halls.

Entrances- The commedia stage would be simple and have three entrances. Most characters would entire by the two entrances either side of the stage. The central entrance would be covered by the folds of a curtain or painted set and would only be used by important characters such as el Capitano.

Each character would make a show of appearing in the entrance in order to give the audience a chance to view the mask before the movement and story continued.

The curtain- In commedia, the actors often used the curtain to suggest another world behind the stage. This would be used to allow characters to travel distances or use sound to suggest things occurring behind the scenes in order to link up events. It was also a practical place for characters to put on their masks away from the view of the audience in order not to break the illusion of the masks.

Stage marks- The stage was often split into three sections.

The planning section- This was the area in the entrances and at the back of the stage, this is where are a character is introduced, or where a character could watch the action before entering into the conversation.

The conversation section- This is the central area of the stage where conversations take place. For the lovers it can also act as a momentary meeting point before they exit from the stage. This is because these characters spend most of their time in the last section.
The heightened emotion section- this is the area at the very front of the stage, closest to the audience when expressing strong feelings or presenting heightened moments. In the lovers case this is the place where they speak of their love for each other, but for el Capitano this could be the place where he challenges someone to a duel- a moment of tension.

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