Scripts and Scenarios The Performance of Comedy in Renaissance Italy [Paperback]

Examines in a different light the innovative and influential scripted comedies of the Italian Renaissance.This book examines the scripted stage comedies of the Italian Renaissance, tracing their transition from closed courtly audiences to a wider public. It concentrates on the performing values of their scripts rather than their literary qualities, in order to demonstrate their links with improvised commedia dell'arte, and thus explores in a new way a crucial phase in the development of European theatre. It will be of interest to scholars and students in both theatre history and Italian studies.This book examines the scripted stage comedies of the Italian Renaissance, tracing their transition from closed courtly audiences to a wider public. It concentrates on the performing values of their scripts rather than their literary qualities, in order to demonstrate their links with improvised commedia dell'arte, and thus explores in a new way a crucial phase in the development of European theatre. It will be of interest to scholars and students in both theatre history and Italian studies.This book examines the scripted stage comedies of the Italian Renaissance, tracing their transition from closed courtly audiences to a wider public. It concentrates on the performing values of their scripts rather than their literary qualities, in order to demonstrate their links with improvised commedia dell'arte, and thus explores in a new way a crucial phase in the development of European theater. It will be of interest to scholars and students in both theater history and Italian studies.Preface; Introduction: Italy in the sixteenth century; 1. Precedents; 2. The first 'regular' comedies; 3. The second quarter-century, outside Venice; 4. The second quarter-century, Venice and Padua; 5. Improvised comedy; 6. Obstacles to comedy; 7. Scripts and scenarios; Notes; Chronological bibliography of comedies, 15001560; General biblography. Simplicity and clarity are exactly the major merits of tl38