Lazzi Essays

Mubin Hira PERFORMANCE TREATMENT #1 Going to my first play ever was an experience that I will always remember. Being brand new to the theatre world, I didn’t know what to expect when I walked into the grand Krannert Center. It was a different atmosphere; almost unreal. Attending Twelfth Night, or What You Will in person was an amazing experience. Not only was it entertaining but, it gave the work an interpretation that I wouldn’t have gotten if I had only read the play. Being in the same room as

On thursday night I went to see Jerry Finnegan’s Sister. The play had two actors which were Morgan Fox and Genevieve Craven. They played the roles as Brian Dowd and Beth Finnegan. Brian is in love with Jerry Finnegan's sister (his best friend’s sister) ever since a young age, but can never tell her. He is in the conflict of wanting to tell her, but his window is closing. As they like to call it “the point of no return.” The set depicted two neighbor houses which was Brian house next to Jerry house

characters then improvised their dialogues on. It focused on improvisation, physicality, and refined comedy that an audience could easily understand, using masks, stock characters, nonsense language called ‘ grammalot’ , comic business known as ‘ lazzi’ and over the top acrobatics to tell their stories and entertain their audiences. In this discussion essay stock characters will be discussed. I will be giving a synopsis on each character and to which modern day character i can relate them too.

The art of incorporating several elements of drama including: social status and stereotypes in a performance to enhance the effectiveness and relevance, can be traced back to the performance style commedia. Sixteenth century traveling performers in Italy were renowned for their unique performance style and structure that utilised physical theatre, costumes, improvisation, audience interaction and stock characters reflecting levels of social hierarchy. Elements of commedia are evident in modern drama

Columbina is one of the many loved stock characters of Commedia dell’ Arte. Perhaps the wisest character and undeniably the most rational, she is most times the only one who has her head on straight. Many describe her to be sassy, sexy and sarcastic. With her quick wit and unabashed flirtatious personality, she brings a strong female aura to the mix. She’s smart, sharp, self-educated and oozes confidence; never afraid to keep her fellow male counterparts in check, (even if it means whacking her own

characters, costumes assortments and anectdotes or fables from their parents or grandparents (). The Commedia dell 'arte focused mostly with dishonourable love intrigues and clever tricks to acquire money. () The deliverance of comic relief, in the form lazzi or humerous interruptions, which often were irrelevant to the play itself, and the facilitation of masks, which allowed each character to shape his/her sense of identity in the play, frame Commedia dell’Arte to its unique eccentricity and absurdity