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Commedia dell'Arte: An Actor's Handbook

by John Rudlin

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An entertaining and highly illuminating account of Commedia's origins as a popular theatrical form, plus a practical and timely step-by-step guide to using commedia techniques in performance.

Table of Contents:
Illustrations, Introduction, Part I: The commedia dell'arte: Origins, The mask, Playing Commedia; Part II:The stock characters: The zanni, The old men, The Lovers, Il Capitano, Colombina, Other Masks: Pedrolino, Pulcinella, Scapino, Scaramuccia, Tartaglia, Minor Masks; Part III: The twentieth century: Craig at the Arena Goldoni, Meyerhold Dappertutto, Copeau's new improvised comedy, Charles Dullin: letters from the front, The Servant of Two Masters, The Lecoq school, Le Théâtre du Soleil, The San Francisco Mime Troupe, TNT (The New Theatre), Dario Fo, Carlo Boso and Antonio Fava, Restoration or renovation?; Appendix: Making a leather mask; Notes; A selection of works on commedia dell'arte in English; Index.

1994, Routledge, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Books Ltd.
Approx. 288 p. with 25 b/w illustrations
ISBN 0415047706 (paperback); ISBN 0415047692 (hardcover)

Description from Routledge website. Used by permission of Thomson Publishing Services.