Planning our history presentations around a quintessential element of our era of study, I puzzled the possibilities for representing the Renaissance.
In the process, I considered a masquerade, which derived from the Middle French in 1587.
Knowing they are immensely popular, I had trouble researching the origins.
With few if any resources, last December I asked Mr. Theater, one of the actor interpreters at Colonial Williamsburg, who always gives me great ideas.
At an Actor’s Trunk program, I asked him about the history of masquerade, where I learned about Commedia dell ‘Arte, which had its origins in 16th century Italy.
Perfect!
Although I had not heard of Commedia dell ‘Arte, Mr. Theater rightly pointed out that I was aware of elements: the Harlequin, Punch and Judy, vaudeville, Charlie Chaplin, Waiting for Godot.
From the early days of vaudeville to the modern era of television sit-coms, we have seen the 20th century interpretations of Medieval/Renaissance characters from Commedia dell ‘Arte.
Commedia dell ‘Arte was a traveling troupe with basic stock characters with basic personality types.
The most famous (to me) are the servant types who might be named Harlequin, Punch, or Pierrot.
Although they had a basic storyline to work from, the used improvisation to make each performance unique.
As part of their costuming, they wore masks with exaggerated features.
After more research, I learned that some of the venues where the Commedia dell ‘Arte performed was at the Venetian Carnivals where everyone wore a mask in the two-week carnival (Latin: carne+val=farewell to meat) that ended before Lent.
Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest, uses Commedia dell ‘Arte.
I decided to incorporate these ideas into our Renaissance Becoming History presentation, which interestingly fell around Mardi Gras. Stay tuned!
