Teaching the Commedia dell’arte Tradition in One Day: Problems and Possibilities

Abstract: Among the many subjects that get cursory treatment in theatre history survey courses, lessons on commedia dell’arte tend to be restricted to one or two class periods during a semester (indeed, over the course of an entire curriculum). Given the limitations of time and space in the classroom, instructors often flatten commedia dell’arte into a few recognizable signposts, monumentalize it, strip it of its specific historical context, and abbreviate the practice with fixed rules. All of this has the unfortunate side effect of truncating the commedia dell’arte tradition into something insufficiently understood, and perpetuating infelicities, myths, and misrepresentations in our pedagogical shortcuts. For those reasons, we as researchers of the commedia dell’arte tradition advocate for a deliberate reassessment of how it is taught in the university and college classroom. This essay is a guide for those who must prepare a theatre history survey class with limited time and resources and would like to sharpen their understanding of the commedia dell’arte tradition and fine tune their pedagogical approaches toward it. Our recommendation is to focus one’s time on celebrating the commedia dell’arte as a mutable tradition filled with potential for fresh and diverse interpretations.