Commedia Plays: Scenarios, Scripts, Lazzi - Softcover

Barry Grantham

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1854598716 ISBN 13: 9781854598714

Publisher: Nick Hern Books, 2006

Synopsis

Barry Grantham's first book, "Playing Commedia", offered a brilliantly practical introduction to the characters, history and techniques of Commedia dell' Arte. In his new book, "Commedia Plays", Grantham - himself a well-known Commedia performer/deviser - offers a collection of eight short plays illustrating the different periods and styles of this famous dramatic genre. Each of the eight plays carries its own detailed introduction and each play is presented both in outline form and in full text, allowing performers to improvise around the theme or to mount a fully-fledged staging., The second half of the book consists of a unique compilation of the Lazzi that form the basis of Commedia - we might call them bits of comic business - ranging from the Aside and the Chase to whole scenes such as 'The Proposal' and 'Caught in the Act'. As well as being suitable for performance on stage, the plays can be used as the basis for classroom and workshop study. And the bits of comic business from the Lazzi can be inserted into the written text or explored and improvised in the drama studio.

About this title

Review:

'The good thing about Commedia plays is that they are exceptionally funny, even when read or described on the page. This makes Mr Grantham's book easy reading and ensures that one learns much without realising it' --British Theatre Guide

About the Author:

Barry Grantham is our foremost performer/deviser of Commedia. A child actor who trained in ballet, he has been teaching Commedia for the last twenty years, chiefly in London, but also in Norway, Sweden, German and Italy itself. His first book, Playing Commedia, was published in 2000 by NHB in the UK and by Heinemann in the US.

About this edition

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1854598716
• ISBN 13: 9781854598714
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288