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Internal Assessment Resource
“Commedia dell ‘Arte”
Supports internal assessment for:
Achievement Standard: 90008 version 3
Demonstrate knowledge of a drama/theatre form through a
practical presentation
Credits: 3
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Teacher Guidelines:
The following guidelines are supplied to enable teachers to carry out valid and
consistent assessment using this internal assessment resource.
Context/setting
In this activity, students research and model practice in Commedia on some
famous examples. They move on to create their own Commedia performance
in a group scenario.
Conditions
Much of this assignment is closely related to collaborative work between
students, to performance, and to other teaching-learning activities. It is likely
that the assignment will be integrated with a range of other activities within a
teaching-learning programme, and that the context within each school will be
different.
As a guide, it is suggested that:
 the work should have a designated space appropriate for physical activity
 it takes place over a five to six week period ,allowing for some out of class
rehearsal
Teachers should note that although the tasks include collaborative aspects,
assessment must be of individual performance and work only.
Resource requirements
There is an established set of resources and interest in this specific theatre
form
(See information sheet)
Students will need access to drama support materials such as masks, props
and costumes.
Video playback facilities are required. Videos and other visual resources on
Commedia are required.
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Internal Assessment Resource
“Commedia dell ‘Arte”
Supports internal assessment for:
Achievement Standard: 90008 version 3
Demonstrate knowledge of a drama/theatre form through a practical
presentation
Credits: 3
Student Instructions Sheet
In this activity you will look at Commedia dell’Arte. Although much of your
work will be as part of the group, you must keep your own worksheets in your
portfolio as a record of your ideas and planning and to show that you
understand the features of the Commedia dell’Arte form.
Your teacher will introduce you to the theatre form, Commedia dell’Arte. Key
features of this form will be discussed and identified in relation to a Commedia
dell’Arte text. Then you will work in groups to devise, rehearse and present
your own piece of Commedia Dell’Arte using key features of the form.
The performance itself will be further evidence of your understanding.
This activity will take place over a five to six week period. Your teacher will
give you specific details of the time available for this assessment. There are
five tasks in this assessment activity. Complete all five tasks.
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Detailed task instructions
Task 1. Preparation
Your teacher will explain the theatre form Commedia dell ‘Arte and its
historical context.
You will then be introduced to a Commedia dell’Arte text provided by your
teacher.
You will be expected to carry out some independent study into aspects of the
style. You should identify key features of Commedia dell’Arte and record them
in your portfolio.
Task 2. Devising
In groups, you will devise a brief Commedia dell’Arte based on an idea given
to you by your teacher. Your aim should be to show that you understand
features of the form and can put them into practice. The finished length in
presentation should be 5-10 minutes.
The Commedia dell’Arte could be set in a modern or historical context as long
as key features of Commedia dell’Arte are evident. Key features could include
the following:
 Commedia dell’Arte characters
 stock story lines
 improvisation
 lazzi
 mime
 partnership with the audience
 masks
 multiple skills
a. Write a Working Plan which includes the storyline, list of characters and
scene/s. Be aware of the production challenges that can arise if you use a
large number of scenes. Show your Working Plan to your teacher to make
sure it is appropriate
b. Discuss what key features of Commedia dell’Arte you will include in your
play. Record these decisions in your portfolio.
c. Discuss choices and availability of props, costumes, music, make-up,
sound and set. Record these choices in your portfolio.
.d. Write a script, ensuring that each member of the group has an individual
copy. File the original script in your portfolio along with later developments so
that your teacher can clearly see how your understanding of the form shaped
your final choices.
Task 3. Rehearsal
As you are rehearsing your play, refer to your Working Plan to ensure that the
selected key features of Commedia dell’Arte are being used effectively.
Share your work with others to give and receive audience feedback.
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Task 4. Presentation
Perform your Commedia dell’Arte performance to the class.
Task 5. Reflection
Record in your portfolio answers to the following:
 What was the audience’s reaction to your play?
 Did your play appropriately reflect key features of Commedia dell’Arte?
How did it achieve or not achieve that?
 On reflection, would you have made any changes to your play? If so, what
changes would you make, and why?
Your final understanding of Commedia dell’Arte will be assessed through the
preparation and performance of your work. Your final reflection could
summarise this for your teacher along with your Portfolio evidence.
Portfolio checklist
Your Portfolio should include:
 Identification of the key features of Commedia dell’Arte
 Working plan including – storyline, characters, scenes
 Choice of props, costume, music, sound, set.
 Choice of key features
 Devised script
 Notes on development of script
 Reflection
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For Achievement the student is able to
 Identify, demonstrate and justify some appropriate features of Commedia
dell’Arte through a practical presentation.
e.g. The master uses costume, asides and gestures to show that he is a
master and he makes demands on the servant. His voice is animalistic
and he conveys a sense of the master’s character.
In addition the portfolio record confirms the intention and understanding of
the student.
e.g, The scenario is outlined and the costume, make-up, set and music
follow the plan in the portfolio,
For Merit the student is able to
 Identify, demonstrate and justify a range of definitive key features of
Commedia dell’Arte through a practical presentation.
e.g.The servant uses costume, asides, gesture, entrances, exits, voice
and audience reaction effectively. He has a clear sense of the character
and is full of mischief.
In addition the clear portfolio record confirms the intention and
understanding of the student.
e.g. The portfolio identifies costume, asides, gesture, entrances, exits,
voice and audience as components of Commedia dell’Arte and a clear
rationale for the choices made is outlined.
For Excellence the student is able to
 Identify, demonstrate and justify perceptively an extended range of
definitive key features of Commedia dell’Arte.
e.g. The master presents a cohesive, physical performance demonstrating
a series of techniques to create audience reaction and participation. The
merchant clutches his purse, explodes from his cape and uses stock
movements and physical comedy . He captures the essence of
the character with exaggerated use of voice, body and movement to
portray a miserly and suspicious merchant who bullies his servants and
lusts after young girls.
In addition the detailed portfolio record shows insight and confirms the
intention and understanding of the student.
e.g. The portfolio shows the student’s ability to select and create rich
detail.
Note: The presentation/performance is not assessed for performance or
presentation skills. It acts as an avenue through which the features and
understanding of the form can be demonstrated. Nevertheless, carefully
rehearsed performance can enhance and demonstrate understanding of key
features.
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Assessment Note:
Assessment evidence, which may assist teachers in making decisions, can be
collected from teacher observation during preparation, shaping and rehearsal,
the student’s portfolio record and reflection, and the performance.
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“Commedia dell ‘Arte”
Achievement Standard: 90008 version 3
Demonstrate knowledge of a drama/theatre form through a practical
presentation
Credits: 3
Teacher Checklist
Student names
Features
Name
Prop
Costume
Walk
Gesture
Voice
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Commedia Dell’Arte :
Information to support internal assessment of AS 90008v3.
General guidance:
Helpful resources may include but are not limited to:
Masks can be made or purchased from
Dark Side Masks www.darksidemasks.com
Video resources include:
 Commedia dell’Arte Masks – Dark Side Masks
 Spirit of Commedia – available at Waikato University Library
 Commedia dell’Arte – available at Waikato University Library
 Aspects of the Commedia dell’Arte – available at Waikato University library
 Dario Fa – available at Waikato University Library
 Behind the mask – available at Waikato University Library
Useful books include:
 The world of harlequin: a critical study of the commedia dell’arte, Nicoll,
Allardyce
 Three Comedies, Carlo Goldoni
 Lazzi: The comic routines of the Commedia Dell’Arte. Mel Gordon
 Triumph of Pierrot. Martin Green
 Harlequin’s stick, Charlie’s Cane. David Madden
 Commedia Dell’Arte. Giacamo Oreglia
 Commedia for1. Richard Bennett
 Playing Commedia: a training guide to commedia techniques. Barry Grantham
 Commedia dell’arte. (Video) Antonio Fava
 Lazzi: The comic routines of the Commedia Dell’Arte. Mel Gordon
 Aspects of the commedia dell’arte. (Video)
 Commedia dell’arte: an actor’s handbook. John Rudlin
 Commedia dell’arte. Giacamo Oreglia
 Masks mimes and miracles. Allardyce Nicoll
 Scenarios of the commedia dell’arte
 Italian comedy, the improvisation, scenarios, lives, attributes, portraits, and
masks of the illustrious characters of the commedia dell’arte. Pierre Ducharte
 Italian popular comedy. Kathleen Lea
 Comic mask in the Commedia dell’Arte. Antonio Fava
The resource on the next page could be copied and given to students.
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A BRIEF HISTORY
Mime, mankind and the gods
Mime is the oldest of the commonly used aspects of drama. Along with dance,
its history goes back to earliest person miming the hunts that are depicted in
the cave drawings. It was part of the first religious ceremonies, and has
remained an integral part of drama ever since. These performances were
intended to influence nature – and to explain it to people who had no written
language.
Comedy in the first formal theatres – Ancient Greece
Greek theatre arose out of the ritual pantomimes they used to honour
Dionysus, the god of wine. The processions involved a man representing
Dionysus, men representing satyrs (half man, half goat – part gods), and girls
carrying flowers and gifts for the gods. The word "tragedy" meant goat song
(tragos = goat + oide = song) in Ancient Greek. The pantomime/dance of the
satyrs – the first recorded examples of clowning – was called “komos'' (a
revel) – the source of our word “comedy'’.
The form that Greek drama took – a few actors who spoke lines and a chorus
that chanted/danced/pantomimed (the ancestor of our theatre) – came directly
from the Dionysian rituals. By early in the sixth century BC a director called
Thespis had set up a stage, put masks and make-up on the actors, and
began to present performances that were not just part of religious rituals.
Clowning remained a major aspect of Greek drama because of the tradition
that there should be only three actors who took on individual roles – the
chorus told the rest of the story through (in comedies) clowning.
Some of the conventions of Greek pantomime have persisted to this day:
masks (or mask-like make-up), the traditional make-up and costume,
slapstick comedy routines. The pantomime training that all Greek soldiers
went through as training in mental and physical discipline became the military
drills of a modern army.
And the small groups of travelling mimes – satirists, singers, comedians,
dancers, magicians and acrobats – who found work wherever they could,
were the ancestors of our street theatre performers today.
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Mime and the theatre of the Roman Empire
It was the Romans who developed completely silent mime, possibly from a
performer called Andronicus who lost his voice during a performance,
continued the performance in mime alone and started a new and very popular
fashion: pantomime. Pantomime was the most popular form of theatre in the
Roman Empire, which might be why there were few playwrights of any
importance. Roman mimes – men and women – were so skilled that the skill
of the performance became the aim, rather than communication of ideas; this
may have contributed to the development of the huge spectacles that were to
eventually remove the actor in favour of battles, executions, fires – the Roman
arena spectacles.
With the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th and 6th centuries AD, came
the disappearance of formal theatre. All that remained was the tradition of
mimes, jugglers, and slapstick comedians who found small audiences
wherever they could.
From those small troupes of mime artists, the street theatre of the medieval
period developed.
The Church allows drama a new role in the Middle Ages.
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Western Europe fell into what has
become known as the Dark Ages. However the Eastern Empire, centred
around the city known then as Constantinople but now as Istanbul, kept the
art and culture of the Greeks and Romans alive, and pantomime continued to
be a popular entertainment. It was in the East, in the 8th century, that the
Church first “adopted” pantomime, in the form of a pantomime version of the
story of Adam and Eve. The “lines” were spoken off-stage while the “actors”
mimed the story for the audience.
In Western Europe, however, theatre was kept alive through the bands of
strolling players who roamed around performing wherever they could. In
Northern Europe, they mainly told stories that were accompanied with music,
while in Southern Europe, the performers used pantomime, dancing and
acrobatics.
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Court Jesters
Most royal and aristocratic courts
employed court jesters, some of
whom became famous.
The term “slapstick” comedy came
from the stick with the blown-up
stomach of a sheep or a calf on the
end that the jesters hit members of
their audience – and each other –
with as part of their performance.
It was in the 10th century that the skills of pantomime – later with dialogue
added – became a regular part of church life: a means by which the church
could “educate” its illiterate congregations. It became obvious that having
serious characters speaking lines would not easily keep the attention of an
uneducated audience, so certain biblical characters became comic – King
Herod, Noah, the three shepherds present at the nativity – using pantomime
and slapstick comedy to keep the audience interested, so that the “serious”
messages about the lives of the saints, of Christ, of the Old Testament, would
be learnt. We know that professional performers helped “polish” these
performances: there are records of payments.
Commedia dell'arte - the theatre of actors, rather than playwrights
In Italy, during the 15th century, the strands of theatre and pantomime
combined into a new theatre form, the commedia dell'arte, which is still
popular today.
The troupes of commedia players relied on the skills of mime and clowning to
tell their stories; the plays were not written down – except for the bare bones
of the plot – and the actors improvised the performances. Each actor would
have one of the characters as his or her speciality. Commedia performances
were comedy: the success of the performances relied on the skill of the actors
to work with their audiences – to “play” their audiences. Their costumes and
masks were similar to those used in Roman pantomime, e.g. Harlequin's and
Clown's costumes.
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You will recognise the names of some of the characters of commedia
dell’arte:
Arlecchino (Zanni, Harlequin)
Brighella
Colombina
Pierrot (Pedrolino)
Pulcinella
The lovers
Pantalone
Il Dottore
Il Capitano
Lesser known characters:
Arlecchina
Bertolino
Burattino
Cassandra and Cola
Coviello
Fiorinetta
Mezzetino
Truffaldino
Scaramuccia (Scaramouche)
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