In this essay you will see research about relationship between the actor, the
audience, and the theatrical space through Commedia dell’ arte and African Theatre.
‘No one can say with complete certainity where Commedia dell’ arte came from’
(Tamara Underiner 2016, p.158), but supposedly Italy is the place where Commedia
dell’ arte was born, but that happen when the country was under Spanish control, after
the Italian Wars. As for African Theatre artists, they began their creative paths after
the end of colonialism in Africa.
Lets start with Commedia dell’arte. This theatre practice is one of the earliest
forms of fully professional theatre, which had ‘the first leading ladies of the modern
theatre’ (Clubb, p.120). Commedia dell’ arte origins consist of Roman comedies,
travelling entertainers of the Renaissance and Carnival.…