Edited by Demis Quadri
In coedition with Accademia Teatro Dimitri
Format 17 x 24 cm, 136 pages, with illustrations in b/w and colour
(Text in Italian, German and English)
Commedia dell’arte has always provoked very different reactions, but never leaves one indifferent. Throughout the history of this artistic phenomenon, the re-elaboration of now fossilized schemes has alternated with new ideas about making theatre, the seduction of power holders to religious condemnations, the fascination of a myth with a romantic flavour and philological reconstruction.
Even today the debate is heated: how can an important tradition be preserved without making it a museum exhibit? How can age-old techniques and concepts contribute to a renewal of today’s theatre?
The Commedia dell’Arte symposium: old traditions – new horizons? intended to propose a journey around a multiform reality: chasing Harlequin and the destiny of his mask on German soil, retracing the migrations of Sosia and Amphitryon in the history of theatre, reflecting on the experience of a wooden mask maker, questioning the topicality or current events of the Zannesca tradition, trying to revive some almost archetypal characters and exploring the horizons of the Neo Commedia dell’Arte.