Our Take on Commedia

After we learned about the different elements that compose Commedia theatre, we were assigned to create our own Commedia performance. Our class was broken up into three different groups and my group consisted of: Kavita, Shivani, Eric, Iris, Kaitlyn, and myself. We were given a list of about five possible situations that we would expand on. We collectively decided on the scenario regarding Alexandra wanting to marry Fabian but her father, pantalone, disapproves of this marriage. The stock characters that we used were pantalone, il capitano, and the inamorata. We casted Kavita and Shivani as the inamorata lovers, Eric as pantalone, Iris as il capitano, and Kaitlyn and myself as males trying to court Alexandra.

To expand on the scenario given to us, we decided to have Alexandra first introduce Fabian to her father. In the process of doing so, Pantalone realizes that Fabian makes one less chicken than their family and dislikes his name so he therefore refuses this relationship. Hoping that Alexandra will find a more suitable man, Pantalone organizes a group of courtiers for Alexandra. In this group is il capitano, an elderly man, and a ten-year-old prince. When Fabian realizes that it is fruitless trying to win over Pantalone as himself, he decides to dress himself as Labian and enter this group of courtiers. When Alexandra realizes this ploy, she immediately chooses Labian as her lover and they run off together before Pantalone discovers Labian's "true identity."