commedia dell'arte

commedia dell'arte (IT N-F) comedy of the professionals (actors). As opposed to formally written-out plays considered to have lasting literary value, appreciated and created by men of high culture, these were improvised plays upon standardized situations with stock characters, originating in 16th-century Italy and flourishing for about 150 years. The origins of this form of theatrical expression stretch far back to ancient Greece and Rome and their masked players. Commedia players came from…