A student of commedia dell’arte since her college days in Bologna, Chiara Durazzini champions the art form here in America through her troupe, Pazzi Lazzi. As a champion of commedia dell’arte — an Italian theatrical tradition with roots in the 1500s — Chiara Durazzini is used to hearing theater aficionados confess their ignorance. In some cases, not even Italian Americans quite know what it is. At least that’s what they say, anyway.

As the Florence native likes to tell people, “If you think you haven’t seen commedia dell’arte, maybe you have — and just didn’t know it. Shakespeare based a lot of his comedy on commedia dell’arte.” In fact, three of the Bard’s most famous plays — “The Tempest,” “Love’s Labor’s Lost” and “The Taming of the Shrew” — bear a decided stamp of madcap commedia energy.