Thursday, October 20, 2022. 7:00pm - 8:00pm. Druker Auditorium - 330 Homer Street, Newton, Massachusetts. Chiara Durazzini, artistic director and co-founder of the Commedia dell’Arte troupe Pazzi Lazzi, will talk about the history and characteristics of Commedia dell’Arte through its iconography and show some physicality typical of its characters. Commedia dell’Arte is a particular kind of theater that started in the Italian streets and “piazze” in the mid 1500s.

It has influenced its contemporaries, like Shakespeare and Moliere, and many future directors and performers. Still today we can see some variations of “lazzi” (comic tricks) in slapsticks and sit coms. Italian Commedia is considered the first professional theater in the Western world, in fact in Medieval terms, the word “arte” means “craft”, therefore implying performances by professional actors.