Commedia dell'arte masks

Commedia dell'Arte masks are one of the biggest classifiers for each character. Every mask goes with a specific character based on the way it looks. These masks are generally made from leather, and now more commonly neoprene, but they were originally all leather. The Commedia masks must show emotion and intelligence as they are covering the face which is the main place emotion can be seen on someone. Masks should be an extension of an actor and their costume, hair and accessories. A mask creates a completely different face for the person that is wearing it. Mask, in Commedia dell'Arte speaks of the types of characters that each represents and includes all of the characters including the lovers. It is almost as speaking to the character rather than the masks, saying that they are a type that is unchanged.

Masks help with the creation of Commedia as they create the characters themselves. Comedy masks tend to make a statement from the second they are seen on stage. They tell the audience who the character is, their social class and type, what they will do or won't do, and what their attitudes are. The moment they step on stage the character comes alive, typically even introducing themselves as soon as they notice the audience. A comic mask is a nobody and a somebody at the same time, the characters seem important even if they are a lowly servant. A mask helps to create the beautiful, extravagant, repulsive and yet attractiveness of each character. Masks represent the actor and the character at once, the actors movements help to create the character and the mask finishes it. The mask and lazzo connected, without the lazzo a character in a mask is not making anything and is less entertaining. Masks and lazzo go hand in hand and you need one to have the other. Without one, the other is not as great and fantastic, or as funny, lazzi without masks is not as meaningful.

Every mask has to contain a combination of distinct characteristics to create their specific characters. The original Commedia dell'Arte performers originated in the 1530s and 1540s, they wanted to be immediately recognized as the familiar characters that they portrayed as well as being exciting. The actors wanted to be easily recognized and remembered from one show to the next. Actors were playing the same character in every show, and these characters were people that everyone knows. The masks became each character, and without them the character could not be the same. The mask creates the personage of each character and makes them associates the character to their name and movements. It makes them an individual, yet one that everyone knows and can see in others. Many actors will look at the characters as being a mask, with it on they are that specific character, without it they are themselves or another character. Even lovers can wear a mask if they are using it to disguise themselves, yet they do not become another character in that instance. Commedia uses two different types of masks, that of the personage and identity of a character, a specific characters face. As well as the mask that is an object for lovers and other nonmasked characters to use as a disguise. Actors are directed more so by the mask than by the director, they use to the movements that are associated with that character and follow their characters type. An actor must surrender his entire body to the character not just change his face with the mask.

Source: Wikipedia