ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on twentieth- and twenty-first-century practitioners and examines their dramaturgic approaches. Contemporary practice is significant because, quite simply, it is more accessible than historical information, and consequently reveals more details in this ongoing and evolving praxis. Combined with research already carried out on historical performance and adopting an asynchronous approach, it allows the possibility of knowledge gaps in historical performance methodology being filled by experiments in recent practice, and also vice versa. It is a firmly held, and often entirely personal, belief by notable theatre practitioners that the working methods and self-determination of the historical companies of the so-called golden age of Commedia dell’Arte (1570–1630) can still positively inform contemporary theatre practice. It is the ambition of this volume, taken in conjunction with Dr Sergio Costola’s recent volume of recently translated scenarios (Routledge, 2021), to be able to present a coherent synthesis of Commedia practices and reveal a variety of deep structural elements that underpin and support this highly distinctive style of theatre.
