Everything I've ever read or heard has been that the renaissance acting troupes had no women, but on page 5, paragraph one under "Commedia dell'arte" states that troupes consisted of seven men and three women. Is this really the case?

Thank you,
Karen

Hi Karen! I can understand your confusion on this point. :-) You are correct in thinking that all Renaissance acting troupes IN ENGLAND (which is the only kind most of us are familiar with, since most of us have studied Shakespeare), were all-male troupes.

However, troupes in FRANCE and ITALY included female actors (actresses) pretty early on---certainly earlier than in England. We know, for example, that the famous Moliere (a French playwright and actor in the 1600's), was in a troupe with several women.

The story goes that London was scandalized in 1629 when a French troupe WITH ACTRESSES came to perform in England. However, eventually English troupes also started to employ actresses as a result of the French influence that came to England with the Restoration of Charles II (1660).

Now, to return to Commedia dell' Arte: it is an Italian form of drama, not an English one, and so the troupes that originally performed it it Italy included both men and women. That's why you see that mention of mixed-gender troupes in the genre description.

Commedia dell' Arte was extremely popular and soon spread to France and England (I believe it was during the 1500's-1600's). However, because of the English tradition of all-male casts, Commedia dell' Arte would not have been performed with a mixed-gender cast in England until after 1660.

Phew! I'll bet I just told you more than you ever wanted to know about seventeenth century drama, but hopefully some of that answered your question!

c.j.somerville

quote:

Phew! I'll bet I just told you more than you ever wanted to know about seventeenth century drama, but hopefully some of that answered your question!

c.j.somerville

I love details. I suspected that was the case, but wanted to be sure. Thank you CJ!

Karen