ancestors of modern improv theater - Commedia dell'arte not only You may only read any book, any article on the history of improvisational theater - as a precursor of modern improvisational theater almost exclusively, the commedia dell'arte mentioned. I guess it is because this has such a distinctive and universal ensemble of characters that was just written about it a lot and she especially in Central and Western Europe had some cutting.
Surely we are dealing with a source problem. What we already know about the theater players who pull driving through the country? We know about their living conditions, in part perhaps by some content - when they were scandalous enough. But improvisation of their knowledge and skills we have no idea. I think, much like the improvised music in the 19th Century in Europe is almost silent, it was also the improvised theater. The playwright won the day.
I can very well imagine how the average age for a messed up idea of the actors sat together and each other advised more responsive to the offers of the other.
and 20th in Century had to be re-invented the wheel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gooZ7HO42Xo 00:50 From
"I think improvisation in the culture has always been important. (…) The written theater has hardly ever existed. 83 years in Greece, 150 years in the Renaissance (…). In the last 2,500 years we’ve had two or three hundred years when people have been writing plays that they have endured, where you had a living theater. But meanwhile you had the improvisers. In Greece, commedia dell arte in Italy, Circus, Burlesque, all of that is another substream of comedy. You had the improvised comedy which went unbroken for 2,500 years. So, when you’re improvising today, you are representing a tradition that’s 2,500 years old and you better remember it." (Bernie Sahlins)
