A Fine Fiasco: Two Commedia dell'Arte Plays for the Modern Stage

By Gwen Adams

A Short Comedy Adapted for the Stage and Based on a Story by Charles Perrault

 

Part of the Series: Commedia dell'Arte Plays for the Modern Stage

 

ACTOR'S EDITION

 

Perpetua keeps nagging her daughter Isabella to marry Pantalone: he's a gold-digger with seven previous wives who died in mysterious circumstances. When Scaramuccia warns his sister against the marriage, Isabella loses her temper, and accepts Pantalone's proposal. Things seem to go well at first, but Isabella's maid Columbina grows suspicious. When Isabella discovers Pantalone's secret, he determines to destroy her. It will take guts and some clever thinking to resolve this dark comedy.

 

Cast Size: (with doubling) 7 overall: 4m, 3w. May be expanded to 6m, 4w, 1m/w.

 

Approximate Running Time: 75–85 min. Two Acts with optional intermission (can be performed as a One Act Play).

 

Time Period: A short time or a long time ago.

 

Setting: Far away, in a place a little like Italy. Can be staged in minimalist fashion, without sets or backdrops.

 

Min. Royalty Rate: Contact Bardstreet for licensing inquiry.

 

Target Audience: Middle School, High School, College/University, Adult/Family, Catholic and Christian audiences, Classical schools

 

Performing Group: Middle School, High School, College/University Theater, Community Theater, Professional Theater, Touring Group

 

Note: This modern Commedia play is composed primarily of scripted lines. This is a departure from the original Commedia plays, which had far fewer set lines (and sometimes none!). However, the series preserves the Commedia dell'Arte flavor by allowing traditional Commedia characters to present the play, and giving them ample opportunity for "lazzi" or "business," improvisation, pantomime, music, dance, tumbling, sword-play, and recommendations for memorized poems to present as "stock speeches."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bardstreet
• Release date: Jun 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9798986718552

Gwen Adams

Gwen Adams is a writer, playwright, speaker, and Visiting Assistant Professor of Theology at the Augustine Institute. She is the author of By an Unexpected Way: Stories of the New Evangelization (Augustine Institute Press, 2019). With experience in parish, diocesan, school and university settings, she has produced plays, taught history, literature, and writing, and offered courses on the New Evangelization, Catholic Education, and Reform and Renewal within the Catholic Church. Directing credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream, Uncle Vanya, and Life Is a Dream. Her master's thesis focused on fairytales; her dissertation gathered interviews with men and women about parish renewal. When she's not inventing funny, hopeful stories, she's retelling the stories of others, past and present, unexpected and full of wonder.

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