Commedia Stock Characters Dottore

Character Name	Flavio In Italian, the Lovers (of whom four- two would-be pairs – are usually needed for a full scenario) are called innamorati. The males have names such as Silvio, Fabrisio, Aurelio, Orazio, Ottavio, Ortensio, Lelio, Flavio, Leandro, Cinzio, Florindo, Lindoro, etc; The females: Isabella, Angelica, Eularia, Flaminia, Vittoria, Silvia, Lavinia, Ortensia, Aurelia, etc. – Rudlin
Status	Son, and pride and joy of the main family, usually Pantalone, Flavio is the Rector Magnifigus; class president, prom king, Jason Priestly or James Van der Beek of Commedia. – Shane, Commedia dell’Carte High, but brought low by the hopelessness of their infatuation. – Rudlin
Costume	Very nice and masculine. Often reflecting a "GQ Action Hero".
Origin (History)	The aristocracy of the Italian Renaissance courts amused themselves with a form they called commedia erudita based on the plays of Terence and Plautus, for example Calandria by Cardinal Bibbiena which, like Shakespeare’s later Comedy of Errors, is based on Plautus’ Menaechmi. As the professional improvised comedy looked to extend its range it seems to have borrowed the Lovers from the amateur form. – Rudlin
Physical Appearance	Young and attractive – Rudlin
Mask	None No actual mask, but heavy make-up. Mascara and beauty spots for both sexes. The make-up in fact becomes a mask enabling performers to play the role well into middle-age, or even beyond. – Giovan Battista Andreini, son of Francesco, played Lelio until he was 73. Vizard or loup could be worn for disguise, usually made of black velvet. This was a normal accoutrement for society ladies when walking to a rendezvous and could be half- or full- face. But since it has no expression it does not count as a mask in the Commedia sense, although it does provide plenty a plot potential, enabling, for example, Colombina to attend rendezvous in her mistress’s place. – Rudlin
Signature Props	No real prop required other than a huge ego, although he often has a dagger, sword or some nice weapon.
Stance	Lack firm contact with the earth. Feet invariably in ballet positions, creating an inverted cone. Chest and heart heavy. They are full of breath, but then take little pants on top. Sometimes when situations become too much for them, they deflate totally. – Rudlin Always very proud.
Walk	They do not walk so much as teeter, due to the instability of their base. First, the head leans the other way to the body sway. Then the arms have to be used, one above the other, as a counterweight. – Rudin
Poses	1.) Overly dramatic poses, even for commedia. Usually with the back of the hand against the forehead and the other hand outstretched reacing for something that is not there. 2.) Arms folded and the torso leaning back, usually reflecting a bad attitude or a rebellious nature. 3.) When with a female counterpart, poses with arms flexed in poses like WWF stars or body builders. 4.) Very low and elegant bow showing calf. Puts a flexed calf forward whenever possible. 5.) Very expressive with the arms and hands, in a William Shatner fashion.
Movements	Actors would use the same dancing masters as the well-to-do whom they were parodying in order to point up the ridiculousness of exaggerated deportment. Movement comes at the point of overbalance leading to a sideways rush towards a new focus, with the arms left trailing behind. Stop at the new point (usually the beloved or some token thereof) before (almost) touching it. The Lovers have little or no physical contact. When there is any, the minimum has maximum effect. – Rudlin Always over the top, with pauses in speaking for dramatic movement. - Shane
Gestures	Extravagant and Presentational. Often while holding a hankerchief or flower etc. in the leading hand. The arms never make identical shapes. Because of their vanity, they frequently look in a hand-mirror, only to become upset by any minor imperfection which is discovered. Even in extremis they are alwaysd looking to see if a ribbon or a sequin is out of place. A button found on the floor or a blemish in the coiffure equals disaster. – Rudlin As if the gestures keep him from speaking. He strains to speak with the gestures that me makes. They are either very large and very grand, or very artificial. - Shane
Speech	Language: Tuscan, making great display of courtly words and baroque metaphors. Well read, knowing large extracts of poems by heart (especially Petrarch). They speak softly in musical sentences – in contrast with the zanni. Their sentences are often flamboyant, hyperbolical, full of amorous rhetoric. By the end of the 17th Century in Paris, the Lover spoken in French. – Rudlin.
Animal	A Lion Cub
Relationships	They relate exclusively to themselves – they are in love with themselves being in love. The last person they actually relate to in the course of the action is often the beloved. When they do meet they have great difficulty in communicating with each other (usually because of nerves). And they related to their servants only in terms of pleading for help. The Lovers love each other, yet are more preoccupied with being seen as lovers, undergoing all the hardships of being in such a plight, than with actual fulfillment. Consequently they frequently scorn each other and feign mild hatred; they rebut, despair, reconcile, but eventually end up marrying in the way of true love when the game is up and they know they cannot play any more. After a quarrel, the male may try a serenade to win back favor. This will often be (dis)organized by Zanni: he employs musicians who are drunk or spends the money on something else and has to use tramps off the street. The result is total chaos, but in the end the serenade is beautifully played and sung because everyone miraculously turns out to be good at their job after all. – Rudlin Frequently the son of the Doctor. - Gordon
Relationship to Audience	Extremely aware of being watched, playing to the audience for sympathy in their plight, occaissonally giving themselves away by flirting with a spectator. – Rudlin
Frequent Plot Function	Indispensible. Without them and their inability to resolve their own problems, there would be no function for the zanni, no struggle between the ineffectuality of youth and the implacability of age. The Lovers are never alone on stage – they always have someone with them or spying on them. – Rudlin
Characteristics	Three, like primary colors: fidelity, jealously and fickleness. They are vain, petuluant, spoilt, full of doubt and have very little patience. They have a masochistic enjoyment of enforced seperation because it enables them to dramatize their situation, lament, moan, send messages, etc. When the Lovers do meet they are almost always tongue-tied and need interpreters (i.e. a zanni and/or a servetta) who proceed to misinterpret their statements, either through stupidity (Zanni), malicious desire for revenge (Brighella) or calculated self-interest (Columbina). Their attention span is short like young children’s. The fear that they might be nobodies keeps them hyper-animated. Their element is water: they are very wet creatures indeed. The females are more passion-wrought and energetic than their male counterparts. The lovers exist very much in their own world- and in their own world within that world. Self-obsessed and very selfish, they are more interested in what they are saying themselves and how it sounds than in what the beloved is saying. They are primarily in love with themselves, secondarily in love with love, and only consequentially in love with the beloved. What they learn, if anything, from the tribulations of the scenario is the need to reverse these priorities. They do, however, come off better than most other Commedia characters: there is no viciousness in them, and less to be reproached for – except vanity and vapidness, which, given their parents, they can hardly be blamed for. They represent the human portential for happiness. – Rudlin If then true lovers have ever been crossed It stands as an edict in destiny. Then let us teach our trial patience, Because it is a customary cross, As due to love as thoughts, and dreams, and sighs, Wishes, and tears – poor fancy’s followers. Shakespeare Always over the top, giving 300% in everything that he does. - Shane
Lazzi	1.) Always wants to do something else that he considers fun and exciting before fufilling the requests of his father, usually Pantalone. 2.) Hot tempered, always wanting to defend the honor of someone in order to get into a fight. Usually hopes for others to hold him back or talk him out of it. 3.) Trys to bully anyone that he can. 4.) Courts a lover by giving a serious of dramatic, and sometimes gross suggestive comments. Usually in competition with another male lover. 5.) Tripping or falling while trying to look cool, calm and collected. 6.) Lazzi of loosing his temper and throwing a tantrum.