The Italian theater del arte significantly influenced the development of modern theater. This mask theater developed in Italy as a new type of drama, when there were such writers who created quite complex in the plot and sense of drama and comedy - Ariosto, Machiavelli, Bibiena. Actors should be beaten to possess a huge amount of skills - to sing, dance, do somersaults, sit on the twine, have good ability to mime, play various musical instruments and have a well-set voice and memory. The ability to fantasize and improvise was very important for the actor, because the actors came up with some scenes before going on stage.
The basis of the performance in the comedy del arte was the script, the essence of which consisted of a summary of the plot of the episodes with a detailed image of all the stage characters, painted character actions, a description of all the details that were necessary for the game. In most cases, the script was basically comedic, but, in fact, this was not all - the script could have the character of a pastoral, tragedy, and tragicomedy. Nevertheless, the ability to improvise played an important role in the game of the Italian theater of masks, when the actor could conduct his storyline, skillfully delivering words in combination with gestures and facial expressions. Also, with improvisation, the performance was better perceived by the public, because in the game it was possible to weave the news of the city where the acting troupe was currently performing. The plot of the play was written strictly to the presence of masks that were in the troupe. A good acting group included a singer, a dancer, and two actresses. And at the beginning and end of the action, a parade usually took place, in which all the actors participated, accompanied by music and dancing, combined with props and all kinds of tomfoolery - and the beginning and end of the performance accompanied this action. Each actor chose his mask and throughout his life played only in it, accumulated a lot of aphorisms and jokes, stage techniques, sayings, witticisms that corresponded to his role. You can see and feel all this in the St. Petersburg Maly Theater, where a performance based on the first productions of del arte has recently been released. If you get , then plunge into the atmosphere of the ancient Italian buffoonery and get incomparable pleasure.
The basics of the theater del arte are now actively used in spontaneous play; Also, the theme of masks is used in psychology, and more precisely - in the drama theater, when ordinary spectators participate in the role of actors, experiencing certain life situations on the stage and revealing themselves so that later this could be applied in reality.