International Day of the Italian Comedy Dell’Arte: Mechanisms for the Preservation and Translation of the Cultural and Historical Heritage

Abstract

The article examines the Italian commedia dell’arte as one of the components of the cultural heritage of Italy and the theater festival “International Day of Com- media dell’arte” as an information channel for promoting the cultural and historical national heritage of Italy to two addressees - the national and world communities. The article provides a brief description of the theatrical performances of the 2019 festival; it analyzes as well the thematic, dramatic, regional and linguistic specifics of the comedies selected for the event, identifies the main objectives of the festival on the national and international stage. In terms of intercultural communication, the author analyzes the difference in the presentation of the Italian commedia dell’arte in Italy and in foreign countries, respectively, reveals different approaches to positioning cultural and historical heritage depending on the addressee. The article identifies three general tendencies in the positioning of the commedia dell’arte: outside Italy, the classical staging of the commedia dell’arte prevails in order to familiarize foreign audiences with the tradition of the theater of masks; on the territory of Italy on stage they prefer to experiment with traditional scenes from the commedia dell’arte in order to update the historical message of comedy in today’s social realities, as well as to maximally involve young Italians, future carriers of national cultural memory, in the actualization of the historical tradition; workshops for modeling comedy masks should preserve the traditional theatrical tradition, which is on the way of “extinction”, and also serve as an incentive for modern Italians to tactilely experience the comedy del arte as something tangible, material, belonging to them.

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