COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE
RESEARCH AND STUDY CENTER
directed by CRISTINA COLTELLI
On February 25, 1545, the world's first company of professional comedians was born, legally constituted by notarial deed; thus, this is the date that constitutes the symbolic birth certificate of the Commedia dell'Arte, which was to propagate in the squares, courts and theaters throughout Europe for a good 3 centuries and which will mark the development of modern theater to the present day. From its great cauldron have drawn the greatest known playwrights, such as Shakespeare, Molière and Goldoni; direct descendants of Commedia dell'Arte techniques are illustrious figures such as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Totò, Dario Fo and more generally all those currents, disciplines, artistic forms typical of the 20th century: the avant-garde, clowns, the Absurd, Italian-style comedy and even cartoons.
But who were the comedians of the Art? And how did they manage to codify such perfect and universal mastery?
The Occult Ancestor: Harlequin
Talking about ancestors in Europe and Italy is a thorny and controversial matter. Above all because, from a certain moment on, Western culture developed through exclusion and denial, sometimes reinterpreting, sometimes almost completely erasing atavistic collective bonds. One of the illustrious victims of this process of denial is Harlequin himself and his being the guardian of a Carnival that no longer exists: a fascinating anthropological mystery in which Harlequin, meridian demon, intermediary between the living and the dead, demon or sacred and positive force of nature , has a fundamental role. Italian intellectuals have practically exiled him from the stage, yet Harlequin remains the most famous and loved theatrical character in the world like Hamlet and this is how he is treated abroad.
The character of Harlequin is synonymous with high Italian theatrical tradition throughout the world. Its most illustrious living interpreters are Ferruccio Soleri and Enrico Bonavera, the former, above all, becoming a sort of shaman of the Mask thanks to Strehler's Servant of Two Masters. Cristina Coltelli, who was Bonavera's student, tackled the character for the first time in 1997, tackling head-on the problem of the credibility of a Harlequin played by a woman. Today, Cristina Coltelli is one of the most well-known and recognizable Harlequins in the sector, in Italy and abroad, thanks also to her interpretation of an archetypal Harlequin and meridian demon who never distances himself from the real game of theater and life.
Cristina Coltelli was born in Palermo. In 1997 he graduated from the Bologna Theater School (dir. A. Galante Garrone), at the same time he began studying Commedia dell'Arte and popular theater with the Attori e Cantori di Pordenone company and Ariane Mnouchkine in Paris; again in 1997 she made her debut as Harlequin with the comedy “The 99 Labors of Harlequin”, of which she is also the author and director. In '96 we find her alongside Andrea Jonasson, Paola Quattrini, Ugo Pagliai and Paola Gassman in the role of Francesca da Rimini in "Inferno", directed by Lorenzo Salveti. She works with the Parma building under the guidance of Walter le Moli with whom she plays the nurse in "Romeo and Juliet" and under the guidance of Gigi Dell'Aglio who directs her in Buñuel's "The Exterminating Angel". In the summer of 2000 he was in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
Actress, author, singer and teacher, she divides her time between prose, physical theater and music, she plays the role of Edith Piaf in the musical recital "Rue Pigalle" accompanied by Maestro F. Milani and founded the HERLAKING Association in 2006, dedicating herself to pedagogy, to international exchanges and the production of shows with particular attention to the Teatro Maschera and the dissemination of classical and experimental Commedia dell'Arte. He has held courses and seminars on Commedia dell'Arte and use of the mask in Italy and Europe at Trinity College in Ireland, Laghborough (England), and the Commedia School of Copenhagen, starting a stable collaboration with the Masquerade Studio (Berlin/Copenhagen) which takes her to Spain, Japan and Israel, guest of the Italian Cultural Institutes
Since 2008 he has returned to his city and becomes the point of reference for the Teatro Maschera in southern Italy, teaching and bringing his shows to the main theaters of Palermo, including the Libero - Stabile di Innovazione della Sicilia, and Il Teatro Biondo - Stabile di Palermo. Coltelli was also a member of the SAT, an international association that brings together the Masters of Commedia dell'Arte in the world, and in February 2013 she was also an honorary PR, following the collaboration with the Masters Soleri and Bonavera on the occasion of the IV Day World Commedia dell'Arte.
Among his latest commitments are the filming of the documentary “Crossing the Bardo”, directed by Maestro Franco Battiato (released in 2014) and the Japanese tour of the show ZAN – NO by Massimo Macchiavelli, with the Fraternal Compagnia of Bologna, which touched the cities of Osaka, Sakai, Yamagata; the tour in Catalonia with “Le 99 Fatiche di Arlecchino” (2015/16) and the last tour in Israel, guest of the Institute of Italian Culture, with “L’Arlecchino Occulto” (2018). In 2020/21 he is Artistic Director of the international event "The Comedy of the Plague", produced by the Scapino Group Company and the Institute of Italian Culture in Tel Aviv.
UPCOMING EVENTS
QUANDO: dal 22 al 26 febbraio 2025 dalle 9.30 alle 14.
DOVE: ARCI TAVOLA TONDA, Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa, Palermo
Il Mondo intorno a noi sta correndo verticosamente verso un futuro meraviglioso ed inquietante. Che spazio può avere in questo tempo un personaggio antico come Arlecchino? È che senso può avere un attore che, come nella antica tradizione dei Comici dell'arte, dopo aver ereditato quel personaggio dal suo vecchio maestro, Ferruccio Soleri, lo interpreta ormai da più di venti anni?
Chi recita in maschera si muove in una nicchia, uno spazio ristretto in questa realtà teatrale contemporanea sempre più coinvolta negli esperimenti tecnologici.
In questa nicchia c’è un sapore antico, un pò misterioso e, per questo, prezioso.
'Arlecchino svelato' è il racconto paradossale e divertente del viaggio di Enrico Bonavera, oggi Arlecchino al Piccolo Teatro di Milano, 'versus' la maschera.
Vi si trovano casualità, premonizioni, sincronicità, lotta con le avverse fortune, e il ricordo dei piccoli eroismi e delle pavidità che sono proprie di ogni natura umana e insieme agli episodi biografici compaiono le figure magistrali di Giorgio Strehler, il grande regista e Maestro, e del Maestro Alessio Leban, attrezzista dall’arte segreta.
Nel percorso tragicomico ecco a contrappunto, le scene del repertorio di Arlecchino, con i lazzi pregni di ingenuità, di acrobatica allegria, di umorismo monello, in una parola di quella umanità che ci fa ricordare l’eterno bambino che è dentro ciascuno di noi.