Commedia Plays: Scenarios - Scripts - Lazzi Paperback – Illustrated, April 1, 2007

In the last few months I've tried to find suitable (and relatively inexpensive) teaching materials to introduce my middle school language arts class to the Commedia Dell' Arte. Grantham's book offers a great deal: a historical overview; short sample plays; and a great selection of "lazzi"--the comic bits of business included in the commedia's improvised plays. In short, a lot of useful material for a reasonable price.

Great book

This is a fantastic resource for anyone who teaches commedia. It has a number of scripts that are in scenario and script versions which is excellent for showing students the difference between a scenario and a script and also excellent for giving students a chance to "get the flavour" of commedia by using the scripts and then experimenting with the scenarios.The second section of the book has a detailed account of lazzi and how to perform them. The aforementioned scripts refer to moments where these lazzi may be integrated into performance.I highly reccommend this text to any teacher of high school commedia!