Improvisatory competence and the cueing of performance: The case of the commedia dell'Arte

Abstract

The immediacy of improvisation, which collapses the distance between composition and performance, consistently undermines attempts to locate performative competence, even in so studied a case as the Commedia dell'Arte. However, by applying techniques of textual segmentation and oral discourse analysis to a sample passage of extant stage dialogues composed by Isabella Andreini, one of the first women on the European stage, certain patterns of improvisatory competence emerge. Although performance cues concerning space, props, and story are virtually absent, and deictic markers relatively simple, cues for discourse level and voice are elaborate, and point to a formulaic manipulation of rhythmic phrases and ideas common in the culture. Beyond its specific application to the 16th century Commedia dell'Arte, the results of this analysis argue that improvisatory competence in general is premeditated, based on culturally shared topoi, and profoundly social.