and digital distribution are both useful ways to achieve the same purpose: to offer people a deep insight of a specific subject, theatre, which in the ArscomicA project is what has brought to modern professionalism and to the explosion of genres, from the Renaissance to nowadays.
ArscomicA especially focuses on comic studies and disciplines, analysing the whole history of Western theatre.
Research is carried out by investigating sources, archives and historical libraries.
ArscomicA has its own historical library with over a hundred influential titles about theatre. The ArscomicA library features some gems such IL TEATRO DELLE FAVOLE RAPPRESENTATIVE by Flaminio Scala, LE BRAVURE DEL CAPITANO SPAVENTO DA VALLE INFERNA by Francesco Andreini, the HISTOIRE DU THEATRE ITALIEN by Luigi Riccoboni, to name a few.
It also has a remarkable collection of theatrical images, engravings and etchings dating back to the seventeenth-nineteenth centuries and early twentieth century, by artists such as Callot, Gillot, Mitelli.
This collection of images is of great importance for the study of genres and their form, implementation and dynamics. Images, together with texts, testimonials and descriptions, allow the reconstruction of ancient forms and a great degree of certainty about their meanings and aesthetics. ’Modernization’ is implicit, within the rhythms and the language, which are the ones used today by the audience of our performances.
To further deepen this studies, ArscomicA directly promotes its knowledge through the International School of Comedy and by producing and directing plays all over the world.
Pulliciniello e Signora Lucretia, i Balli di Sfessania, Jacques Callot 1592–1635