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century but dwindled in the 18 century. It saw a revival in 1947
under the Italian director Giorgio Strehler.
Salvato, who met the renowned Strehler a decade ago, first
brought the genre to Kyiv last year in the play "Arlecchino" or "The
Servant of Two Masters." While searching for a troupe to perform
Kyiv's inaugural production in the commedia dell'arte style, Salvato
learned of The New Theater. After only four rehearsals, the play
debuted at Split Casino, an intimate setting which helped emphasize
the play's splendid costumes and masks, many of which were
influenced by historical patterns found in a museum in Milan.
"I like working with young actors who are able not only to
accept the style of the commedia dell'arte theater physically [in terms
of its numerous acrobatics], but also psychologically, for they are
enthusiastic and open to a new culture, technique and form," Salvato
said.
However alien and sometimes nonsensical this new style was
to the actors initially, to Salvato, it shapes the actors' words and
brings out emotions. This alone sets it apart from the classical -
Russian school of thought, where emotions imply
form. A New Theater actor, 24 - year - old Igor Rubashkin, has
enjoyed working learning from Salvato.
"If every posture, gesture, movement and word is set, we end
up with a dead play without life in it," Rubashkin said. "The
commedia dell'arte is alive."
He and the other actors in New Theater have managed to
overcome the difficulties of working with such freedom and the
concept of improvisation. The experimentation it involves
incorporates everything that deals with human fantasy
and is therefore fluid, to be lived and breathed by the cast, not
dictated to them.
"During this play, actors are now idling with great pleasure,"
Mykola Rushkovsky said, noting his actors' newfound
attachment to the style. Rushkovsky, a renowned Ukrainian
actor and former acting professor, created The New Theater on

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