Border-Crossing and Comedy at the Thtre Italien, 17161723

How do nationalized stereotypes inform the reception and content of the migrant comedians work? How do performers adapt? What gets lost (and found) in translation? Border-Crossing and Comedy at the Thtre Italien, 1716-1723 explores these questions in an early modern context. When a troupe of commedia dellarte actors were invited by the French crown to establish a theatre in Paris, they found their transition was anything but easy. They had to learn a new language and adjust to French expectations and demands. This study presents their story as a dynamic model of coping with the challenges of migration, whereby the actors made their transnational identity a central focus of their comedy. Relating their work to popular twenty-first century comedians, this book also discusses the tools and ideas that contextualize the border-crossing comedians workincluding diplomacy, translation, improvisation, and parodyacross time.