traditionally women did not play the masked characters such as Brighella. However this should no longer apply in the 21st century. Therefore if you are a woman then your Brighella should be a woman. Likewise for all the other characters which can be female if desired. Pantalone - an old greedy matriarch, Dottore - pompous woman doctor who indulges too much in drink and food. etc.
Stephen LaFrenie so, "traditionally" its male, but in practice is up to interpretation? im in love with the characters, cant help to find similarities between them and characters from other places, like... pantalone and mr burns, or mr crab, or zanni and cantinfla... do you think looking at it that way is helpfull or harmfull for character interpretation? i try to find more on characters interaction but the improvisational nature of it makes it hard to get anything usefull i mean... between masters and servants, lovers, etc is kinda natural... but... how would pantalone and ill dottore interact? servant with servant. master with master is harder for me to improvise, i think that the lack of clashing differences gives less possibilities to make it funny... and end up looking like a sitcom with odd acting, or a three stooges rippoff when the other doesnt work.
Okay so finally got around to seeing this reply. Yes all the mask characters were men. Women had counterpart characters but were unmasked. It helps to find parallels within modern settings so if viewing Mr. Burns as a Pantalone character helps you then that's fine but just for inspiration. The interpretation is yours whether you are a woman seeing Pantalone as a matriarch and finding the comedy in how women grow old and lust for youth and status.
