Teaching code

4S012468

Teacher

Monica Cristini

Coordinator

Monica Cristini

Credits

6

Language

Italian

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

L-ART/05 - PERFORMING ARTS

Period

CuCi 1 A, CuCi 1 B

Courses Single

Authorized

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars 0

Learning objectives

The aim of the course is to provide adequate knowledge of method and content on the theatrical experience with particular reference to the places, training and role of the actor in the theatrical experience.

Prerequisites and basic notions

General knowledge of the history of Italy in the second half of the Twentieth century. A knowledge of theater history is not necessary for attending the class, but reading Marco De Marinis, Il Nuovo Teatro 1947-1970 (Bompiani, Milan 1995) is suggested for a basic knowledge of the theatrical avant-garde.

Program

Theater festivals in dialogue with cities
Since the mid-twentieth century, theater festivals have played a central role in opening a dialogue between artists from different cultures. In fact, these events have taken on the function of a frame and driving force for creative processes, presenting to the public the most important works of the great masters of twentieth-century theater, but also offering an active meeting space for university groups and young artists through lectures, seminars, workshops and laboratories organized on the sidelines.
Thanks to the festival formula, the European continent - which had grown from a perspective that had placed it at the center of every economic and creative process, on a global scale - has had the opportunity to meet cultures from the East, Africa, and Latin America, coming into contact with performance experiences far removed from those usually frequented. Programs dedicated to specific theatrical forms and genres, conferences, debates and workshop formulas have instilled and increased in artists and spectators an awareness of concrete encounters as a source of mutual enrichment, both on an expressive and human level. The Festival has thus proved to be an increasingly necessary place of confrontation between theater and social community, art and citizenship, bourgeois culture and popular culture, inserting itself - as early as the 1960s - in that line of reflection on stage space that clamored for a greater and renewed “penetration of theater into the social body.”
Since the post-World War II period, events such as the Avignon Festival (1947) and Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto (1958) have hosted and proposed shows and performances from countries outside Europe, while others, such as Santarcangelo dei Teatri (1971) and Festival d'Automne (1972) have practiced a spatial or temporal re-location of the performing arts, choosing venues decentralized from mass tourism, or periods that are theatrically 'silent' compared to the programming of large cities. Not only that, with their annual recurrence, these events have also been active and propulsive meeting spaces between theater communities and the citizenry, the latter often directly involved both in participating in the main and side events and in their conception and organization, through public calls and concrete opportunities for internships and work.
In presenting the peculiarities of festivals, which are extremely complex events, the course will be devoted to the Venice Biennale Teatro, especially to the directorships of Wladimiro Dorigo (1963-1972) and Luca Ronconi (1974-1976), with an analysis of some specific proposals of the two artistic directors that saw the citizenry particularly involved with an 'active' participation in the proposed events. special attention will also be paid to the role of theater festivals as mediators of cultural exchange in years when the European territory was marked by divisions, dictatorships and diriment social issues.
Introduction:
- the theatrical avant-garde of the 1960s and 1970s
- theater festivals: birth and diffusion in Europe, starting with university festivals; their role in the dissemination of theatrical culture; the effects of events on host cities; citizen involvement; festival tourism; political value
- the collaborations between festivals
- the international exchanges
The Biennale Theatre in Venice:
- festival history and policies
- the direction of Wladimiro Dorigo
- relations with Japan
- the invitation of the Black Theatre
- the children's theater
- theatrical animation
- the direction of Luca Ronconi
- the experimental theater/New International Theater
- the workshops
- the cultural decentralization: relations with the population
To take the oral exam, students are required to study the following books:
Marco De Marinis, Il Nuovo Teatro (The New Theater)
Arianna Frattali, La drammaturgia aperta dell'Odin (The Open Dramaturgy of Odin)
Monica Cristini, Uno spettacolo per un caffè (A Show for a Coffee)
For attending students: topics covered in class will also be discussed.
For non-attending students: supplementary study of the book I festival teatrali del Novecento (The Theater Festivals of the Twentieth Century) is required. Intersezioni, dialoghi, incontri, edited by Monica Cristini and Arianna Frattali, Edizioni di Pagina 2025 (the volume will be available from January 2026, also in Open Access on the publisher's website: for those who wish to take the January exams, please contact the teacher to obtain a digital copy of the book).

Bibliography

Didactic methods

Lectures in the course of which photographic and video materials will be used.

Learning assessment procedures

Oral exam.

Evaluation criteria

Knowledge of the topics covered in the lectures and acquisition of the contents of the books listed in the examination bibliography will be evaluated.

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

Evaluation will be given 50% based on knowledge of the topics presented in class and 50% based on knowledge of the examination bibliography.

Exam language

Italiano

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