27110 - History of Directing

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student: - knows the history of the theories and poetics that have crossed the theatre performance in the twentieth century, with particular attention to the elements that help to define the notion of stage direction and its protagonists; - has skills on historical and theoretical knowledge tools to read and analyze a theatre performance in its set of scenic components.

Course contents

Postrema daughter of the modern age, whose emergence or birth is an open object of debate, partially resolved according to the different ways in which it can be read - which range from the art of the factory to the affirmation of the primacy of the scene on page (but not without first having passed from the strenuous defense of the dramaturgical will against the dominance of "grandattore") -, the stage directing elaborates his history in the arc of the dazzling twentieth century, giving itself to us again as a living nebula of scenic practices as of relevant theoretical accelerations. It is therefore difficult to separate the history of the stage directing from the theatrical one tout court, at least for the last one hundred and fifty years. Called here to sail in a stormy magnum sea, let us therefore mark the course for this year towards the shores of the Italian post-World War II season: entitled History and structures in dialogue with the critical stage direction, the course will start from the productive and poetic context that led in Italy to the affirmation of what Meldolesi has framed as a critical stage directing, to widen the investigation then to two relevant neighboring experiences that, between structuralist and socio-political hermeneutics, led during the second part of the twentieth century to the development and consolidation of a modus operandi in stage direction of our own peninsula.

First module: within the first thirty hours the main experiences of directing will be addressed, with analysis of single stagings and related theoretical and stylistic issues, looking from the nineteenth-century proto-direction to the affirmation in the early twentieth century of the language of stage directing.

Second module: in the second thirty hours, the case of critical stage directing, its developments in a structuralist sense and political hermeneutics, will be dealt with more specifically, with references to today's panorama, to assess inheritance and ruptures.

During the course there is the possibility to participate in external performances.

Non-attending students are required to agree on a program with the teacher (they are considered not attending students present at less than 80% of lessons).

The beginning of the lessons is scheduled for Wednesday 25th September.
Lessons will take place on Wednesday (5-7pm), Thursday (5-7pm) and Friday (1-3pm) during the first semester.

Readings/Bibliography

A) Compulsory reading list both for students who attend the lessons and for those who do not (attending the lessons means attending at least 80% of them):

• L. Mango, Il Novecento del teatro. Una storia, Roma, Carocci, 2019.

• M. Schino, La nascita della regia teatrale, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2003.

• C. Meldolesi, Fondamenti del teatro italiano. La generazione dei registi [1984], Roma Bulzoni, 2008, pp.3-54 and 145-298.

• L. Ronconi e G. Capitta, Teatro della conoscenza, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2012.

• B. Brecht, Opera da tre soldi, a cura di C. Vigliero, Torino, Einaudi, 2002.

• Euripide, Le Baccanti, in E. Sanguineti, Teatro antico. Traduzioni e ricordi, a cura di F. Condello e C. Longhi, Milano, BUR, 2006.

• Ruzante, Moschetta, a cura di L. D'Onghia, Venezia, Marsilio, 2010.

• P. Calderon de la Barca, La vita è sogno, a cura di L. Orioli, Milano, Adelphi, 1990.

• C. Goldoni, Le smanie per la villeggiatura, in Id., Trilogia della villeggiatura, a cura di F. Fido, Venezia, Marsilio, 2005.

B) Students who attend less than 80% of the lessons are furthermore required to study a second text of their choice among the list above:

• R. Alonge, Il teatro dei registi. Scopritori di enigmi e poeti della scena, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2006.

• Il teatro di regia. Genesi ed evoluzione 1870-1950 [2004], a cura di U. Artioli, Roma, Carocci, 2018.

• F. Perrelli, La seconda creazione. Fondamenti della regia teatrale, Torino, Utet, 2005.

• L. Squarzina, Il romanzo della regia. Duecento anni di trionfi e sconfitte, Ospedaletto di Pisa (PI), Pacini, 2005.

 

NOTE: Any changes to this program must be agreed with the teacher.

 

Some possible other writings will be available as an attachment on these pages after the start of the course.

Teaching methods

The course will be conducted mainly through a series of lectures. These lectures will be accompanied by discussions with the students and reports presented by the participants on agreed topics. There is also the possibility of participating to the vision of performances scheduled during the period of lessons. Finally, wherever possible, some stage directors/dramatists/actors present in the Bologna and neighboring billboards will be invited for brief interventions of reflection and discussion with the students.

Assessment methods

The final examination will consist of:

1) an oral discussion that will focus on the topics covered in class and on the volumes indicated in the bibliography;

2) a presentation of a written essay that starts from one of the topics discussed in class, with a length of about 10,000 characters (including spaces) to be delivered to the teacher by e-mail at least two days before the final examination. For both attending and non-attending students, the subject of the essay must be agreed in advance with the teacher.

The oral discussion is aimed to evaluate the critical and methodological abilities developed by the student, who will be invited to confront with the texts read with during the course. Particularly the candidate's abilities valued will be: 1) safely discussing of the various contributions indicated in the bibliography, 2) interpreting with pertinence the different moments of development of the language of stage direction, understood in its unfolding in time, 3) analyzing a show with coherence.

The evaluation of the written essay is aimed to verify the student's ability to elaborate an independent investigation in the context of the history of stage direction and to set the results in writing.

The oral discussion and the written essay will be evaluated jointly as expressions of different ways and skills of the same knowledge of the history of stage direction.

NOTE: the ascertainment of the fact that any of the texts included in the bibliography has not been studied by the student (without prior agreement with the teacher) determines the immediate cancellation of the examination.

Teaching tools

Iconographic and video materials will be screened during the lessons. Additional text materials will always be read during the course of lessons. Shows and similar will be proposed to the students, as well as the relative calendar and the modalities of participation, during the lesson period.

Office hours

See the website of Giacomo Pedini