85122 - The Italian Contemporary Performance Scene (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will have acquired knowledge of the theoretical and critical reflections on the performing arts in Italy from the second half of the twentieth century to the first decade of the new millennium, with a particular focus on mise-en-scène and dance. Students will be capable of autonomously analysing critical, theoretical and poetic texts regarding the performing arts and will have acquired a series of tools for understanding pertinent iconographic and video documents.

Course contents

What is performance? How is it related to its cultural and historical context? The course provides an answer to these questions in regard to the history of the Italian Performance Scene since the Sixties. After a methodological introduction on diverse concepts and theories of performance, we will focus on the general aesthetic trends and refer to the most relevant case studies of New theatre (such as Carmelo Bene, Carlo Quartucci, Giuliano Scabia, Dario Fo, Carrozzone, Societas Raffaello Sanzio) and New dance (e.g. Enzo Cosimi and Virgilio Sieni). The final part of the course will be dedicated to social and migrant theatre, with reference both to long-lasting and recent case studies (such as Compagnia della Fortezza, presented in collaboration with Valeria Venturelli, and Cantieri Meticci).

Readings/Bibliography

Attending students:

a. Valentina Valentini, New Theatre in Italy (1963-2013), Routledge, London and New York, 2017, selected chapters.

b. Reader: Italian Contemporary Performance: Methodology and case studies, 2023-2024, pp. 170 (available on the e-learning course page.).

C. Notes from class and extracts from primary sources shared in class.

Attending students will be requested to recall the videos, primary sources and iconographic material shared in class in their description of the performances, whereas non attending students are requested to refer to the focuses reported in Valentina Valentina's book and to the associated website https://nuovoteatromadeinitaly.sciami.com for a better understanding of the subject. They are also encouraged to lead personal research on the internet for images and videos of the performances described in the bibliographical material.

 

Teaching methods

Lectures carried out in presence.

 

 

 

 

Assessment methods

Students will have to pass an oral exam, based on open questions aimed at testing both their ability in exposing the contents of the program with an appropriate language and their skills in making connections between the aesthetic forms and their cultural background.

Attending students will also be encouraged to prepare a powerpoint presentation to share during class time, which will contribute to their assessment, together with their active participation in class.

Assessment criteria:

Proper language and the ability to critically speak about the book and reader contents, as well as the capacity to make connections will lead to a good/excellent final grade.

Acceptable language and the ability to resume the books' content will lead to a sufficient/fair grade.

Insufficient linguistic proficiency and fragmentary knowledge of the bibliographical material will lead to a failure in passing the exam.

Teaching tools

Performances and artistic processes will be discussed in class with reference to a rich audio-visual documentation, primary and critical bibliography.

Office hours

See the website of Rossella Nancy Maria Mazzaglia