Formerly associate professor at the University of Cassino, where
she chaired the course on Foreign languages and literature for
multimedia communications; currently professor in the History of acting and Modern and contemporary theatre at the University
of Bologna, where she is contract professor of History of acting after her retirement in 2016.
In 1982 she published her first book "Quelle dell'idea. Storie
di detenute politiche. 1927-1948" (De Donato, Bari 1982), winner in
1983 of the Sant'Anna di Stazzema Award. The book is based on oral
sources and archival research, and its methodology falls within
Life as playwriting. In 1983 she was awarded the Europa Award for
being the curator of 2 sections in the exhibition "Esistere come
donna" (Milano, Palazzo Reale). Her 1987 Ph.D. dissertation, "Donne
di teatro nel primo Novecento", filed at the University of Bologna,
achieved a balanced synthesis between dramaturgical analysis and
her experience as an oral historian. Her volume "Il tempo delle
attrici" (Mongolfiera, Bologna 1991), which introduced gender
themes into theater studies achieved wide recognition. In her book
"Sarah Bernhardt, Colette e l'arte del travestimento" (Il Mulino,
Bologna 1996), she approaches the topic of cross dressing as
construction and mise en scene of identity. She points out how it
constitutes an element of wonderful in theatrical staging, and in
so doing reinstates Colette in the history of theatre. She is also
one of the curators of the volume "Donne guerra politica" wich
includes her essays on women's war memoirs and forms of
theatralization of experience in the Resistance (Clueb, Bologna
2000). Her next work, "L'attrice del cuore. Storia di
Giacinta Pezzana attraverso le lettere" (Le Lettere, Firenze 2005),
reconstructs the life of an exceptional artist who participated
both in the Mazzinian and the Emancipationist movement through the
actress' voluminous correspondence. One of this volume's foremost
contributions is that it includes 410 previously unpublished
letters written by the actress, which have been faithfully
transcribed in their entirety, while an additional 700 have been
catalogued and amply described.
Laura Mariani was in charge of a research unit within the
COFIN 2003 project promoted by the Dipartimento di storia delle
arti e dello spettacolo of Florence. Her section of the program was
titled "Attori e attrici, recitazione e scrittura". She has widely
lectured both for the general public and at universities both in
Italy and abroad (Boston. Princeton, Buenos Aires, Montevideo,
Barcellona, Paris, Malta, Bodrum, etc.). She has also participated
in many international Oral History conferences and in the 12th
World Conference of the International Federation of Theatre
Research (Moscow 1994). She has participated in the conferences
organized by Società Italiana delle Storiche (particularly
she organized and presented the panel "Teatro e gender", Florence
2004). She also participated in the Primer Congreso Internacional
sobre Dante Alighieri in America Latina (Salta 2004). She is a
founder of the Società italiana delle storiche and of the
Associazione Orlando which manages the Centro di documentazione,
ricerca e iniziativa delle donne in Bologna. She was on the
editorial board of the quarterly "Lapis. Percorsi della riflessione
femminile" and contributed to numerous journals including "Teatro e
Storia", "The Open page", "Prove di drammaturgia" and "Culture
teatrali". She has written the article "Feminist Theory and
Criticism" for The Enciclopedia of Italian Literary Studies
(Gaetana Marrone General Editor, Routledge, New York 2006, pp.
705-711).
In 2010 she coauthored (with Claudio Meldolesi and Angela
Malfitano) "La terza vita di Leo. Gli ultimi vent'anni del
teatro di Leo de Berardinis a Bologna" (Titivillus,
Corazzano). The art of this leading figure of the Italian theater
of the second half of XX century is retraced by interlacing a
hundred of voices of actors and coworkers and analyses.
She coedited (with Maria Nadotti) a monographic issue of
"Prove di drammaturgia" on women in the theatre audience and
tracked down many other unpublished letters by Giacinta
Pezzana. Her 2012 book "Ermanna Montanari.
Fare-disfare-rifare nel Teatro delle Albe" (Titivillus) is a
comprehensive artistic biography of an actress and a
company playing a leading role in experimental theatre in
Italy from the late Seventies onwards. She therefore contributes to
the history, still largely unwritten, of a problematic period and
offers a careful analysis of the actress work and its records. She
then goes back to that actress in depth or in
synthetic essays: on "Culture Teatrali" (n. 20, 2010),
"Biblioteca teatrale" (nn. 95-96, 2012) e in a volume on "Rosvita" (Sossella publisher)
In 2013 she co-edited (with M. Schino e F. Taviani) "Pensare
l'attore" (Bulzoni), a collection of selected writings on the actor
by Claudio Meldolesi. She previously prefaced the reprints of two
landmark essays by Meldolesi on Gustavo Modena. She also attended and
organized a memorial day for Meldolesi at la Soffitta in 2013,
including a scientific meeting, artists testimonies, an exhibit and
a monographic issue of "Prove di drammaturgia" (co-edited with
Gerardo Guccini).
After writing on Dacia Maraini ("Un teatro con le donne al
centro", Pordenone 2000) she got interested again in contemporary
dramaturgy: particularly in Jon Fosse, presenting his work in
meetings in San Miniato, Bologna, Parma. In 2014 she published "'Quelle dei pupi erano belle storie'.
Vita nell'arte di Pina Patti Cuticchio" (Liguori, Napoli): it
focuses on a singular figure of paintress and costumer from
the Opera dei pupi, belonging to the most important "famiglia
d'arte" in Palermo.
In 2016 she published "L’America di Elio De Capitani. Interpretare Roy Cohn, Richard Nixon, Willy Loman, Mr. Berlusconi" (Cue Press, Imola 2016). She tackled the history of actresses again, publishing essays on "Acting Archives Review", "Culture Teatrali", "Storia delle donne", "Mimesis Journal", "Italica". She also produced essays on Gerardo Guerrieri, on Alessandro Fersen, on the art family in Italy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, on women directors. With Cristina Valenti she edited the monographic issue dedicated to Leo de Berardinis from "Culture Teatrali", n. 28, 2019.
In 2021 she published the book "Il teatro nel cinema. Tre film di Marco Martinelli e Ermanna Montanari" (Sossella Publisher) and she wrote about Anna Magnani and Dacia Maraini in collective volumes of essays. She also composed the entry on Leo de Berardinis for the Treccani Biographical Dictionary of Italians. In 2022 she published the essay "Un’enorme provincia di ingegni dimenticati. Il caso di Anna Marocco", included in the exhibition catalog "Anna Marocco. Scoperta di una pittrice poliziana di primo Novecento" (Museo Civico di Montepulciano, 2nd July 2022 – 6th January 2023). In the same year she scripted and presented several episodes of Wikiradio devoted to Giacinta Pezzana, Eleonora Duse, Emma Gramatica, Titina De Filippo, Paola Borboni, Tina Pica, Perla Peragallo. In 2022 she also joined the jury of Premio Duse.
She is working on a history of theatre actresses from 1815 to 2019 (Viella Publisher) and on an updated edition of “L’America di Elio De Capitani” with the addition of a chapter devoted to “Moby Dick - Rehearsed” by Orson Welles from the novel by Melville.
