ID:
509204
Duration (hours):
36
CFU:
6
SSD:
DISCIPLINE DELLO SPETTACOLO
Year:
2025
Overview
Date/time interval
Secondo Semestre (23/02/2026 - 22/05/2026)
Syllabus
Course Objectives
The course aims to familiarize students with the two notions that appear in its title: "direction" and "scenic writing". Two concepts which, during the 20th century, acted as the cornerstones of the revolution investing paradigms that had remained largely in effect for centuries in Western theatre, leading them to a very quick – in a historical perspective – evolution. Through the two notions, the course will offer students an overview of the most significant evolutions that have affected Italian theater – in close dialogue with foreign theater realities – throughout the last century and during the post-2000s contemporaneity: striving to provide them with a historical, critical and analytical competence through which they will be able to frame the main theoretical, aesthetic and political horizons of contemporary theater, together with the poetics of some of its exponents.
Course Prerequisites
For a fuller understanding of the topics discussed throughout the course, the previous attendance of the course in Theatre and performance studies (particularly the B module), or of a similar course dealing with the same subject, is recommended.
Teaching Methods
The course will be made up of lectures given out in presence, mostly devoted to explanations given out by the professor, but open to questions and to exchanges of views brought forth by students. Explanations will be supported by iconographic materials and videos (provided by the professor through the Kiro platform or freely available online). Furthermore, lectures with a historical-critical focus may benefit from meetings with contemporary artists, heirs to the poetic traditions of the late twentieth century: particularly through the viewing of performances selected from the Pavia and Milan theatre programs, appropriately pointed out by the professor and discussed in class.
Assessment Methods
To verify a satisfactory acquisition of the knowledge offered throughout the course, oral exams will be held after its conclusion, with the lectures and the indicated bibliography as their main sources (replaced, in the case of non-attending students, by the indicated bibliography and the supplementary one).
Regarding the content of the seminars, ATTENDING students will be expected to prepare both the topics covered in the dedicated lessons and a self-directed, in-depth study based on the themes discussed in class, integrating them with the scholarly sources made available on Kiro. From these sources, students will be required to select and use AT LEAST TWO essays.
The exam will be considered passed if evaluated with a positive grade on a scale from 18 to 30, per Italian University standards.
Regarding the content of the seminars, ATTENDING students will be expected to prepare both the topics covered in the dedicated lessons and a self-directed, in-depth study based on the themes discussed in class, integrating them with the scholarly sources made available on Kiro. From these sources, students will be required to select and use AT LEAST TWO essays.
The exam will be considered passed if evaluated with a positive grade on a scale from 18 to 30, per Italian University standards.
Texts
The exam bibliography will vary depending on whether students attend lectures or not: those attending the lectures, in addition to the topics covered there, will bring the bibliography required for ALL students; NON-ATTENDING students, on the other hand, will be asked to both bring their colleagues’ bibliography and to replace the topics covered during the lectures with supplemental bibliography specifically dedicated to them. As such, they will be expected to consult both the bibliography meant for ALL the students and that for NON-ATTENDING ones.
ALONGE ROBERTO, “Il teatro dei registi”, Laterza, Rome-Bari 2006.
ALL: capp. 8, 9, 11 (pp. 119-140; 149-168)
BARSOTTI ANNA, “La lingua teatrale di Emma Dante. ‘mPalermu’, ‘Carnezzeria’, ‘Vita mia’”, Edizioni ETS, Pisa 2009.
ALL: pp. 51-63; 137-176
CIOFFRESE DAVIDE, “Il dramaturg in Italia. Un’anomalia storica tra Europa e Stati Uniti”, Mimesis, Milano-Udine 2023. The volume’s sections included in the exam bibliography will be provided in digital format by the professor.
ALL: pp. 223-290
NON-ATTENDING: capp. 1-2 (pp. 13-69); 5 (pp. 157-193)
CIOFFRESE DAVIDE, “Oggetti comici, oggetti tragici. ‘Gli Acarnesi’ e ‘I Persiani’ secondo i Sacchi di Sabbia”, in “Mantichora. Italian Journal of Performance Studies”. n. 15, 2025, pp. 11-26.
ALL: full article
LOCATELLI STEFANO, “L’eccezione e la norma. Il Piccolo Teatro di Milano alle origini della stabilità pubblica”, Dino Audino, RomE 2023.
ALL: first, third, fourth capters (pp. 17-42; 57-102)
NON-ATTENDING: sixth, seventh and eighth chapters (pp. 118-169)
MANGO LORENZO, “La scrittura scenica. Un codice e le sue pratiche nel teatro del Novecento”, Bulzoni, Rome 2003.
ALL: cap. 1, section “La scrittura scenica come oggetto teorico” (pp. 13-47)
LEHMANN HANS-THIES, “Postdramatic Theatre”, translated by Karen Jürs-Munby, Routledge, London and New York 2006 (the listed version, an English alternative to the book listed on the Italian syllabus, is merely a reference: preferences regarding language and translation are left to the students).
NON-ATTENDING: full volume (roughly 200 pages).
SEMINAR-BASED STUDY: AT LEAST two essays to be chosen from the materials uploaded on Kiro in the “SEMINARIO DIDATTICO” folder (see the “Assessment Methods” section).
NON-ATTENDING students will NOT be required to bring the seminar-based study materials to the exam and, therefore, should NOT consider the materials in the “SEMINARIO DIDATTICO” folder, except for personal interest or further study.
ALONGE ROBERTO, “Il teatro dei registi”, Laterza, Rome-Bari 2006.
ALL: capp. 8, 9, 11 (pp. 119-140; 149-168)
BARSOTTI ANNA, “La lingua teatrale di Emma Dante. ‘mPalermu’, ‘Carnezzeria’, ‘Vita mia’”, Edizioni ETS, Pisa 2009.
ALL: pp. 51-63; 137-176
CIOFFRESE DAVIDE, “Il dramaturg in Italia. Un’anomalia storica tra Europa e Stati Uniti”, Mimesis, Milano-Udine 2023. The volume’s sections included in the exam bibliography will be provided in digital format by the professor.
ALL: pp. 223-290
NON-ATTENDING: capp. 1-2 (pp. 13-69); 5 (pp. 157-193)
CIOFFRESE DAVIDE, “Oggetti comici, oggetti tragici. ‘Gli Acarnesi’ e ‘I Persiani’ secondo i Sacchi di Sabbia”, in “Mantichora. Italian Journal of Performance Studies”. n. 15, 2025, pp. 11-26.
ALL: full article
LOCATELLI STEFANO, “L’eccezione e la norma. Il Piccolo Teatro di Milano alle origini della stabilità pubblica”, Dino Audino, RomE 2023.
ALL: first, third, fourth capters (pp. 17-42; 57-102)
NON-ATTENDING: sixth, seventh and eighth chapters (pp. 118-169)
MANGO LORENZO, “La scrittura scenica. Un codice e le sue pratiche nel teatro del Novecento”, Bulzoni, Rome 2003.
ALL: cap. 1, section “La scrittura scenica come oggetto teorico” (pp. 13-47)
LEHMANN HANS-THIES, “Postdramatic Theatre”, translated by Karen Jürs-Munby, Routledge, London and New York 2006 (the listed version, an English alternative to the book listed on the Italian syllabus, is merely a reference: preferences regarding language and translation are left to the students).
NON-ATTENDING: full volume (roughly 200 pages).
SEMINAR-BASED STUDY: AT LEAST two essays to be chosen from the materials uploaded on Kiro in the “SEMINARIO DIDATTICO” folder (see the “Assessment Methods” section).
NON-ATTENDING students will NOT be required to bring the seminar-based study materials to the exam and, therefore, should NOT consider the materials in the “SEMINARIO DIDATTICO” folder, except for personal interest or further study.
Contents
The course will focus on twentieth-century Italian theatre, a reality evolving in constant dialogue with foreign theatres, either imitating their varied models or challenging them. The birth and the development of Italian directing will be examined through various case studies, first and foremost that offered by the Piccolo Teatro di Milano and by its founders (in 1947). Directing, probably the most important revolution of the twentieth century, will be placed in dialogue with the more evanescent notion of scenic writing. In this regard, a specific seminar-based exploration will focus on two main areas: the relationship between directing and scenic writing in the actor-centered dramaturgy of the Teatri Laboratorio of the late twentieth century; and the various forms of scenic writing in Italian experimental theatre, from the second half of the twentieth century to contemporary groups.
Throughout the course these elements will allow intrusions into the context of contemporary theatre: a vast and varied panorama which owes its most radical and significant changes to its recent history. Lastly, the course will make room to discuss a theatre role different from that of the director. An often-ignored function (when not directly a profession), but one capable of having a considerable influence on theatre-making: that of the dramaturg.
Throughout the course these elements will allow intrusions into the context of contemporary theatre: a vast and varied panorama which owes its most radical and significant changes to its recent history. Lastly, the course will make room to discuss a theatre role different from that of the director. An often-ignored function (when not directly a profession), but one capable of having a considerable influence on theatre-making: that of the dramaturg.
Course Language
Italian
Degrees
Degrees
TEXTS AND PROJECTS FOR VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS
Master’s Degree
2 years
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People
People
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