OVERVIEW

The historical study of theater, overcoming the nineteenth-century prejudice (theater = literature), became autonomous in the last century, focusing on the performative aspects (“Storia del Teatro e dello Spettacolo”); today there is the need for a third approach, which considers the variety of theatrical behaviors in their unfolding, without the presumption of a linear narrative, as improbable as ephemeral is its object, but rather subtended by the understanding of the present.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Even without constituting discipline, the anthropological approach to the study of theater is able to speak, together, of what it has been and of what is still for us; incorporating and even using our inevitable prejudices in the story itself of its irreducible differences, historical and geographical. The course aims to retrace, among ancient and contemporary examples, Western and Oriental, theatrical and media, the main issues related to the theater and its relevance: the body, improvisation, the rite, the voice, the myth, the space, mask and disguise; because, when and how the theater works.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

In particular, the following skills are pursued: in a historical perspective, appreciating the differences (irreducibility?) of theatrical phenomena among them; in a cultural perspective, considering the traits of transmediality, multidisciplinarity and interculturality of theatrical forms; in a critical perspective, understanding the creative and social diversity of current theater, between actor, director and community theater.

PREREQUISITES

Elementary knowledge of theatre history.

TEACHING METHODS

Lectures, with the aid of audiovisual material and practical exercises.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Icarius, Tespi and Solon: three myths of the origins; Thebes as CSI (the primary scene); skené and théatron; mìmesis and kathàrsis (and today the Mirror Neurons); the space of the theater as a space of relationship; hypotaxis and parataxis (from the Passion of Valenciennes to The last days of humanity); masks, poor devils (birth of Harlequin); “In this”, the theater (the coup de théâtre); San Genesio, protect us; theater-laboratory (the holy actor of J. Grotowski); theatrum mundi (I.S.T.A. of E. Barba); from the Living Theater to the reality show; on the ruins of the Italian theater (P. Brook).

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Mandatory texts

Eugenio Barba, Nicola Savarese, I cinque continenti del teatro. Fatti e leggende della cultura materiale dell’attore, Bari, edizionidipagina, 2017

Roberto Tessari, Teatro e antropologia. Tra rito e spettacolo, Roma, Carocci, 2004

Recommended texts

Antonin Artaud, Il teatro e il suo doppio

Eugenio Barba, Bruciare la casa. Origini di un regista, Milano, Ubulibri, 2009

Julian Beck, La vita del teatro: l’artista e la lotta del popolo, a cura di Franco Quadri, con uno scritto di Fernanda Pivano,Torino, Einaudi,1975

Peter Brook, Lo spazio vuoto [1968], Roma, Bulzoni, 1998

Jerzy Grotowski, Per un teatro povero, Roma, Bulzoni, 1970

Franco Perrelli, I maestri della ricerca teatrale. Il Living, Grotowski, Barba e Brook, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2007

Richard Schechner, Introduzione ai Perfoming Studies, a cura di Dario Tomasello, Bologna, Cuepress, 2018

Gabriele Sofia, Le acrobazie dello spettatore, Roma, Bulzoni, 2013 

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

ROBERTO CUPPONE (President)

LIVIA CAVAGLIERI

ROBERTO TROVATO (Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

2018, 19th September, Wednesday

Class schedule

THEATRICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Oral.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The evaluation will be in equal parts (3/3) a) on learning the informative contents of the prescribed texts, b) on the ability to critically process their contents, and c) on the personal in-depth study.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

It is recommended to contact the teacher for bibliographic indications or materials related to the lessons; to solve any problems in the availability of texts; to agree on motivated changes to the program.