Unit THEATRE AND PERFORMING ARTS HISTORY

Course
Humanities
Study-unit Code
A002685
Curriculum
Moderno
Teacher
Alessandro Tinterri
Teachers
  • Alessandro Tinterri
  • Filippo Fonio (Codocenza)
Hours
  • 36 ore - Alessandro Tinterri
  • 36 ore (Codocenza) - Filippo Fonio
CFU
6
Course Regulation
Coorte 2024
Offered
2025/26
Learning activities
Affine/integrativa
Area
Attività formative affini o integrative
Sector
L-ART/05
Type of study-unit
Opzionale (Optional)
Type of learning activities
Attività formativa monodisciplinare
Language of instruction
Italian
Contents
The course consists of 2 parts (each one of 36 hours): 1. History of Theatre from Vth century b.C. till nowadays, through plays and theatrical buildings; 2. "Screenplay, Actors, Directing. Study and Analysis of the Languages of the Scene." Extraordinary encounters, artistic testimonies, and time jumps are the coordinates of the study, which ranges from ancient Italian theater to the most modern performances. We will visit the languages of the scene, frontiers of research and experimentation in live performance. We will reflect on the phenomenon of the great actor in the Italian tradition. It will be an opportunity to pay homage to Eleonora Duse, to her figure as a woman, artist, "divine" art contractor.
Reference texts
Part 1:L. Allegri e F. Cotticelli care of, Alle fonti del teatro (Carocci 2022) or another handbook of History of Theatre in whatever Language; 2 plays in following list: Aeschylus, Persians; Sophocles, Oedipus; Euripides, Medea; Shakespeare, Hamlet; Molière, Tartuffe ou l'Imposteur (Tartuffe or the Hypocrite); Calderon de la Barca, La vida es sueno (Life is Dream); Goldoni, La locandiera (Yhe Pistress of the Inn); Ibsen, Et Dukkehjem (A Doll's House); Pirandello, Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore (Six Characters in search of an Author); Brecht, Mutter Courage und Ihre Kinder (Mother Courage and her Children).
II modulo. Bibliografia di riferimento: Alle fonti del teatro, a cura di Luigi Allegri, Francesco Corticelli, Carocci, 2024; Leggere il teatro, a cura di Luigi Allegri, Carocci, 2023; Medieval Drama, a cura di Greg Walker, Wiley, 2000; A Cultural history of theatre in the Early Modern Age, a cura di Robert Henke, Bloomsbury, 2022; Medievalism: Key Critical Concepts, a cura di Elizabeth Emery e Richard Utz, Brewer, 2017; Medieval Theatre Performance: Actors, Dancers, Automata and Their Audiences, a cura di Philip Butterworth e Katie Normington, Brewer, 2017; Renaissance du théâtre médiéval, Presses Universitaires de Louvain, 2013. NB disponibile anche sulla piattaforma Open Edition: https://books.openedition.org/pucl/634 Visualizing Medieval Performance, a cura di Elina Gertsman, Routledge, 2008; Storia del teatro. Le idee e le forme dello spettacolo dall’antichità a oggi, a cura di Luigi Allegri, Carocci, 2017; Michael A. Cramer, Medieval Fantasy as Performance, Scarecrow, 2009.
Additional materials will be provided in class. The theoretical readings should be supplemented by reading, viewing, and analyzing a medieval or medieval-themed play of the student’s choice, or by analyzing a medieval-themed event.
Educational objectives
The course is designed to teach the general outlines of theatre history and to develop a critical orientation in the viewing of theatrical performances, for which direct experience is required.
Learning Objectives of the Second Module:
- Analyze medieval and contemporary medievalist theatrical texts from textual, dramaturgical, acting, and scenic perspectives
- Understand how the transition from text to stage occurs and how medieval staging conventions and techniques (such as circular or tiered stages, etc.) are adapted in contemporary productions
- Critically analyze contemporary medievalist performances (parades, tournaments, falconry shows, etc.), understanding their technical, emotional, and commercial aspects
- Critically examine the popularity of medieval imagery in the contemporary world based on its economic, political-ideological, identity-related, artistic, and heritage implications
Prerequisites
In order to be able to understand and to know to tackle the course, particular prerequisites are not requested.
Teaching methods
Learning history of theatre from ancient Greeks to nowadays.
Other information
International and Erasmus students are invited to take the course. Readings and other course materials are also allowed in English or French or German or Spanish; oral exams may be taken in English or German or French or Spanish.
Learning verification modality
Oral exam. The Exam includes only the final oral test consisting of a discussion-interview on the topics discussed during the course and examined in-depth through recommended texts. The test aims at assuring the level of knowledge and understanding, as well as synthesis, achieved by the student. Moreover, this interview will verify that the student is able to communicate, with method, propriety of Language and of exposure, what he has acquired. The duration of the test varies depending on the performance of the test itself and begins, as a rule, with a subject of the student's choice in order to put him at ease.
Extended program
The course consists of 2 parts (each one of 36 hours): 1. History of Theatre from Vth century b.C. till nowadays, through plays and theatrical buildings; 2. History of theater and performance from the Middle Ages to the present, with a specific focus on the theme “From Medieval Theater to the Middle Ages on the Contemporary Stage and in Public Spaces.” The course will analyze a range of stage and scenographic devices, medieval theatrical texts, and the traces of medieval theater in contemporary performances and public spaces—from adaptations of medieval texts to costumed reenactments, medieval festivals, and other performative forms that reflect the enduring popularity of medieval and medievalist imagery in contemporary theater and public spaces.
Obiettivi Agenda 2030 per lo sviluppo sostenibile
Gender equality