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Winter 2002
This information effective for Winter 2002.
Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.
Instructor: Professor Pina Piccolo
TTH 12:00-1:45 p.m.
Soc Sci 1 153
Authors include Nobel Prize winners Luigi Pirandello (1934) and Dario Fo (1997), and Eduardo De Filippo. Topics: relation of modern theater’s innovative forms to medieval street performance and early modern “commedia dell’arte;” theme of the inversion of “reason” and “madness” as instrument of social critique; modern dramatic theory, feminism and its expression on the stage through the works of Franca Rame and Dacia Maraini; the impact of immigration and issues of race through the work of Martinelli and younger playwrights. Attention will be paid to the non-textual elements of the theater, particularly to the importance of the “teatro di regia,” and theater groups like “Falso Movimento” (False Moviment). Weekly assorted film clips and slides; videos of entire theatrical productions (stage, TV, and cinema).
Week I. Course Overview.
Examination of metaphor of “reason and madness” to highlight features
and functions of Italian Theater. Discussion of relationship of Italian theatrical
forms to social and cultural 20th century history. Video clips. Selected readings
from course reader.
Week II. Late 19th and early 20th century theater
The tradition of the “grande attore” and discussion of stars and production
methods of late 19th century theater; Eleonora Duse and Gabriele D’Annunzio:
Decadentism in the theater (excerpts from D’Annunzio’s A Spring
Morning’s Dream). Scientific discoveries and their impact on the arts.
Readings: Luigi Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author.
Week III. Luigi Pirandello
Pirandello’s place in the modernist tradition. Relationship to the visual
arts. Futurism; film clips from Kaos and Traviani brothers. Readings: Pirandello’s
short stories; essay from reader, including Peter Szondi’s, “A Theory
of Modern Theater.”
Week IV. Luigi Pirandello
Readings: Pirandello: Henry IV; videos of Marco Bellocchio’s film
version and of various play productions. Theories of staging Pirandello. Readings
on forms of popular theater.
Week V. Theater of the 30s and 40s
Discussion of political context and Fascism; Neapolitan theater. Reading: Eduardo
De Filippo, Filumena Marturano.
Week VI. De Filippo
De Filippo’s moral vision; themes of reason and madness. Video of performance
by De Filippo and Regina Bianchi. Readings: essays by Mario Mignone (from Eduardo
De Filippo (1984), and from Eric Bentley, “Son of Pulcinella,”
in In Search of Theater.
Week VII. “Teatro di Regia” (Director’s or “Auteur”
Theater)
Lecture and slide presentations on “teatro di regia;” works by Visconti,
Strehler and Pandolfi. Excerpts from Ugo Betti’s play Corruption in
the Palace of Justice, and Alberto Savinio’s, The Departure of the
Argonaut.
Week VIII. Dario Fo and Franca Rame
Introduction to their works; video clips from recent “FoFest” performances;
Reading: Dario Fo, Accidental Death of an Anarchist. Political theater
and its historical context
Week IX. Dario Fo and Franca Rame
Excerpts from Dario Fo, Mistero Buffo, Lecture on Feminist theater movements.
Excerpts from Franca Rame’s Adult Orgasm Escapes from the Zoo and
from Dacia Maraini’s Veronica Franco, Prostitute and Writer.
Week X. Experimental Theater of 70s and 80s
Lecture on the work of Carmelo Bene, Ronconi, Santanelli, Ruccello. Theater
in the 90s. Reflections of a changing society. Theater and immigration. Reading:
Gabriele Martinelli, An African Harlequin. Conclusion.
Texts:
Luigi Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author
Luigi Pirandello, Henry IV
Eduardo De Filippo, Filumena Marturano
Dario Fo, Accidental Death of an Anarchist
Dario Fo, Mistero Buffo
Franca Rame and Dario Fo, Adult Orgasm Escapes from the Zoo
Gabriele Martinell, An African Harlequin
Course reader: stories by Pirandello; essays by De Filippo, Fo, Martinelli;
critical articles on Italian theater, politics, culture; literary and cultural
manifestoes; essays on theory and practice of theatrical production; excerpts
from selected contemporary theater pieces.