{"id":713,"date":"2019-12-16T19:58:20","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T19:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/?p=713"},"modified":"2023-03-15T11:39:39","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T11:39:39","slug":"italian-theatre-today-not-a-system-and-so-many-transformations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/italian-theatre-today-not-a-system-and-so-many-transformations\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian Theatre Today: Not a System, and so Many Transformations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Roberto Canziani<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Far from being a system, the Italian scene is an agglomeration where historical events, linguistic varieties, places of creation, small and large legislative provisions and artists’ personality shake the theatres and their audiences in an animated chaos. This paper is an account of the various trends and outstanding figures, as well as an account of the economic (financing), juridical (legislation) and sociological (increasing segmentation of the audience) components that determined the course of Italian theatre in the past few seasons.
Keywords:<\/strong> Italian theatre, regia critica, teatro civile, FUS, playwriting in Italy, Italian theatre awards<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Italy is the country of the 1,000 kilometers. This is\nthe distance that separates the municipal theatre in the bilingual city of\nBolzano (between the northern snow-capped Alps) from the Greek theatre of\nSyracuse, in southern Sicily (an open-air theatre a few steps from the Mediterranean\nSea), one of the most beautiful in Magna Graecia<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Italy is also the country of the 1,000 languages.\nItalian history has meant that every region, even every single city, developed\nits own way of speaking. Only television, from the 1950s onwards, has succeeded\nin strengthening a common spoken language, the national standard. But local\ndialects and languages survive everywhere and are practiced briskly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, no surprise that Italy can also count on 1,000\ndifferent theatres and 1,000 different, constantly evolving ways of doing\ntheatre. Far from being a system (like the French or German ones), the Italian\nscene is an agglomeration where historical events, linguistic varieties, places\nof creation, small and large legislative provisions, and outstanding artists\nshake the theatres and their audiences in an animated chaos. It is not always\neasy to analyze the physiognomy of this theatre scene or to observe its\ninternal flows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The horizon on which this paper will be spread is\nshort; less than ten years. In such a limited period, the forces of\ntransformation may appear fast and surprising, but it is likely that they will\nprove less incisive in time. This paper will give an account of what happened\nin the most recent seasons, but it will also be necessary to refer to long-term\nphenomena. The action of economic (financing), juridical (legislation) and\nsociological (increasing segmentation of the audience) components co-determines\nthe transformations of artistic languages and can be appreciated only over a\nlonger period of time. Only such a long-term analysis can take into account the\nadaptation of artists and publics to innovation.[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. From the State to the Theatres<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Our starting point is not an artistic event, but a\nlegislative measure. Signed on July 1, \n2014, and then published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale<\/em> (the official\njournal of the Italian Republic), a major decree gives new shape to the\ncriteria for the assignment of the FUS (Fondo Unico per lo Spettacolo<\/em>,\nthe main economic source with which the Italian State supports theatre, music,\ndance, circus activities and traveling shows).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an institutional and legislative act, but with\nartistic consequences too. In fact: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. it gives (hopefully) lasting rules to theatrical activity, which in Italy has never had a framework law (legge-quadro<\/em>) but only temporary measures (circolari<\/em>), and <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. by virtue of a mathematical algorithm (much discussed, to tell the truth), it creates new criteria, qualitative and quantitative, in the comparative financing that the public administration reserves to the single theatres: those criteria were firm from 1985 (the year of birth of the FUS; more than 30 years ago) and based on the artistic discretion of a commission.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    In this way, the 1 July 2014 decree tends to direct\nand affect new models of creation, production and distribution, given the\ncrucial fact that Italian theatre activities (even those of the so-called \u201cindependent theatre\u201d) depend on the\nFUS and\/or on other parallel public allocations from regional governments,\nwhich are modeled on the FUS criteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The decree was implemented in the three-year period\n2015\u201317, and it is currently applying to the three-year period 2018\u201320. It is\nnot difficult to imagine how some of its determinations (an emphasis on multidisciplinary\nperformances, support for artists under 35 years of age, new rules for national\ntheatres and for those of relevant cultural interest, attention to audience\ndevelopment and education of young performers) are driving forces for the\nchoices that companies and theatres are currently making[2]<\/sup><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Only in 2020, at the end of the second three-year\nperiod, will it be possible to understand whether the decree gave a systemic\ncharacter to the fluidity<\/em> of the Italian theatre scene. However, it is\nclear that other forces are acting at the same time; forces of a markedly\nartistic nature and which have an energy that has accumulated over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2.1. Evolution of Stage Direction<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

    The end of the twentieth century was marked in the Italian theatre by the model of the reg\u00eca critica <\/em>(critical direction). Directors such as Giorgio Strehler (1921\u201397), Luca Ronconi (1933\u20132015) and Massimo Castri (1943-2013) defined a typically Italian model of staging. The regista critico<\/em> was not only the final guarantor of the various components involved in the construction of a show. These directors also took on the role of dramaturg (they applied themselves to the dramatic application of texts), of pedagogue (for the actors) and artistic manager (they directed the most important national theatres, the programmes of which they shaped with their choices). In fact, they also became sort of co-authors, along with the playwrights, of the work being produced. Sometimes they rose above the writer in visibility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This is what happened in some of the last works by Luca Ronconi, before his death, La modestia <\/em>(Modesty<\/em>, 2011) and Il panico <\/em>(Panic<\/em>, 2013), in which the personality of the director captured  the attention of the public much more than the Argentine dramatist Rafael Spregelburd (who was not well known in Italy then). Today, the model of reg\u00eca critica<\/em> is less pervasive, but the artistic charisma of Ronconi and his interest in non-dramatic texts (novels, scientific and economic essays) have left a profound mark on those who have inherited his legacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Video 1<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
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