Performing Italy - Body, Voice and Politics: a Journey within Italian Theatre

Catalog description

How does performance comment on, interact with, and influence society? And to what extent is this question culturally specific? Performing Italy focuses on Nobel-prize-winner Dario Fo, Franca Rame, Commedia dell’Arte, and Teatro di Narrazione. Engaging with theatrical materials, we will conduct comparative work driven by the students’ own experiences and explore how Italian theater intervened in historical and political discourses within Italian society between the 1960s and the 2000s. Topics will include: the years of lead (1970s terrorism); the influence of the Catholic church on Italian society; the Italian State and organized crime; gender and sexuality in modern Italian society.