The editorial board of this journal (Mirella Schino, Matteo Casari, Raffaella Di Tizio, Doriana Legge, Samantha Marenzi, Francesca Romana Rietti, Aldo Roma, Gabriele Sofia, Giulia Taddeo) constitutes a permanent research group. Its work, which invariably involves scholars and collaborators from outside the editorial board, has given rise both to the journal’s various thematic dossiers and to long-term research projects whose activities extend beyond the journal itself. These include, in particular:
Italy, Theatre, Fascism Project
The project aims not only to develop a fuller understanding of what took place in Italy during the two decades of Fascist rule, but also to investigate a period of profound transformation whose consequences—still not entirely understood—proved decisive for Italian theatre, both in practice and, perhaps, in theory, particularly with regard to the emergence of modern Italian stage directing. The research group also extends its investigations to the years immediately preceding and following the Fascist period.
Themes of particular interest explored over the course of the project have included the position of women in the theatre; the relationship between so-called “minor” and “major” theatre; and the influence of the great European theatre masters.
The project began in 2007. In addition to members of the editorial board (Mirella Schino, Raffaella Di Tizio, Doriana Legge, Samantha Marenzi, Gabriele Sofia, Valentina Venturini), participants over the years have included Carla Arduini, Giulia Castellani, Rosalba De Amicis, Eleonora Egizi, Patricia Gaborik, Fabrizio Pompei, Francesca Ponzetti, Andrea Scappa, Giulia Taddeo, and Noemi Tiberio.
For the results of the project, see in particular issues 29 and 38 of Teatro e Storia, as well as the “Materials” section of this website.
Group Theatre Project
Launched in 2002, the project focuses on the study of different forms and examples of group theatre, the distinctive Italian context of the 1970s, and the contemporary situation.
Alongside members of the editorial board (Mirella Schino, Raffaella Di Tizio, Doriana Legge, Samantha Marenzi, Francesca Romana Rietti, Gabriele Sofia), contributors to the project over the years have included Eugenio Barba, Tiziana Barbiero, Mario Barzaghi, Luigia Calcaterra, Patrick Campbell, Beppe Chierichetti, Marco De Marinis, Peter Elsass, Alberto Grilli, Raimondo Guarino, Lluís Masgrau, Stefania Menchini, Franco Pasi, Gianandrea Piccioli, Jean-Marie Pradier, Iben Nagel Rasmussen, Miguel Rubio, Franco Ruffini, Caterina Scotti, Luca Vonella, Ferdinando Taviani, Jane Turner, Renzo Vescovi, Susanna Vincenzetto, and Simona Zanini.
For the results of the project, see in particular issues 24, 25, 35, 40, and 41 of Teatro e Storia.
Towards an Anti-Handbook of Theatre
In 2012, the project led to the establishment of an inter-university research group (Roma Tre University, Sapienza University of Rome, and the University of L’Aquila) devoted to the methodologies, sources, and perspectives of theatre history.
The group organised an annual series of seminars for the doctoral programmes of Roma Tre and Sapienza, coordinated by Professor Mirella Schino and held at the DAMS programme of Roma Tre University. The seminars, or “Lectures towards an Anti-Handbook”, were conceived for audiences with different backgrounds and levels of expertise—undergraduate and Master’s students, doctoral candidates, recent PhD graduates, university lecturers, scholars, theatre practitioners, and interested members of the public. Their format centred on discussion: beginning with the proposed topic, each meeting actively involved both audience members and fellow scholars in questioning and problematising the subject under consideration.
Over the years, the seminars addressed a wide range of subjects, placing at the centre of discussion events, books, and periods in theatre history, as well as sources and documents of different kinds, individual and collective research projects, and the challenges involved in translating research into writing.
The seminar series held between 2012 and 2022 comprised: “Five Faces of Theatre” (October–December 2012); “Five Examples of Theatrical Reinvention” (November–December 2013); “Books on Theatre” (November 2014); “Between Letters and Theatre” (November 2015); “Theatres under Fascism” (October 2017); and “Three Books in the Making” (May 2022).
Coordinated by Mirella Schino, the group has over the years engaged with a range of interlocutors and invited guests, including Chiara Crupi, Patricia Gaborik, Raimondo Guarino, Donatella Orecchia, Aldo Roma, Franco Ruffini, Andrea Scappa, Giulia Taddeo, and Ferdinando Taviani, who proposed the title for these meetings. Its core membership consists of Raffaella Di Tizio, Doriana Legge, Samantha Marenzi, Francesca Romana Rietti, and Gabriele Sofia.
Craig Research Workshop
In 2018, Matteo Casari (University of Bologna), Monica Cristini (University of Verona), Samantha Marenzi (Roma Tre University), and Gabriele Sofia (Roma Tre University) established an inter-university research group devoted to Edward Gordon Craig’s journal The Mask. The journal is examined in conjunction with unpublished documents held in the Fonds Edward Gordon Craig at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Gabinetto Scientifico Letterario G. P. Vieusseux, and the British Institute of Florence.
The first results of this research were published in Teatro e Storia in the dossiers “‘The Mask’: Strategies, Battles and Techniques of the ‘Best Theatre Journal in the World’”, which also involved established scholars, early-career researchers, and the curator of the Fonds Edward Gordon Craig at the BnF (no. 40), and “Inside and Outside The Mask: Craig and the Theatre of His Time”, authored by the four project coordinators (no. 41).
Through an analysis of Craig’s correspondence and notebooks, the group has brought to light relationships, collaborations, and working strategies that scholarship has often overlooked or underestimated, while opening new lines of enquiry into specific subjects: Craig’s complex relationship with the production, collection, and reuse of images; his project for a theatre school; his relations with Russia and Japan; the intersections between the idea of stage directing and the culture of the Grande Attore; his knowledge of dance, including its more traditional forms; and the work of those individuals whose often largely invisible contributions made possible the publication of this long-running journal, itself both a laboratory and an instrument in Craig’s campaign for the theatre of the future.
Individually, members of the group have published monographs and essays on Craig and presented papers at international conferences and seminars, frequently adopting multi-author formats and combining the dissemination of their research findings with reflection on the methods and practices of collaborative research. Further outcomes of the project are currently in preparation for publication.