Performer vs. Actor?: Grotowski and the Tradition of Italian Theatre
Abstract
This article is devoted to the provocative proposal of a plausible relationship between Grotowski’s last season (above all his idea of the Performer) and a certain tradition of the Italian actor’s theatre. We understand this relationship and this provocation essentially in terms of micro-theatricality and intra-theatricality. By intra-theatricality we mean that method of composition which is inscribed in the tranches de vie of layered, multi-generational actors, in their ability to reuse existential sequences and to reproduce on stage the complex relational routine that the company represents as a community. Apart from the fact that the distance between the twentieth-century Performer and the traditional Italian actor has often been emphasized, there is something in the traditional profile of the Italian actor that, in the mid-twentieth century, paradoxically coincides with the mission that Grotowski assigns to the Performer. The purpose of this article is to explore these analogies.
Keywords:
Jerzy Grotowski, Italian theatre, actor, intra-theatricalityReferences
Attisani, Antonio, and Marco Dotti, eds. Bene crudele: Cattivario di Carmelo Bene. Viterbo: Stampa Alternativa, 2004.
Google Scholar
D’Amico, Silvio. Tramonto del Grande Attore. Firenze: La Casa Usher, 1985.
Google Scholar
De Marinis, Marco. “La Duse, il nuovo teatro italiano e il degrado attuale dell’arte attorica.” In Voci e anime, corpi e scritture, edited by Maria Ida Biggi, 376–380. Roma: Bulzoni, 2009.
Google Scholar
De Marinis, Marco. “Leo De Berardinis e il Novecento teatrale: Qualche ipotesi storiografica.” Culture Teatrali, no. 28 (2019): 30–42.
Google Scholar
De Marinis, Marco. Il teatro dopo l’età dell’oro: Novecento e oltre. Roma: Bulzoni, 2013.
Google Scholar
Grotowski, Jerzy. “Dalla compagnia teatrale all’arte come veicolo.” Translated by Carla Pollastrelli. In Opere e sentieri. Volume 2, Testi 1968–1998. Edited by Antonio Attisani and Mario Biagini. Roma: Bulzoni, 2007.
Google Scholar
Grotowski, Jerzy. “Performer.” Translated by Thomas Richards. In The Grotowski Sourcebook, edited by Lisa Wolford and Richard Schechner, 376–380. London: Routledge, 1997.
Google Scholar
Grotowski, Jerzy. Toward a Poor Theatre. Edited by Eugenio Barba. New York: Routledge, 2002.
Google Scholar
Mango, Lorenzo. “Studiare la recitazione nell’epoca delle avanguardie: Alcune questioni metodologiche.” Acting Archives Review 5, no. 9 (2015): 19–58.
Google Scholar
Meldolesi, Claudio. Fra Totò e Gadd: Sei invenzioni sprecate dal teatro italiano. Roma: Bulzoni, 1987.
Google Scholar
Meldolesi, Claudio. Pensare l’attore. Roma: Bulzoni, 2013.
Google Scholar
Meldolesi, Claudio. “Questo strano teatro creato dagli attori artisti nel tempo della regia, che ha rigenerato l’avanguardia storica insieme al popolare: Come un editoriale.” Teatro e Storia 11, no. 18 (1996): 9–23.
Google Scholar
Meldolesi, Claudio, ed., La terza vita di Leo: Gli ultimi vent’anni del teatro di Leo De Berardinis a Bologna. Corazzano: Tivillus, 2010.
Google Scholar
Pavis, Patrice. “Performer.” In Dictionary of the Theatre: Terms, Concepts, and Analysis, translated by Christine Shantz, 261–262. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442673908
Google Scholar
Personè, Luigi Maria. Fedelissima della Duse: Scritti di Enif Angiolini Robert. Prato: Società pratese di storia patria, 1988.
Google Scholar
Petrolini, Ettore. Un po’ per celia, un po’ per non morir. . . Roma: Newton, 1993.
Google Scholar
Schechner, Richard. Between Theatre and Anthropology. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985.
Google Scholar
Schino, Mirella. Racconti del Grande Attore: Tra la Rachel e la Duse. Imola: Cue Press, 2016.
Google Scholar
Tofano, Sergio. Il teatro all’antica italiana. Milano: Adelphi, 2017.
Google Scholar
Tomasello, Dario. La drammaturgia italiana contemporanea: Da Pirandello al futuro. Roma: Carocci, 2016.
Google Scholar
Turner, Victor. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Chicago: Aldine Publishing, 1969.
Google Scholar
Authors
Dario TomaselloUniversità degli Studi di Messina Italy
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8625-7485
Dario Tomasello - Full Professor of Theatre History and Performance Studies at the University of Messina, where he coordinates the DAMS degree (founded there in 2007) and directs the International Centre for Studies on the Performativity of the Arts and Social Imaginaries (UNIVERSITEATRALI, founded in 2010). His research interests are mainly in the field of performance studies and the dramaturgy of actors.
Statistics
Abstract views: 39PDF downloads: 12
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Dario Tomasello
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The author grants a royalty-free nonexclusive license (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Pamiętnik Teatralny, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in Pamiętnik Teatralny should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). By submitting an article the author agrees to make it available under CC BY 4.0 license.
From issue 1/2018 to 3/2022 all articles were published under a Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free nonexclusive license (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in Pamiętnik Teatralny, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
