An Italian Way to Performance Studies

It is a matter of fact that Performance Studies have never been definitively rooted in Italy until recently. However, if the affirmation of an idea goes far beyond what its contingent fortune may have revealed, it will not be difficult to see how Richard Schechner's theses are intended, in any case, to leave a profound mark. The real turning point would perhaps be found in a daring gap that leads from a narrow exploration of the merely spectacular phenomena to a wider fieldwork destined not to obviously exclude the artistic fact, but to frame it in a more effective strategy. Schechner discusses the difference between "is" and "as" in performance and demonstrates precisely what makes PS, in some respects, still a “stranger” in the Italian academic debate. The idea that practically "anything can be studied as performance", perhaps frightens the prevailing Italian academic orientation. The idea that the field of Performance Studies opens a panorama so wide as to be disorienting and, after all, no longer fully attributable to the limited and therefore more recognizable framework of what "is" performance, feeds quite a bit of skepticism. On the other hand, taking the Italian point of view as a privileged point for a discussion on PS undoubtedly means tackling the theme of the crucial presence of Grotowski in Italy.This means facing the question of intertwining intolerance of theatre, mainly if it is conceived as a mere show. It is what occurs in the Italian actor tradition where, well before Grotowski came to Italy. It seems to be the best opportunity in theater especially when there is no show, when there is no spectator. Then the greatest professional satisfaction is a result of the intimacy of the actor with himself or, at most, with his companions, engaged in an intimate debate, only reserved for those happy few who can really participate. But this, far from bringing closure, may lay claim to a new place into reality. This is what I called “intra-theatrical strategy”. This is a compositional method inscribed in tranches de vie of stratified, multiple generations of actors, in their ability to reuse existential scores. This retraces, by a stage projection, the intricate relational plot that the company as a clan has summarized, ever since the invention of “Commedia dell’ Arte” in the XVI century. This “intra-theatrical strategy” organizes one's own poetics starting from the internal relationship within the so-called “actors’ micro-society” in which traditional family relationships also take on a connotative importance for the formulation of drama.The Italian actor, the actor par excellence, has always lived as if suspended inside and outside society. Claudio Meldolesi once said, taking up a previous intuition from Taviani: «[…]  the actor could be as he has been because of his micro-society, half external, half within the ordinary man’s society» .It is no surprise to find out how this idea returns with a resounding political value as discussed by Schechner, who points out its never-ending trust in the notion of artistic avant-garde, but in an original sense. Schechner talks precisely about theatrical artists, the performers, and the innate sense of community that characterizes them, about a "new third world". As we will see this is nothing new to a certain perspective of the Italian theatrical tradition.   

Dario Tomasello is Associate Professor at the University of Messina where he is the President of DAMS and directs the International Center for Performing Arts.He directed a Master in Euro-Mediterranean Theatre at the University of Messina (2007-2009).His current research interests concern Performance Studies, regarding Ritual in traditional and contemporary cultures.He is the editor of the open access review: «Mantichora. Italian Journal of Performance Studies»He translated and edited Richard Schechner’s Performance Studies: An Introduction (Cue Press, Imola, 2018).