Dramatic Arts

In this course, students develop their analytical and research skills, learning to work with physical and digital archives, objects, and performance ephemera and how to examine less tangible impacts of performance on history. Students develop more critical awareness of both the material and cultural traces of performance and their significance in both social and theatrical terms. In addition to the core learning objectives, this course develops historical awareness through case studies spanning three centuries of British theatre history; advance research skills by introducing students to a range of primary texts, material objects and secondary sources; and develop collaborative working skills.

Art museums are increasingly programming performance and live art events. At the same time, visual artists are looking to the theatre for aesthetics and forms to incorporate into their work. This seminar uncovers points of connection between performance and the visual arts, looking at key moments in the history of relations between these forms and giving particular attention to the current rise of theatrical aesthetics in contemporary arts practice. Through the Department’s three-year partnership with Tate Exchange, students have the opportunity to work in Tate Modern and to explore performance in the context of the art gallery. Students respond to the work of a range of contemporary artists – indicatively Pablo Bronstein, Boris Charmatz, Tacita Dean, Trisha Donnelly, Tim Etchells, Tino Sehgal and others. Working through creative examples, this course raises big questions about performance, theatricality, curation, participation, and museum practice. 

This course engages with practical and theoretical questions of theater and performance as social practices. By focusing on various theatrical outputs and their reception, paying particular attention to history, politics, national identity, justice and collective memory, this course showcases the importance played by theater practitioners, performers and playwrights in Latin America in terms of validating stories from subaltern groups, including indigenous communities, in relation to power.

2 years of university-level Spanish (or B1 level) is required in order to take this course.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. This advanced course provides students with the ability to: acquire basic critical and methodological tools for the study of works and authors linked in an interdisciplinary sense to the philosophies of theatre and to the theories of representation, in an intercultural context; acquire advanced knowledge of the main historiographic, critical, and aesthetic perspectives of theatre studies in the contemporary international scene, also thanks to the analysis and collective discussion of works that are paradigmatically susceptible to a philosophical reading; arrive at a complete overview of the aesthetics and theories of theatre whose area of application includes both past theatre works and contemporary performances. In terms of skills, this knowledge provides the student with analytical and philosophical-aesthetic tools that enable him/her to inscribe past and present performances in a wide and conscious framework of meaning, within a polyphonic history of scenic culture marked by systemic continuities and paradigm shifts.

The course begins with a reflection on some fundamental philosophical ideas within the symbolic grammar of the theatrical event, namely space, time, body, and voice. These concepts are connected to corresponding theatrical experiences—not as mere illustrations or examples, but as scenic moments inherently full of meaning—belonging to different historical and cultural periods. In the second part of the course, the focus shifts to the actor and the complex relationship between person and character. To explore this relationship, attention is given to mimesis as both a process of identification and imitation. To ground these theoretical considerations in specific practices, Diderot’s Paradox of the Actor is read and analyzed, situating this work within the context of 18th-century French theatre. The final lessons of the module are devoted to experimenting with individual and collective critical-philosophical writing exercises. These exercises are related to performances that students will have attended during the course period, either live or via video.

This course aims to develop the efficient and creative use of the body and voice, through a process of disinhibition, imagination, improvisation and dramatization, allowing the student to improve their body awareness and access through artistic language diverse possibilities of creative expression, which give rise to a common language and which become a sample of collective expression, addressing the topics of interest to the participants.

This foundation level course introduces the history, genres, aesthetics, practice and relevance of live and performance art along with interaction strategies that facilitate engagement with audiences or augment the performer’s capabilities. This course discusses how art can influence society, the art world and politics through enactments and cross-media interventions in public spaces. Students develop critical and artistic skills to frame live and performance art as a reference for their own practice and gain exposure to technical skills, including interactive media technologies, spatial and site-specific awareness and engineering interactivity through the lens of live and performance art methods. Students apply their knowledge in the creation, development, presentation and documentation of an original interactive or participative performance work. For this project, efficient use of technical resources leads to a deeper understanding of media authoring approaches found in electronic and interactive technologies. This learning forms a foundation for further studies in interactive media, interaction design, exhibit design and product design.

The objectives of this course are:

- Conduct a theoretical and practical study of contemporary stage languages, based on the concepts of theatricality and performativity and the dialogue with other artistic languages.
- Expand the ability to perceive the expressive and descriptive elements that make up the stage, through practical experimentation with the relationship between these elements in the body and space.
- Discuss the different theoretical views of the stage, from the modern advent of staging to the break with the canons of Eurocentric Western art, undertaken through decolonial theatrical experiences.
- Analyze the creative processes, stage creation methods, and aesthetic proposals of artists from the contemporary Brazilian stage, critically reflecting on different conceptions of theatrical and performative scenes.
- Encourage the creation of scenes that point to new possibilities for artistic dialogue with the contemporary world.
- Develop practical stage work based on the materiality of the elements that make up the space-time of the stage and their relationships. 

This course uses case studies, theoretical readings, discussions, and seminars. Students participate in stage writing work based on the reinterprettation of textual materials selected from various sources and with a common theme. 

The course explores how drama, theatre, and performance reflect and effect social change. Students think about the relationship of the individual and the community in relation to wider social or institutional structures. The course brings together historical perspectives about drama, theatre, and performance and urgent issues in the present. Key skills students gain include working with theatre texts, historical understanding, and critical analysis about social and cultural change.