The Itinerant University of Theatre is an attempt to respond to certain changes that have occurred in the field of theatre culture.
1) First of all, the change in the places where it is developed: traditional places (universities, specialised magazines, publicly-run theatres, institutionalised cultural associations) have been joined and often replaced by research centres, workshops, small ‘institutes’ born from the initiative of small groups of people, often theatre groups. In this apparently disordered reality, a network of exchanges of experiences and pedagogical activities has taken shape over the past few years, the value and consequences of which are difficult to assess. It has been called a veritable underground school of theatre. But this practical school has not been accompanied by equivalent work on the historical and theoretical knowledge of theatre.
2) The demand for cultural information on theatre has also increased rapidly in recent years. This is demonstrated by cycles of meetings and lectures and debates that are organised by non-institutional groups and are aimed at an audience that is not the traditional lecture audience. The changing audience seems to require a different way of organising these cycles of meetings. Instead, they seem forced to re-propose the schemes in which they are traditionally organised, either by chapters on the 20th century, or on the actor, or on topics such as dramaturgy and criticism.
3) Some theatre critics and scholars in recent years have chosen the path of ‘participatory observation’ of theatre work, overcoming the detachment that traditionally divides those who make theatre from those who reflect on theatre. However, this changed attitude has not yet come to identify the way in which the theatre critic and scholar can convey the contents of their specific expertise in a new way and to new people.
At the Rovereto Festival, the theme chosen for the session of the Università Itinerante is ‘THE ACTOR AND THE MARIONETTE’.
The works, which will aim to clarify the close relations and subtle suggestions that puppetry entertains and insinuates into the complex reality of the contemporary actor, will be coordinated by Fernando Taviani.
