ABSTRACT
The analysis of the actor’s work constitutes a problematic issue in critical and academic discourse in France. A leading theatre historian, Martine de Rougemont, had already noted this as early as 1988, when, in La Vie théâtrale au XVIIIe siècle, she wrote: ‘It remains difficult or impossible to define, or even to describe, what actors do on stage’. Whilst describing and analysing a performance that is by definition fleeting lies at the epistemological heart of Italian theatre studies, it must be noted that things are not the same in France: why? To avoid facile simplifications (Italy = the land of the Commedia dell’Arte vs France, the land of the Tragédie classique) and to thoroughly examine the reasons for the scarcity of French studies on actors that go beyond biographical profiles verging on hagiography, one must first acknowledge the numerous recent attempts, over the last decade at least, to reverse this trend. We then trace a sort of genealogy of French theatre studies in the academic sphere but also in the critical-militant sphere. It is above all on this dual origin that we focus, starting from the guiding principles that have emerged from it: in-depth research into the elements that make dramaturgy a field distinct from literary studies (a strand represented by the figure of Jacques Scherer); in-depth research into the languages of directing as the centre of gravity of theatrical practice, in order to account for the totality of the stage event (a strand represented by Bernard Dort).
BIOGRAFIA
Marco Consolini insegna Storia del teatro all’Institut d’Etudes Théâtrales dell’Université Sorbonne Nouvelle. Fra le sue pubblicazioni: M. Chénétier-Alev, M. Consolini, L’arte dell’attore nella stampa e nei periodici illustrati (1750-1980), (Pagina, 2025), M.I. Biggi, M. Consolini, S. Lucet, R. Piana, A. Rykner, M. Zannoni, Il teatro delle Riviste. 1880-2000. I periodici come oggetti e strumenti della storiografia teatrale (Pagina, 2024); “Théâtre Populaire” (1953-1964). Storia di una rivista militante, (Bulzoni, 2002); «Rivolte, utopie e tradizione nel teatro francese», in R. Alonge, G. Davico Bonino, Storia del teatro moderno e contemporaneo, III (Einaudi, 2001). Ha curato inoltre, con Maria Ines Aliverti, Jacques Copeau, Registres VII (Les Années Copiaus. 1925-1929) e VIII (Les dernières batailles. 1929-1949) (Gallimard, 2017-2019) et Roland Barthes, Sul Teatro (Roma, 2002).
Scarica l'articolo