12
Indefinito/Interdisciplinare
UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI "L'ORIENTALE"
Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES
The course aims to provide the tools to learn the basic elements of theatrical language and the specifics of analysis of a theatrical performance. At the end of the training course, the student must demonstrate:
- knowing how to frame the genesis and compositional structure of the potential dramaturgical work examined (acts, scenes, stage directions, characters, setting, succession and development of scenic actions);
- knowing how to identify the operational solutions adopted for the staging;
- being able to relate the dramaturgical text and its spectacular realization.
The course has its own suitable place in the educational offer of the three-year Degree Courses in Languages, Literatures and Cultures of Europe and the Americas (EA) and in Comparative Languages and Cultures (CP), because the History of Theatre is a field of study that offers a wide and articulated range of works and artistic productions, of different cultural connotations, to be analyzed in an interdisciplinary perspective.
ABILITY TO APPLY KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
Starting from the topics illustrated, and having learned the specific methods of how to approach the analysis of a theatrical performance, those who will attend the seminar will have to demonstrate that they know how to recognize the mechanisms that regulate the construction of a stage performance.
FURTHER EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES
Autonomy of judgment:
The student must be able to independently elaborate a discourse on the aspects characterizing the structure of the theatrical representation being analysed.
Communication skills:
The student must be able to use the knowledge acquired during the seminar meetings, demonstrating a mastery of language and an argumentative ability that are adequate to the level of a university study.
Learning ability:
At the end of the course, the student should be able to understand how the language of theater intersects and differentiates itself in relation to other forms of artistic and spectacular expression. An adequate understanding of the mechanisms of scenic writing can enrich the autonomous argumentative skills of the students.
Course Prerequisites
No specific prerequisites are required. However, to better understand the contents of the seminar activity, it is preferable that the student possesses:
- sufficient knowledge of the cultural history and artistic trends of twentieth-century Europe. (important);
- aptitude for critical reasoning (important);
- predisposition to the study of artistic languages (useful).
PREREQUISITES
None
Teaching Methods
The seminar meetings will be conducted with an interactive teaching method, to stimulate students to learn the topics covered.
The presentations of the lessons, prepared with the support of audiovisuals and teaching materials organized with the use of multimedia tools, will be made available to students in a specially created Teams Class of the Seminar.
Assessment Methods
At the end of the seminar activity, the student must produce a short written paper in Italian (between 8,000 and 10,000 characters in length and in Word format) on the topics covered in the various meetings, characterized by objective originality. No later than six months after the end of the training activity, the written paper must be sent to the teacher's email address: psommaiolo@unior.it and will be an integral part of the evaluation for the purpose of recognizing the 2 CFU.
The teacher will issue the student a certificate of attendance at the seminar which must subsequently be recorded for validation of the 2 CFU at the relevant Commission of the Degree Course to which he belongs.
Texts
Textual indications and references to teaching or audiovisual materials, provided by the teacher or available online, will be given during the 6 scheduled meetings.
Contents
Seminar Title: Methodologies for the analysis of theatrical performance.
The training course of the Seminar offered within the Other Training Activities of the EA and CP Degree Courses is aimed at providing those who will participate with the methodological tools to recognize the basic elements of theatrical language. During six meetings, each lasting two hours (for a total of 12 hours overall), scheduled between March and May 2026, useful references will be given based on the show chosen among those scheduled in the 2025-2026 theatrical season, at the Teatro Bellini or at the Teatro Mercadante in Naples. By recovering documentation materials (critical essays, monographic studies, articles, reviews, both in paper and digital format, and iconographic and audiovisual resources) the following aspects will be highlighted:
- the compositional structure of the dramatic text on which the staging was based;
- the profile of the author who created the text, placing it in its historical and cultural context;
- the theatrical work experiences already gained by the director, actors and actresses of the company who curated the stage representation;
- the motivations and strategies on the basis of which the project of the staging under examination was developed.
List of topics:
1. Presentation of the Seminar and didactic organization; the foundations of theatrical language and its expressive dynamics in the transposition from dramatic writing to scenic writing.
2. Analysis of the possible dramatic text object of the staging and historical-critical information on the relative author.
3. Reconstruction of the previous artistic itinerary matured by the director and the members of the company who created the scenic staging.
4. Analysis of other theatrical productions of the director and the company, to identify their peculiar aesthetic imprint also in the new theatrical work brought to the stage.
5. Live viewing at the theater of the chosen show (during the period of the scheduled performances) and meeting/interview with the director and the actors of the theater company.
6. Final discussion on the compositional strategies of the scenic staging object of investigation and on its possible critical interpretations.
Course Language
ITALIAN
More information
For information on how to attend the Seminar, on the period for submitting the request for participation, on the calendar with dates and places of the meetings, check the updated AAF Sheet that will be published on the University website of the EA Degree Course in the AAF 2025-26 section at the address: https://www.unior.it/it/dipartimenti/dipartimento-studi-letterari-linguistici-e-comparati/offerta-formativa/altre-1