Contro il teatro sociale

In 1988 Armando Punzo, director, playwright and actor, entered the gates of the prison of Volterra to establish Compagnia Della Fortezza, today’s first and most famous theatre experience inside a penitentiary institution. It took thirty years to transform the prison into the avant-garde artistic res...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Rossella Menna
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Accademia University Press 2022-12-01
Series:Mimesis Journal
Online Access:http://journals.openedition.org/mimesis/2592
_version_ 1811167963545337856
author Rossella Menna
author_facet Rossella Menna
author_sort Rossella Menna
collection DOAJ
description In 1988 Armando Punzo, director, playwright and actor, entered the gates of the prison of Volterra to establish Compagnia Della Fortezza, today’s first and most famous theatre experience inside a penitentiary institution. It took thirty years to transform the prison into the avant-garde artistic research center of today. With its work the Compagnia Della Fortezza has inspired hundreds of art-based activities inside Italian and European correction facilities thus contributing to the spread of an exemplary practice both from the social and political standpoints. On the other hand, while not intending to, it has also engendered a widespread belief that there is a kind of theatre that can be labeled “prison theatre”, indicating that common characteristics are found and shared by the various experiences. Retracing the history of the Compagnia Della Fortezza and the studies dedicated to it, this paper aims to show the reasons why the categories of “social theatre” and “prison theatre” are inadequate to investigate the stylistic, formal, and pedagogical characteristics of this specific experience and, moreover, to demonstrate that the important results obtained on the social and political fronts are precisely the result of a project that has always been purely artistic.
first_indexed 2024-04-10T16:18:02Z
format Article
id doaj.art-574cc7e00e374603a2bd5961d2d26e8e
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2279-7203
language English
last_indexed 2024-04-10T16:18:02Z
publishDate 2022-12-01
publisher Accademia University Press
record_format Article
series Mimesis Journal
spelling doaj.art-574cc7e00e374603a2bd5961d2d26e8e2023-02-09T16:26:15ZengAccademia University PressMimesis Journal2279-72032022-12-0111210512210.4000/mimesis.2592Contro il teatro socialeRossella MennaIn 1988 Armando Punzo, director, playwright and actor, entered the gates of the prison of Volterra to establish Compagnia Della Fortezza, today’s first and most famous theatre experience inside a penitentiary institution. It took thirty years to transform the prison into the avant-garde artistic research center of today. With its work the Compagnia Della Fortezza has inspired hundreds of art-based activities inside Italian and European correction facilities thus contributing to the spread of an exemplary practice both from the social and political standpoints. On the other hand, while not intending to, it has also engendered a widespread belief that there is a kind of theatre that can be labeled “prison theatre”, indicating that common characteristics are found and shared by the various experiences. Retracing the history of the Compagnia Della Fortezza and the studies dedicated to it, this paper aims to show the reasons why the categories of “social theatre” and “prison theatre” are inadequate to investigate the stylistic, formal, and pedagogical characteristics of this specific experience and, moreover, to demonstrate that the important results obtained on the social and political fronts are precisely the result of a project that has always been purely artistic.http://journals.openedition.org/mimesis/2592
spellingShingle Rossella Menna
Contro il teatro sociale
Mimesis Journal
title Contro il teatro sociale
title_full Contro il teatro sociale
title_fullStr Contro il teatro sociale
title_full_unstemmed Contro il teatro sociale
title_short Contro il teatro sociale
title_sort contro il teatro sociale
url http://journals.openedition.org/mimesis/2592
work_keys_str_mv AT rossellamenna controilteatrosociale