Set the Stage!: Teaching Italian through Theater

✍ Scribed by Nicoletta Marini-Maio (editor); Colleen Ryan-Scheutz (editor)

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 423
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Set the Stage! is a collection of essays on teaching Italian language, literature, and culture through theater.  From theoretical background to course models, this book provides all the resources that teachers and students need to incorporate the rich and abundant Italian theater tradition into the curriculum. 

 

Features of the book include

•  the “Director's Handbook,” a comprehensive guide with detailed instructions for every step of the process, from choosing a text to the final performance,

•  an exclusive interview with Nobel laureate Dario Fo,

•  a foreword by prize-winning author Dacia Maraini.

✦ Table of Contents

Contributors
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Prologue: Theater Performance with American Students
I. Theater in Italian Literature and Culture
CHAPTER 1. Authors, Texts, and Innovat ive Movements: An Overview of the Italian Theatrical Canon
CHAPTER 2. Acting Italian: From the Piazza to the Stage
II. Theater Courses in the Italian Language Curriculum
CHAPTER 3. The Theatrical Workshop in the Italian Curriculum
CHAPTER 4. Creative Connections: The Theater Practicum and the Integration of Language and Literature Study
CHAPTER 5 Theater Texts and Techniques in the High School Classroom
III. Genres, Themes, and Techniques of Italian Theater
CHAPTER 6. Epic Theater, Comic Mode: Understanding Italian Society through the Works of Dario Fo and Franca Rame
CHAPTER 7. Commedia dell’Arte’s Techniques: Theater Research and Italian Language Interplay
CHAPTER 8. Opera as Theme, Opera as Theater: A Content-Based Approach to the Teaching of Italian Language and Culture
IV. Methods and Assessment in Italian Theater Workshops
CHAPTER 9. Full -Scale Play Production: Filling the “Empty Space” between Language and Literature with Fo and Pirandello
CHAPTER 10. Community, Culture, and Body Language: Staging the Female Voice in the Italian Drama Workshop
CHAPTER 11. Proficiency and Performance: Assessing Learner Progress in the Italian Theater Workshop
V. Director’s Handbook
Text Selection: A Few Criteria
Financial Resources, Publicity, and Community
The Italian Drama Workshop in Three Acts
Training the Body, Coaching the Mind: Preliminary Acting Exercises
Monologue/Monodrama Projects
English Translations and Surtitles for the Public Performance: Rationale and Practicalities
“It’s Showtime!” A Concise Guide to Italian Theater Production for New Directors
Appendix A: Sample Course Syllabus
Appendix B: Documents to Distribute at Auditions
Appendix C: Sample French Scene Breakdown
Afterword: An Interview with Dario Fo and Franca Rame. Thoughts on Theater, Engagement, and the Comic. Examples for a New Pedagogy
Index