• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Sixteen Years of the Piccolo Teatro
  • Contributor: Grassi, Paolo; Strehler, Giorgio
  • imprint: JSTOR, 1964
  • Published in: The Tulane Drama Review
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.2307/1124713
  • ISSN: 0886-800X; 2326-2044
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: <jats:p>The Piccolo Teatro of the city of Milan, now entering its seventeenth year, represents both the result of a historical movement for the renewal of the Italian theatre and an entirely new phenomenon whose methods and orientations have served as a model for many similar organizations. Historical precedents can be found in the sustained efforts of persons like Eduardo Boutet, Eleonora Duse, Luigi Pirandello, and Silvio D'Amico; it was they who encouraged the Italian theatre to organize in permanent companies and to improve its technical and aesthetic levels, thus putting it on a par with the theatres of leading foreign countries.</jats:p><jats:p>When the Piccolo Teatro began in 1947, the Italian theatre was characterized by two traditions: the star, and the traveling company. Throughout Europe the day of the great director (Stanislavski, Reinhardt, Copeau, etc.) had ended; but in Italy it had not yet begun.</jats:p>