Regia Eretica. Il Novecento teatrale e i suoi doppi book presentation

with Marco De Marinis, Lorenzo Donati,  Raul Iaiza, Silvia Mei, Maria Dolores Pesce, Agata Tomšič

This new book—written by a scholar dear to POLIS and a master of theatrical historiography—presents the most innovative contributions to the creation of a new theatrical culture by some of the great men of the stage: Appia, Craig, Meyerhold, Copeau, Decroux, Beckett, Fo, De Berardinis, Barba, Grotowski, and Rau. These “great heretics” revolutionized corporeal mime and the clown, recovered the ancient chorus and animality, and transformed directing from the mere execution of a script into an investigation of the actor and their relationship with the audience—viewing the performer as an improvising “actor-poet” and a protagonist of the theatre of reality and social theatre.
Twelve chapters that open up worlds and bridges, each ready to spark new independent research and potentially become a new book in its own right.
Twelve “rides” that interweave historiography, sociology, anthropology, and the political and cultural analysis of the performing arts and our present day.
Twelve heresies—origins in the Benjaminian sense of the term—serving as generative vortices of potentially infinite references and reflections.
And “heretics” they are, in turn: the interlocutors of this meeting. At the invitation of the author and POLIS, they seek to explore these vortices in a six-voice dialogue, sharing this sharp new insight into the stage of the heretical masters of the twentieth century.

Marco De Marinis was a Full Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Bologna, where he directed the “La Soffitta” Theatre Centre from 2004 to 2017. In 1999, he founded the journal “Culture Teatrali”. He has taught at numerous foreign universities. He is a member of the scientific team of the ISTA, International School of Theatre Anthropology, directed by Eugenio Barba. Currently, he curates a blog on theatre culture for the online edition of Il Fatto Quotidiano. Among his most recently published works: Etienne Decroux and His Theatre Laboratory; Ripensare il Novecento teatrale, Paesaggi e spaesamenti, Per una politica della performance. Il superamento della rappresentazione.

Lorenzo Donati is a lecturer and critic. At the University of Bologna, he teaches Performing Arts in the Interplay Between Art and Care (Professional Education degree program), Theater Directing Workshop (DAMS), and New Planning Strategies in Performing Arts Promotion and Training (Master’s in Performing Arts Entrepreneurship). He also teaches Theater and Social Training within the Advanced Training Course in Intercultural Artistic Mediation. As a research fellow, he is currently conducting a study on audience participation and engagement in theater (tutor Matteo Casari, Department of the Arts). He focuses his research on the mechanisms of “writing with reality” in the contemporary scene, the relationship between theater and care, and 20th-century Argentine theater. Among his publications are Scrivere con la realtà. Oggetti teatrali non identificati 2000-19 (Cue Press, 2023) and Kepler-452, A Place of Safety. Viaggio nel Mediterraneo centrale. Testo, contesto e materiali di lavoro di un incontro con il Search and Rescue (editor, Sossella, 2025). He is one of the founders of Altre Velocità and co-directs La Falena, the magazine of the Teatro Metastasio in Prato. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Associazione Ubu per Franco Quadri, which organizes the Ubu Awards.

Raúl Iaiza, Argentine, resident in Italy since 1986. A graduate of the Civica Scuola di Musica di Milano, he practiced the musical profession until 1994. He directed Teatro La Madrugada from its foundation until 2010. He was assistant director to Eugenio Barba at Odin Teatret (Denmark) for eleven years (2000/11). Also at Odin Teatret, he developed the pedagogy of Training under the guidance of Torgeir Wethal (2000/10). For ten years, he directed Regula contra Regulam, the Educational project of the Grotowski Institute (Poland), in a pedagogical tandem with various guest masters from all over the world (2007/17). As a director, he has directed productions and co-productions in Italy and throughout the world: Switzerland, Poland, Argentina, South Korea, Romania, Spain, Austria. As a pedagogue, he is active in both theatrical and performative didactics in Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Currently, he holds the chair of Actor Training at the Accademia dei Filodrammatici in Milan; he directs LAUDESI, Performing Arts Research Program. He is the Artistic Director of Regula Teatro. Together with Thomas Richards, Domenico Castaldo, Oliviero Ponte di Pino, and Marco De Marinis, he is the curator of Percorsi Nomadi/Ravvivare la ricerca teatrale nel XXI secolo.

Silvia Mei, Associate Professor of Performing Arts at the University of Bari Aldo Moro. Her historical research focuses on the figure of Yvette Guilbert as both an artist and pedagogue, and on “irregular” performance in fin de siècle Paris. As a scholar of contemporary theater, she examines the languages and forms of the Italian stage between the 20th and 21st centuries. Since 2008, she has been deeply involved with Argentine theater, directing the Italian editions of works by several theater-makers, including Claudio Tolcachir and Rafael Spregelburd. She also specializes in theatrical iconography and photography for the stage. Since 2006, she has conducted audience development programs for various organizations and institutions, including Arena del Sole – ERT Fondazione. She has curated exhibitions and installation paths at the Adiacenze exhibition space (Bologna) and collaborated as a scientific curator for La Soffitta – Center for Theater Promotion at the University of Bologna (2009–2019), as well as the multidisciplinary festival Ipercorpo (Forlì). For Culture Teatrali—the academic journal she has directed since 2022—she edited the monographic issues La terza avanguardia. Ortografie dell’ultima scena italiana (2015) and Donne Teatro Storiografia (2023). In 2018, she published her first monograph: Essere artista. Eleonora Duse e Yvette Guilbert, followed by Drammaturgie dello sguardo, an essay that won the UniFG Research Award 2024 for best research product.

Maria Dolores Pesce, scholar and theater critic, graduated in Aesthetics from DAMS at the University of Bologna with a thesis on the theatrical works of Edoardo Sanguineti. After serving for several years as a voluntary assistant for Luigi Gozzi’s university course (Methodology of Performance Criticism) at the same institution, she was a Contract Professor at the University of Turin from 2006 to 2012, holding the chair of History of Theater within the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy. As a theater scholar, she has published numerous essays in academic journals such as Parol: Quaderni d’arte e di epistemologia, L’immagine Riflessa, the Teatro Akropolis journal, Ariel (from the Institute of Pirandellian Studies), and Studi di estetica (University of Bologna). She has also been invited to deliver keynote speeches at numerous conferences and seminars both in Italy and abroad. In her capacity as a theater critic, she is the Deputy Director of the online magazine Dramma.it and publishes articles and reviews almost daily across the most prominent Italian digital and print publications. She is a member of the editorial board of Sipario and contributes to Hystrio and La Falena. Among the latest publications: Il testo e la scena. Il teatro di Edoardo Erba (The text and the stage. The theatre of Edoardo Erba), for EDITORIA&SPETTACOLO; La vita delle parole. Il teatro di Dacia Maraini (The life of words. The theatre of Dacia Maraini), for EDITORIA&SPETTACOLO; and finally, the co-curatorship of Edoardo Sanguineti’s Macbeth Remix.

Agata Tomšič is an actress, dramaturg, director, artistic director and theorist. Co-founder of ErosAntEros in 2010, she trained from 2005 with several contemporary artists and earned her Master’s degree in Performing Arts from the University of Bologna in 2014, continuing to publish her writings in books and journals, translate and edit publications, and organize and participate in international conferences. With ErosAntEros, she produces multidisciplinary and socially engaged performances with major European theaters (Emilia Romagna Teatro ERT, Slovensko Mladinsko Gledalisce, Théâtre National du Luxembourg, Ravenna Festival, Campania Teatro Festival, Teatro della Toscana, Teatro Piemonte Europa, Teatro Stabile di Bolzano, Teatro della Tosse) and pursues vocal-sound research focused on experimentation with different musicians. Since 2018, she has co-directed POLIS Teatro Festival in Ravenna. Since 2020, she has been an active member of EASTAP – European Association for the Studies of Theatre and Performance. In 2023, she obtained a Level II Professional Master’s degree in Vocal Music and Musical Theatre of the 20th Century and Contemporary Era from the Giuseppe Verdi State Conservatory in Ravenna. As she increasingly establishes herself in artistic and managerial leadership roles, her presence within international projects and networks continues to intensify.