Actors in the Academies of Early Modern Italy

This workshop considers the role of actors within the academies that proliferated across Italy from c.1500-1650. These spaces were distinctive for their social hybridity and wide-ranging rhetorical and theatrical activities. The aim is to explore the unstable term 'actor' in these milieus: they could include professionals (comici), but also 'semi-professionals' or 'amateurs' of various levels of competence who were involved in different kinds of performances. Of interest are connections between letterati and performers within academy circles (including musicians, singers and artists) – male and female, the impact such connections had on broader literary and rhetorical activities within academies, and the level of documentation of such connections.

This event will be held in English and Italian, in-person and on Zoom. It includes live readings (available later as a recording).

Speakers: Paola Cosentino (Università di Torino), Eric Nicholson (New York University, Florence), Courtney Quaintance (Sapienza, Università di Roma)

Actors: Elia Nichols, Eric Nicholson