Thesis title: Teatri Nazionali e Fondo Unico per lo Spettacolo. Criteri di assegnazione del finanziamento pubblico e trasformazione della produzione artistica (2012-2023)
This study examines the structural and operational transformations in the artistic output of Italy's National Theatres and of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano over the decade 2012–2023, set against the reform of the state funding policies governing the Fondo Unico per lo Spettacolo (more recently renamed Fondo Nazionale per lo Spettacolo dal Vivo). The shift originates in Decree-Law no. 91 of 8 August 2013, known as Valore Cultura, which introduced a new methodology for assessing the allocation of state support. The previous mode of evaluation, purely qualitative and therefore discretionary, was replaced from 2015 onward by a structured model resting on predominantly quantitative and comparative criteria.
The hypothesis is that these changes encouraged a quantitative expansion of theatrical output, with consequences for artistic quality, for the lifespan of productions, and for the working conditions of technical and artistic personnel.
These phenomena are read through a theoretical framework organised along three axes. The historical-economic and anthropological axis reconstructs the distinctive features of live performance production and frames theatre as a community of craft knowledge and a living form of intangible cultural heritage. The managerial axis supplies the tools for analysing the relationship between funder and funded: principal-agent theory, accountability, and the structural limits of performance evaluation in the cultural field. The regulatory axis proceeds from the constitutional grounds for public intervention to a comparison of the decrees that redefined its criteria between 2007 and 2024.
The study draws on the annual reports submitted by the theatres to the Ministry of Culture to account for the activity funded through the FUS — a non-public source here ordered, for the first time, into a continuous series.
The findings show how competition for access to funding intensified the fragmentation of performance activity: more titles, each with a shorter stage life, lighter productions, and reduced touring. The research contributes to a critical reflection on contemporary public cultural policy, advocating an integrated approach that holds the criteria of efficiency and transparency together with the intrinsic value and the complexity of the theatrical creative process.