Seminar by Aldo Roma
26 marzo 2025 ore 16:00, Aula Seminari e tesi, Ex-vetrerie Sciarra, via dei Volsci 122
Ciclo “Teatro Performance Danza. Storia Visioni Memoria Ricerca” - IV Edizione
The archives related to the performing arts are frequently characterized by a distinctive polymorphism, primarily resulting from the wide array of document types they house, the diverse range of entities and individuals responsible for their creation, and the heterogeneous nature of the institutional profiles that now safeguard them (museums, archives, libraries). This is currently at the center of a vigorous debate engaging both institutional bodies and academic circles in the search for precise definitions and the re-evaluation of their analytical and operational tools. For over twenty years, specialized literature—primarily from the anglophone and francophone spheres—has explored new terminologies (such as invented archives, participatory archives, and living archives) to account for archival phenomena, including those related to live performance, which emerge from operational practices that subvert the traditional dynamics of document production, use, accumulation, and preservation underlying the conventional concept of an “archive.”
Consequently, the cultivation of an archival consciousness becomes crucial—not only for framing the contexts of document production, use, and preservation to enable nuanced interpretation, but also for informing the contribution that scholarly research can make toward the design and support of initiatives aimed at protecting and enhancing performance archives.
This seminar aims to provide a forum for dialogue and exchange among current experiences and research endeavors, with the goal of reflecting upon and discussing potential approaches to archives and sources pertaining to the history of performance, as informed by the theoretical principles and methodological challenges of documentary sciences.
Aldo Roma is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Roma Tre University within the 2022 PRIN project Women, theatre, fascism directed by Mirella Schino, and teaches Problems of historiography of theatre and performing arts at the Sapienza University of Rome, where he obtained a PhD in Music and Performing Arts in 2016 and a postgraduate diploma at the Specialisation School in Archive and Library Heritage in 2023. He has held fellowships, grants and research contracts at the University of Amsterdam, the École française de Rome (as part of the ERC PerformArt project directed by Anne-Madeleine Goulet), the Sapienza University of Rome and the Université de Liège (as part of the FNRS project De l’exercice d’un pouvoir culturel. Le mécénat musical des cardinaux protecteurs de couronne à Rome au Seicento directed by Émilie Corswarem). He is on the editorial board of the journals Biblioteca Teatrale (Bulzoni), SigMa. Rivista di letterature comparate, teatro e arti dello spettacolo (Associazione Sigismondo Malatesta - Federico II University Press), Teatro e Storia (Bulzoni) and Il Saggiatore musicale (Leo S. Olschki). His research mainly concerns performing arts between the 16th and 18th centuries, with particular reference to philology, dramaturgy, and the material history of theatre and musical theatre in Rome. He is also interested in the problems of contemporary opera directing, the applied theatre, the theatre of the Italian deaf community, and the protection and enhancement of performing arts archives.