Actors and Censorship in the Italian theatrical tradition

The nineteenth-century Italian theatrical system was run by capocomici (leading-manager actors) who were also the extraordinary interpreters of the Italian acting method of the drammatica. The system as well as the declamatory acting method was gradually expunged from theatre training in the early twentieth century. The paper will explore the reasons why the official disappearance of the drammatica from the National Theatrical Academies coincided with the dismantlement of democracy in Italy and how the method, though it was censored, continued to be thought by actor to actor.