Episode 159

For today’s guest episode we are going back to the Italian renaissance theatre and the world of the Commedia Dell’arte.  You will remember that I covered the Commedia and other early Italian theatre in season five of the podcast, but in this conversation with Serena Laiena we have much more detail about a particular theatrical couple and the world of 16thcentury Italian theatre.  In her book ‘The Theatre Couple in Early Modern Italy: Self-Fashioning and Mutual Marketing’ Serena looks at the birth of a phenomenon, that of the couple in show business where she focuses on the mutually beneficial promotional strategies devised by two professional performers and husband and wife team, Giovan Battista Andreini and Virginia Ramponi.

Serena Laiena is Assistant Professor in Italian and Ad Astra Fellow at University College Dublin. Her research focuses on early modern Italian theatre, especially commedia dell’arte. Most of her time is devoted to the understanding of the social and cultural role of the first professional actresses in modern history.  The award-winning monograph that is the basis of our discussion today was published in 2023 by the University of Delaware Press.  Currently, she is working on a book-length project focusing on the correspondence by and about professional actresses to bring to light the managing roles they performed within theatre companies.

For more details on Serena's book:

UK link to Amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Theatre-Couple-Early-Modern-Italy-ebook/dp/B0C9F9T6RX/ref=sr_1_1?

US link to Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Theatre-Couple-Early-Modern-Italy/dp/1644533154/ref=sr_1_1?

Link to publisher's website: https://udpress.udel.edu/book-title/the-theatre-couple-in-early-modern-italy-self-fashioning-and-mutual-marketing/

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