Stefano Locatelli

The article offers a contribution to the history of the foundation of the Piccolo Teatro, starting from the documents (many of which still unpublished) kept at the Historical Archive of the theatre. Various aspects, organizational, cultural, even political, characterizing the origins of the first Italian stable theatre are taken into consideration. A particular attention is dedicated to Mario Apollonio, among the founders of the Piccolo Teatro, often forgotten in the previous historiographic reconstructions. The contribution proposes itself as a first (and obviously partial) recognition of the issues related to the foundation of the Piccolo Teatro. It is seen as part of a long process, the result of which is the raise of consciousness of the necessity of a new theatre culture, though situated (and partly justified) within preexisting structures. The objective is meant to give some notes aimed at the beginning of a wider research with the ambitious and difficult objective to briefly reconstruct the history of a complicated institutional path, aimed at bringing new dignity to the work of theatre in Italy, and underlining not only the discontinuities with what happened before, but also the persistencies and continuities.