Disciplines and Study Subjects

Theater Academies - EU Recognized Theater Schools

Pursuant to Art. 11 of DPR 212/2005, for the issuance of the First Level Academic Diploma in Acting, equivalent to a Bachelor's Degree, for eligibility in public competitions pursuant to Law 228/12, the Acting Academy, following D.M. 111 of 15/1/21, which approved the new Academic Regulation, provides for the A.Y. 2024/25 an intensive study plan, structured around the following disciplines and study subjects:

  • Actor's Disciplines
  • Acting Disciplines
  • Physical and Vocal Disciplines
  • Dramaturgy and Screenwriting
  • Music Disciplines
  • Scenic Design
  • Historical and Critical Disciplines
  • Language Practice Disciplines

1st Year

Acting Techniques I

Ancient Tragedy

  • Stage Presence - Neutral Mask
  • Tragic Monologue - Text Analysis
  • Myths and Rituals
  • Greek Tragedy: Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles

Narrative Techniques

  • Tales and Fables from East and West
  • Mysteries and Sacred Representations
  • Narrator/Mime
  • Audience Calls and Storytelling

Character Study

  • Gesture Anthropology - Archetypes
  • Basel's Larval Masks
  • Character/Counter-Character Construction: Lecoq Method
  • Character Construction: Stanislavski - Strasberg Methods
  • Character Construction in Auteur Theater

Modern Drama

  • Poetic Acting
  • Great Emotions
  • Modern Drama: Cinema and Theater
  • Psychology and Environments
  • Narrative Theater
  • Comic Melodrama

2nd Year

Acting Techniques II

Commedia dell'Arte

  • Spontaneous and Human Comedy
  • Commedia dell'Arte Semi-Masks
  • Characters, Plots, Lazzi, and Scenarios
  • Farcical Themes - Basic Needs
  • Binary and Modular Relationships

Molière

  • From Commedia dell'Arte to Auteur Comedy
  • Archetypes and Satire of Customs
  • The Illustre Théâtre
  • Satire of Bourgeois Class
  • Satire of Clerical Class
  • Satire of Medical Class

Comedy and Irony

  • Comedy: Mechanisms and Dysfunctions
  • "Comic Timing" - The "Gag"
  • Improvisation Techniques
  • Theatrical Clown - Comic Duo
  • Anomaly, Detachment, Innocence
  • Allegory - Grotesque - Deformation
  • Medieval and Modern Buffoonery

Shakespeare - Theater and Cinema

  • Tragedies and Comedies
  • Monologues - Dialogues
  • Text Analysis - Verse and Prose
  • The “Fool” Character
  • Power, Madness, Ambiguity, Premonition
  • Catharsis - Scene and Counter-Scene

3rd Year

Acting Techniques III

Modern Theater - The 20th Century

  • A. Chekhov - H. Ibsen - A. Strindberg
  • F. G. Lorca - L. Pirandello - J. Genet
  • F. Dürrenmatt - B. Strauss
  • Avant-Garde and Figurative Arts
  • Dadaist - Surrealist - Futurist Theater
  • J. Cocteau - V. Mayakovsky
  • Theater of Cruelty: Artaud
  • Epic Theater: Brecht
  • Theater of the Absurd - Nonsense
  • A. Jarry - S. Beckett - E. Ionesco
  • G. Perec - H. Pinter - R. Queneau
  • Absurdity in Cinema: Monty Python

Modern Comedy

  • Situation and Repetition Comedy
  • Theater within Theater - Style Exercises
  • English Farce: O. Wilde, M. Frayn, R. Cooney, P. Shaffer
  • Eduardo's Comedy
  • Comedy: Noir, Brilliant, Grotesque

Satire and Parody in Modern Times

  • Costume Satire: Current Affairs
  • Imitation - Caricature - Parody
  • Image and Frame
  • Cartoons and Comics
  • Media Sociology - Dysfunctions

1st Year

Cinematic Acting

Acting: Stanislavski - Strasberg

  • Concentration, Observation, Attention
  • Psychological and Behavioral Analysis
  • The "Ifs" and Given Circumstances
  • Character Motivations
  • Analytical - Affective - Emotional Memory
  • Public/Private Character
  • Dramatic Action and Narrative Arc
  • Non-Sequential Interpretation
  • Audition Techniques
  • Acting - Camera Acting
  • Repertoire from Auteur Cinema
  • Framing: Field and Counterfield
  • Acting in Close-Up

2nd Year

Acting and New Media

Web Series and Seriality

  • Writing Techniques
  • Filming Techniques
  • Site-Specific Work

1st/2nd Year

Improvisation Techniques I and II

Stories and Tales from East and West

  • Movement and Gesture
  • Word and Sound
  • Great Emotions and Imagination

Improvisation Techniques

  • Gesture Decomposition
  • Non-Verbal Language
  • Silence Zones

1st Year

Italian Language Orthoepy

  • Phonology - Pronunciation
  • Syllabification - Phrasing
  • Diction - Orthoepy
  • Tone, Accent
  • Alteration - Deformation

1st Year

Technical Reading Exercises

  • Prosody - Intonation
  • Sight and Dramatic Reading
  • Intentions and Subtext
  • Reading in Verse and Prose
  • Soliloquy - Monologue - Dialogue

1st/2nd Year

Techniques of Emission, Phono-Articulators, and Resonators I and II

  • Rhythm - Involuntary Breathing
  • Voice Projection: Sound Channels
  • Tone - Accent - Rhythm
  • Natural Breathing
  • Autogenic Training - Energetic Training
  • Facial Mask - Vocal Training
  • Timbre - Volume - Range - Articulation
  • Words: From Technique to Expression
  • Organic Vocal Body
  • Onomatopoeia - "Grammelot"

3rd Year

Voice Education

  • Dramatic Sound Scores
  • Onomatopoeia and Sound Effects
  • Vocal Deformations: Falsetto, Guttural, Altered
  • Verbal Automatism - Assonances - Dragged Assonances
  • Breaking and Transforming Sentiment in Speech
  • Voice and Theatrical Styles

1st/2nd Year

Acting in Verse I and II

  • Tone - Rhythm - Volume
  • Metric Laws
  • Rhythmic Development
  • Harmony
  • Imagination - Visualization - Interpretation
  • The Sound of Evocative Words

2nd Year

Acting in English

  • Drama
  • Intonation and Expressive Reading
  • Acting for Set and Stage
  • English Language Elements

Music and Singing Disciplines 1st/2nd/3rd Year

  • Solfeggio and Sheet Reading
  • Homogeneous Sound and Breathing
  • Intonation and Intervals
  • Rhythmic and Melodic Exercises
  • Jazz and Vocalese Improvisation
  • Acting with Musical Scores
  • Musical - Recital
  • Choral Singing - Repertoire Pieces
  • Individual and Group Exercises
  • Consonance and Dissonance

Physical Training: Expressive Movement 1st/2nd/3rd Year

  • Relaxation Techniques
  • Yoga Elements
  • Bioenergetics
  • Movement Analysis and Decomposition
  • Gesture Grammar
  • Rhythm - Balance - Impulse
  • Body Expression
  • Feldenkrais Method

Elements of Modern and Contemporary Dance 1st/2nd Year

  • Supports - Pushes - Transmissions
  • Starting Points and Falls
  • Movement Scores
  • Floorwork
  • Spatial Orientation and Combinations
  • Body-Space Relationship
  • Energy - Time - Space
  • Collective Kinetic Proposal

Choreography Elements 3rd Year

  • Kinesphere
  • Movement Architecture
  • Body - Space - Quality - Form
  • Composition Systems
  • Improvisational Macrosystems
  • "Motions" of Sentiments
  • Theater and Figurative Arts

Mime and Pantomime 1st Year

  • Manipulation and Fixed Point
  • Imaginary Objects - Everyday Actions
  • Abstract Mimic Gesture: Decroux
  • Mime Phrases Construction: Marceau
  • Actions (Pulling, Pushing, etc.): Lecoq
  • White - Accelerated - Comic Strip - Cinematic Pantomime
  • Lecoqian Great Movements (The Raft, The Discobolus, etc.)

Acrobatics 2nd Year

  • Elements of Tai Chi Chuan, Karate
  • Cartwheels, Handstands, Flips, and Acrobatics
  • Accidents and Acrobatics Combat
  • Lifts - Partnering - Human Pyramids
  • Everyday to Acrobatic Gesture
  • Elements and Techniques of Nouveau Cirque

Makeup and Costume 1st Year

  • Theatrical and Cinematic Makeup
  • Theatrical and Cinematic Costuming
  • Fabrics and Materials

Open-Air Theater 3rd Year

  • Puppet Theater
  • Writing and Scriptwriting
  • Design and Construction
  • Scenic Space Architecture
  • Object Manipulation and Acting
  • Moving Sceneries
  • Macro and Micro Manipulation

Textual Analysis and Dramaturgy 2nd Year

  • Text Analysis
  • Narratology
  • Composition Techniques
  • Plot and Character Development
  • Scene Editing
  • Dramatic Construction
  • Theater Genres and Acting Methods

History of Theater and Performance 1st/2nd/3rd Year

  • Theater as a Ritual
  • Greek Tragedy
  • Medieval Theater
  • Eastern Theater
  • Commedia dell’Arte
  • Elizabethan Theater
  • Modern Theater
  • 20th Century and Avant-Gardes
  • Great Authors of Theater History
  • History of Directing
  • Theater Theory History
  • Mime History
  • Dance History
  • Cinema History

Sector Organization 2nd/3rd Year

  • Copyright and Image Rights
  • Performing Arts Project Management
  • Marketing, Communication, Fundraising
  • Live, Cinematic, and Event Production Systems

Psychology and Theater Pedagogy 3rd Year

  • Training
  • Theater Lesson
  • Didactic Pathway
  • Pedagogical Criticism
  • Group Dynamics

Writing and Scriptwriting 1st/2nd/3rd Year

  • Original Writing: Plot Development
  • Structure and Style
  • Puppet Theater Writing
  • Script Writing
  • Character Profile and History
  • Cinematic Scriptwriting
  • Themes, Time Jumps
  • Free Adaptation: Work Synthesis

Directing - Scenic Direction 1st/2nd/3rd Year

  • Techniques, Styles, and Directing Languages
  • Director’s Role
  • Structure of a Performance
  • Choice of Scenic Languages
  • Linear, Analogical, Surreal Directing
  • Casting and Actor Direction
  • Scenic Architecture
  • Music, Costume, and Scenography

Regulations MIUR-AFAM Theater Academies

The course includes different teaching activities: workshops, lectures, seminars, exercises; individual or group study activities and performance activities, rehearsals, and shows.

Each student must be available during the entire course of study for all activities, both ordinary and extraordinary, whether teaching, performance, or experimental.

The schedules of institutional courses range from 5 to 8 hours of classes every day from Monday to Friday. Each course follows a specific schedule with morning and/or afternoon periods depending on individual or group workload. Schedules may intensify (evening and weekend hours) during exam preparations and performance and production activities. Each study term concludes with the writing and staging of performances or interpretive demonstrations involving intensive work rhythms, including evenings and weekends.

Attendance at teaching and performance activities is mandatory. Continuous and unjustified absences lead to exclusion from the courses.

Absence during rehearsal periods or shows is grounds for permanent exclusion from the Academy.

The attendance percentage required to meet the obligation cannot be less than 80% of all formative activities, excluding individual or group study (Theater Academies - AFAM Acting Schools).