Public lecture and discussion with Romeo Castellucci, Director of the Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio

The Stanford Humanities Center and the San Francisco Istituto Italiano di Cultura, in collaboration with the Division of Literatures, Cultures & Languages, the Classics Department, and the Department of Drama, present a series of events surrounding the provocative work of Italian director Romeo Castellucci. Romeo Castellucci's company, Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, was established in 1981 and has since received international acclaim and numerous prestigious awards for work that stages a European tradition in crisis. This year he was selected as the Director of the Theatre Arts Division of the Venice Biennale 2005. His most recent project, Tragedia Endogonidia (2002-2005) is an eleven-part cycle on tragedy in the 20th century and beyond, spread across ten different European cities. He has also directed highly iconoclastic versions of classics such as Oedipus, Electra, and Julius Ceasar, as well as numerous original works and installations. Castellucci stands among the most important performance artists and theatre practitioners working today in Italy and in Europe at large, but his work has only rarely appeared in the United States. This visit will introduce his singular body of work to a community that is largely unfamiliar with his significant place in contemporary performing arts.