This document provides a preface and overview of the book "Active Light" by Fabrizio Crisafulli. The book examines the role of light in 20th century theatre through key figures and events. It focuses on light as an active, expressive element that shapes performance, rather than just an illumination tool. Crisafulli explores how pioneers like Appia advocated for light as a dramatic, poetic force. However, he notes lighting practices often prioritized technical and business needs over artistic vision. The book aims to shed light on understudied poetic issues regarding lighting techniques and their relationship to performance elements like space, time, action and meaning.

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Fabrizio Crisafulli
ACTIVE LIGHT
Issues of Light in Contemporay Theatre
PLACE, BODY, LIGHT
The Theatre of / Il teatro di Fabrizio Crisafulli
1991-2011
edited by / a cura di Nika Tomašević
foreword by / prefazione di Silvana Sinisi

2. Fabrizio Crisafulli advocates an active role for light on the stage. In his book he
counters those who believe that light should not consciously draw attention to
itself in performance. He brings us back to the aspirations of Appia in providing
a reminder of the essential and dynamic role that light brings to performance
and also of its future potential.
Scott Palmer, University of Leeds, UK
It’s a unique book in the context of Italian historiography on theatre, which cle-
verly combines rigorous historical research conducted through a solid and refi-
ned methodology and aesthetic awareness fed by fieldwork. This volume happily
reconciles the almost constant discrepancy between historiography and scenic
practices.
Renzo Guardenti, University of Florence, Italy
It’s a fine example of combination of historiographic and artistic interests. For
many years Fabrizio Crisafulli’s theatre research has involved the in depth study
of all ‘luminous’ and ‘illuminating’ phenomena, where light is not just a stage
tool, but has transpired as a tool which makes you aware of reality in all its
aspects. Light is used in all possible ways and technique never sacrifices artistic
expression.
Cristina Grazioli, University of Padua, Italy
Crisafulli focuses on the linguistic value of light. This book is an interesting and
useful contribution for those – students and artists – who wish to go deeper into
some aspects of theatre production that manuals usually skip or minimize.
Antonio Pizzo, University of Turin, Italy
This book looks at various important events relating to the poetics of light in
theatre production in the West in the twentieth century, from the great refor-
mists at the beginning of the century to contemporary artists such as Josef
Svoboda, Alwin Nikolais and Robert Wilson. The intention isn’t to outline a
somewhat organised history of stage lighting, instead it is an attempt to iden-
tify some basic issues concerning its use. Lighting issues are unshackled from
the limited contexts of technique and image, where they often end up only to
be relegated, and examined in the context of the performance’s space/time
structure, poetic and dramatic construction, and the relationship with the per-
former. A section dedicated to the theatrical work of the author outlines the
distinctive point of view behind the book, regarding the creative processes
and the operational relationship with technique. The title Active Light is a
direct reference to Adolphe Appia who, at the end of the nineteenth century,
was one of the first to deal with the issue of light explicitly as an artistic issue
in theatre, with his own writings and creations. As far as Appia was concerned
lumière active was expressive light, creating shapes, forming poetic matter
and dramatic substance.
«Drawing inspiration from philosophers, artists and theatre-makers, Crisaful-
li exhibits a rich theoretical, historical and practical understanding of lighting
– sensitive towards its emplacement, its mobility and its absence – as well
as a proficiency in activating architecture, bodies and shadows. Rather than
advocate a single approach or exhibit a signature aesthetic, his scholarly and
practice-based research illustrates a broad and persistent inquiry into light’s
potential: dramaturgically, poetically and experientially. This book is an expli-
cation not only on how light acts, but how, as an event in itself, it activates
both things and thinking»
Dorita Hannah, Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland
Fabrizio Crisafulli
ACTIVE LIGHT
Issues of Light in Contemporay Theatre
ISBN-13: 978-1494786922
available on Amazon and on Barnes & Noble catalogue:
http://bit.ly/barnesnoble_activelight

3. PART TWO
Self-Analysis of Research in Progress
189 Place, body, light
204 Theatres of light, dramas of technique, mobile architecture
223 Afterword
by Luca Farulli
227 Sources of illustrations
229 Bibliography
251 Index
11 The Event og Light
Foreword
by Dorita Hannah
17 Preface
PART ONE
Object Light, Body Light
25 Electric shows
31 Loie Fuller’s light dance
Cosmic Light
41 Mariano Fortuny: the distinction between sky and land
48 Adolphe Appia and light as the creator of form
60 Dramatic light, cosmic light: Edward Gordon Craig
70 Alexandre de Salzmann and the absolute light
Light as Action
87 The music of colours
95 The futurist “illuminating scenogaphy”
106 Vasily Kandinsky and the “inner sound” of light
115 Light and intercode: László Moholy-Nagy, Ludwig
Hirschfeld-Mack
Dramaturgy of Light
129 Modes of active light
141 Structure of active light
Poetic Maturity and New Techniques of Active Light
151 Josef Svoboda and dynamic light/set interaction
162 Alwin Nikolais: light and body in decentralised space
166 Robert Wilson and the Theatre of Images
174 New technologies, new issues
Contents

4. 1. Playbill for Danse du Feu by Loie Fuller
at Folies Bergère in Paris, 1897
The Event of Light
Foreword
by Dorita Hannah
I’ve learned from Fredegiso of Tours that darkness and
light are degrees of the same phenomenon, and from John
Cage that silence can be heard, therefore darkness can
be seen. From the 19th-century Swiss set designer and
theorist Adolphe Appia I’ve learned that shadows are the
substance of vision, and from author Italo Calvino that the
most effective images are those that let people create their
own mental view of what they’re looking at.1
Fabrizio Crisafulli
I discovered these inspiring words, chosen to preface this timely
book on Active Light, many years ago while flipping through a
theatre lighting magazine and was struck by a lyricism rarely
found in literature on the subject. Too often lighting design is
regarded as a primarily technological skill and expressive tool,
utilized to serve the overall poetics of a production, rather than a
collaborative and performative art form in its own right: capable
of challenging spatiotemporal conventions, not only of the stage
but also of the lived world. It is therefore no surprise that many
of the significant players referred to by Fabrizio Crisafulli in the
following chapters are radical artists, directors, perform

5. ers, theorists and architects – revolutionary thinkers and makers
who maintain light is indeed an engaging and challenging force.
Crisafulli himself encompasses such varying roles and here pres-
ents an erudite survey of modern lighting design as well as a
compelling exposition of his own creative work on and off the
conventional stage.
In English the word ‘light’ connotes both ‘a doing’ (as in the act
of illuminating something) and ‘a thing done’ (as in illumination
itself). This confluence of verb and noun also applies to ‘design’,
which is both a creative undertaking and the resulting artefact.
Light Design – designing the light and lighting the design –
is therefore highly active. This book outlines how illumination
does more than give shape, drama or character to staged events,
but in fact ‘performs’ as a discrete element within the sensory
performance landscape. In doing so it en-lightens – informs, in-
structs, clarifies and undertakes theoretical work – just as Cri-
safulli does throughout this publication and in his renowned
workshops with students and designers.
How wonderful to begin with Loie Fuller whose ‘dance of light’
was a dynamic amalgamation of spirited movement, flow-
ing textiles, coloured light and hyperbolic body. Representing
something utterly modern and dramatically excessive, Fuller’s
pioneering spectacle was dependent on technologies concealed
in both stage and costume. Less than a decade before the fi-
ery Fuller took to the stage, Richard Wagner had plunged the
auditorium into darkness when he inadvertently extinguished,
rather than lowered, the houselights during the inauguration of
his Bayreuth Festspielhaus. This happy accident, which shocked
the audience at the time, led to a general expectation that spec-
tators sit in the dark gazing towards a lit box of tricks full of
concealed technology. Yet, as Crisafulli expounds, the magic lies
not in the apparatus but in the artistry, which, since the audito-
rium went to black in 1876, has consistently challenged the box,
its machinery and performers, as well as those spectators caught
within its glow.
foreword
One of the major perceptual revolutions over the last century has
been the move from a spatialization of time to a temporalization
of space. Objects and environments are no longer immutable
material situated in perpetual time, but are understood as events:
active and mobile through elemental variations and a dense lay-
ering of realities and virtualities. Vibrating at a molecular level,
they fluctuate in temperature while gathering and shedding mat-
ter. Such micro-performances are affected by light as well as
revealed and concealed by both its presence and its absence. As
a forceful temporal phenomenon, light itself can also be consid-
ered an event, or even a series of multiple events.
As time-based phenomena events occur at varying scales – from
major epic occurrences, to produced aesthetic spectacles, to nu-
merous tiny incidents happening all around us – and even out-
side the theatre their authenticity is called into doubt. The world
itself has become a stage upon which global politics and medi-
ated communication are played out through designed perfor-
mances, which range from advertising and socializing through
to acts of terrorism and war. Influencing our spatial awareness
and temporal sensitivity, light plays a significant role in the
delineation and experience of historic, dramatic and quotidian
events. An immaterial material it can have an unsettling impact,
defining our experiences and often signaling danger and the
uncanny: seen in the flare of a match, the discharge of a spark,
the blinking of machines, the streaming of data, the luminosity
of screens, and the flash of distant bombardment brought into
our seemingly safe living rooms. All of these effects taking place
in ambient lighting, under a blaze of fluorescents, within flicker-
ing tributaries of traffic; veiled by gloom or through the haze of
smoke, mist and fog. Insubstantial light is substantially effective
and affective.
Crisafulli refers to the impressive accomplishments of Josef Svo-
boda who maintained that every time he faced an empty stage
from which to create sets and lights, it was like confronting an
active light

6. abyss: not only because of its darkness but its boundlessness.
Although often a box of limited dimensions, the stage defies
space and time in its sanctioned role of collapsing the here and
now on the there and then: calling forth its gods and ghosts and
temporarily transporting the audience to multiple places and ep-
ochs. As a phantasmatic force, light plays a critical part in the
spatiotemporal constructions, deconstructions and personifica-
tions emerging from the void. Yet, as Crisafulli also points out,
the stage has left the theatre, seeking other sites with their own
materialities, atmospheres, histories and phantoms, or occupy-
ing the dislocated realms of immersive theatre and cyberspace.
While we have marvelled at Robert Wilson’s three-dimensional
lightscapes where highly trained performers find their marks
that allow for the precise illumination of a fingertip, and at Wil-
liam Forsythe’s experimentations in which dancers manoeuvre
mobile lights around the stage as a choreography of moving
shadows, we now have performance ensembles that utilize tech-
nology to connect audiences across dispersed locations. In Gob
Squad’s Super Night Shot the city’s ambient light is employed
for one-off movies created by four performers who move cam-
eras through the streets an hour before the audience arrives at
the theatre to see the resulting live-mixed multi-projection. Blast
Theory also relies on existing urban lighting for Rider Spoke in
which each participating audience member cycles alone in the
nocturnal city, discovering and sharing sites via an intercon-
necting device with screen and earphones. Punchdrunk Theatre
creates events in huge multi-storied warehouses – black boxes
nesting more black boxes – through which masked spectators
randomly wander, encountering a labyrinth of barely lit, highly
detailed installations that momentarily become animated with
scattered performances. Fuerza Bruta orchestrates 360-degree
sensory experiences by transforming large spaces into night-
clubs for aerial performances with spectacular lighting accompa-
nied by the many glowing screens of spectator’s mobile phones
recording the event to be redistributed across social networks.
The mobile phone has become the new illuminated box of tricks,
replicated throughout the auditorium and conventionally extin-
guished with the houselights.
Drawing inspiration from philosophers, artists and theatre-mak-
ers, Crisafulli exhibits a rich theoretical, historical and practical
understanding of lighting – sensitive towards its emplacement,
its mobility and its absence – as well as a proficiency in activat-
ing architecture, bodies and shadows. Rather than advocate a
single approach or exhibit a signature aesthetic, his scholarly
and practice-based research illustrates a broad and persistent
inquiry into light’s potential: dramaturgically, poetically and ex-
perientially. This book is an explication not only on how light
acts, but how, as an event in itself, it activates both things and
thinking.
1. Quoted in M. Clark, ‘Avant-garde Artistry. Lighting Takes Center Stage in the
Works of Fabrizio Crisafulli’, Lighting Dimensions, 3, New York, April 1997.
forewordactive light

7. 64. The Magic Flute by W. A. Mozart,
produced by Robert Wilson, 1991
Preface
This book looks at various important events in the theatre
production in the twentieth century, in terms of the poetics of
light. The intention isn’t to outline a history of stage lighting
which is to a certain extent comprehensive, instead it is an
attempt to identify some basic issues concerning the subject,
which in my opinion have been given little consideration up
until this point. The title Active Light is a direct reference to
Adolphe Appia who, at the end of the nineteenth century, was
one of the first to deal with the issue of light explicitly as an
artistic issue in theatre with his own writings and creations. As
far as Appia was concerned lumière active was expressive light
creating shapes, forming poetic matter and dramatic substance.
He set these ideas against the most common theatre practices of
his time, where light was basically viewed as ‘illumination’, a
technical, functional element, something which was secondary,
and even external, to the creative process.
One of the reasons behind this book is the fact that the ideas
Appia was fighting against still continue in present day theatre,
to a degree which is not insignificant. Innovative ideas such as
those of Appia, Craig and other artists who came later, some of
whom will be discussed in this book, have essentially remained
on the sidelines in terms of actual influence on the methods
by Fabrizio Crisafulli

8. preface
of using light. These methods seemed to mainly develop under
the influence of business and production needs, then established
techniques and conventions, as happened generally in theatre.
Another motive behind this work is the persistence, in my
opinion, of a certain void in considering the poetic issues of
light techniques in theatre – an uncertainty surrounding ideas
and in identifying the issues, which more often than not are
defined within the limited contexts of technique and image, and
which fail to also take account of the action, meaning, dramatic
construction, and space-time structure of the performance,
aspects which should be capturing attention.
The events and characters discussed have expressed, and
continue to express, a basic standpoint that light is an element
which is structural, constructive, poetic, and dramaturgic. Such
a standpoint is at odds with the idea of isolating light from the
previously mentioned artistic issues surrounding the theatre, and
contrary to the widespread idea of light as a surface element, an
afterthought to be dealt with in the final days of rehearsals,
something that gives the performance its ‘fancy wrapping’ or
spectacular effects.
Obviously only some of the most significant experiences, past
and present, have been considered. As mentioned previously,
the idea wasn’t to reconstruct a comprehensive journey through
history.
The first three chapters of the book deal with experiences relating
to the period spanning from the last decade of the nineteenth
century until the late twenties in the twentieth century. This is
a period in which I feel most of the important issues regarding
light as poetry, action and drama have been essentially outlined.
A particularly crucial phase was the period that straddled
the two centuries, due to developments brought about by the
advent of electricity. It was in this period that light acquired
new qualities which gave it a wide range of possibilities, even
if conflicting at times – on the one hand the possibility of
condensing light, making it a material which was malleable as it
had never been before, and on the other hand the possibility of
dematerialisation, in relation to adjusting intensity, determining
incidence of light, and using projection. Switching light off
completely was also possible for the first time, and therefore
total darkness as a result. Furthermore, power was amplified
and reflection, transmission and refraction were enriched and
multiplied, all very significant conditions in creating drama with
light. In relation to these developments light acquired the totally
new potential of moulding space and time, of becoming ‘music’,
unspeakable matter, cosmological substance, and materialising
in objects and bodies, becoming the action itself. Basically
becoming a theatrical language and fixture.
During the initial decades of the twentieth century this potential,
faced with a wealth of ideas, often came up against considerable
obstacles due to the inevitable lack of experience of technicians
and limits of instrumentation. We only have to think of the
many Italian futurist experiments which were real forerunners
at a conceptual level, yet failed when put into practice. Or the
gap between projects with great theoretical insight and poetic
significance, such as those of Appia or Craig, and their realisation.
It was only in much later years, during the second half of the
century, that the right conditions transpired to enable the actual
union of expressive aspirations and effective possibilities of
implementation, as in the extremely important experiences of
artists such as Josef Svoboda, Alwin Nikolais and Robert Wilson,
to whom a chapter is dedicated.
I have put the chapter Dramaturgy of Light between the section
on founding events before the thirties and the section on recent
experiences. It constitutes an exploration through the issues
and an outline of the paths that light techniques in the theatre
embarked on throughout the whole of the twentieth century,
in the search for its own inner motivation and structural
configurations.
A section is dedicated to the ‘music of colours’, a subject which
on the face of it seems extraneous to the theatre, because at
certain times it has expressed important aspirations of structural
research with regard to creating with light, even though it has
active light

9. mainly produced experiences of little significance from an artistic
point of view. This is an important subject as it concerns the
effort to identify various rules (constructive, compositional and
dramaturgical) on which to base a possible expressive autonomy
of light – autonomy that constitutes a necessary condition
for light to enter, as Kandinsky put it, on an equal footing in
relationships with other aspects of theatrical expression, such as
speech, the body, sound and movement. Chromatic music was in
this respect a benchmark for various artists (Balla, Kandinsky,
Hirschfeld-Mack and many others) involved in the search for
possible dramaturgies of light and its structural relationships,
especially with sound, form, and movement. The altogether
peculiar episode of the salle eclairante of Alexandre de Salzmann
in Hellerau, designed to assert absolute light in theatre, with
its own independent life, wasn’t irrelevant to the aspirations
of chromatic music. In my opinion this episode represented an
extreme reaction to the service status that light usually had
in the theatre, in addition to a radical attempt to recover its
spiritual values.
Finally, it should be emphasised that this publication has arisen
from observations made in a working environment, rather than
from specific academic interests, given that it has been written
by a theatre director and not a historian. It is therefore the result
of convictions, motivations and emotional stimuli spurred on by
observations ‘on the job’. For this reason, a distinct part of the
book is dedicated to light in my own theatrical research, a subject
I don’t want to give extra importance to in this context, other
than to better explain the viewpoint that led me to looking at
some experiences over others, and according to which problems
were identified and their reading directed.
Maybe it should be stated (though I’ll come back to this topic)
that looking at the importance of light here is not the same as
maintaining that light design must necessarily have a leading
role in performance. This isn’t the point. Light – by its very
essence – demands to have a poetic, constructive and dramatic
role in theatre, on a par with other elements, such as the script,
the actors, and sound. However, this could correspond as much
to solutions centred on the use of complex instrumentation, as to
solutions that require the use of very little equipment. The issue
isn’t about the amount of equipment used or its technological
sophistication, or leading roles of light; it’s about the way
light is used, the quality of its relationships with the other
components on stage, and with the art it underpins. Regardless
of technicalities.
prefaceactive light

10. PLACE, BODY, LIGHT
The Theatre of / Il teatro di Fabrizio Crisafulli
1991-2011
(bilingual: English-Italian)
edited by / a cura di Nika Tomašević
foreword by / prefazione di Silvana Sinisi
ISBN-13: 978-1909088092
available on Amazon
Place, Body and Light are the terms on which Fabrizio Crisafulli's theatre rese-
arch is focused. Research that challenges performance practices at their very
foundations, in an attempt to reclaim the original potency of theatre and its
relevance and effectiveness in contemporary times. This is where dance meets
architecture, drama meets territory, and the performance of the body meets
poetic light. Crisafulli's works are poetic and visionary, hypnotic and deeply
emotional, and produce imaginative exchanges between archetypes and the
world as it is now. A career of intense research is revealed through interviews,
personal accounts, reviews, information and photos related to performances
and installations created between 1991 and 2011.
«I don’t know if you can say that the essence of theatre is the actor. It would
be like saying that the essence of the Universe is humankind. Where does that
leave the stars?»
Fabrizio Crisafulli
Fabrizio Crisafulli is a theatre director and visual artist. He runs the theatre
company Il Pudore Bene in Vista based in Rome, which he established in 1991.
Fabrizio’s production work includes space and lighting design, and he also
creates installations in addition to the company’s activities. He works in Italy
and various European and non-European countries. The defining aspects of
his work are his use of light as an independent subject of poetic construction,
and what he defines as the 'Theatre of Places' (treating the place as ’text’ and a
matrix for performances), involving research along with stage production. He
teaches at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome and at RomaTre University. He
holds workshops at universities, academies, festivals and theatrical organisa-
tions in Italy and abroad.
With a spirit of complete independence from the small or the large theatre ‘families’
of the last decade [...] Fabrizio Crisafulli’s theatre work maintains a constant, consi-
stently regenerative flow, removed from the words and images that could constrain it
to what is ‘merely present’. This independence doesn’t define an a priori value in terms
of ‘ethics’ - it shows us how to rewrite the credibility of contemporary art to an even
greater extent.
Paolo Ruffini, ’Nelle stanze dell’occlusione ottica’, in Simonetta Lux (ed.),
Lingua stellare. Il teatro di Fabrizio Crisafulli, 1991-2002, Rome: Lithos, 2003, p. 22
He doesn’t do collage, combine work, or edit, he explores a procedure that makes
each of his works (made up of objects, abstract energies, technologies on stage, peo-
ple, acrobats, unassigned places) a single body. A procedure which, as such and as a
continuum, makes each of his works an inseparable ensemble of invention / creation
/ fruition. A corpus.
Simonetta Lux, ’Una semplice allucinazione, secondo Rimbaud…’, in Id. (ed.),
Lingua stellare. Il teatro di Fabrizio Crisafulli, 1991-2002, Rome: Lithos, 2003, p. 10
For many years his research has focused on analyzing ways of using light, in terms
of shaping space and time, and as a dramaturgical element in the costruction of the
performance. Of particular interest due to the originality of the concept, is his ‘theatre
of places’ project, in which an actual place, whose physical characteristics and identity
are explored, becomes the text and the matrix of the performance.
Silvana Sinisi, ’La scena teatrale’, in XXI Secolo, Comunicare e Rappresentare, Rome:
Enciclopedia Treccani, 2009, p. 461
(on line: http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/la-scena-teatrale_(XXI-Secolo)/ )
Since the space occupied by Crisafulli is an imaginary, poetic ‘other world’, it brings a
literary reference to mind with which it has a projective affinity. Despite the asymme-
tries that separate each of their own constructed universes, in Crisafulli’s work we can
recognise the hallrmark of Borgesian atopic anywhere. That ability Jorge Luis Borges
had in carving out fantastic, unclassifiable space in his literature. His own space,
where he could transfer and disobey the impositions of the literary world, and relocate
his own poetics.
Teresa Macrì, ’Lingua stellare: teatro dell’altrove’, in Simonetta Lux (ed.), Lingua
stellare. Il teatro di Fabrizio Crisafulli, 1991-2002, Rome: Lithos, 2003, p. 45
For many years his theatre research has involved the in depth study of all ‘luminous’
and ‘illuminating’ phenomena, where light is not just a stage tool, but has transpired
as a tool which makes you aware of reality in all its aspects. Light is used in all pos-
sible ways and technique never sacrifices artistic expression.
Cristina Grazioli, Luce e ombra. Storia, teorie e pratiche dell’illuminazione teatrale,
Rome-Bari: Laterza, 2008, p. 179

11. 20
CONTENTS / SOMMARIO
Introduction / Introduzione
An Inner Sound / Il suono interiore
Foreword / Prefazione
by / di Silvana Sinisi
Incendiary for an Instant / Incendiario per un attimo
Interview with / Intervista a Fabrizio Crisafulli
edited by / a cura di Nika Tomaševi´c
Archive / Archivio
Performances and installations / Spettacoli e installazioni
Workshops / Laboratori
Videos / Video
Collaborations / Collaborazioni
Uncompleted Projects / Progetti non realizzati
Personal Accounts / Testimonianze
Illuminating What Isn’t There / Illuminare quello che non c’è
Interview with / Intervista a Giovanna Summo
edited by / a cura di Lucrezia Valeria Scardigno
Breathing in Sync / Respiro comune
Interview with / Intervista a Giuseppe Asaro,
Alessandra Cristiani, Simona Lisi, Carmen López Luna
edited by / a cura di Silvia Tarquini
An Open Space Uno spazio aperto
Interview with / Intervista a Carmen López Luna
edited by / a cura di Francesca Campo
On the Threshold / Sulla soglia
by / di Simona Lisi
Critical Excerpts / Brani critici
Paolo Ruffini
Silvia Tarquini
Raimondo Guarino
Simonetta Lux
Maria Pia D’Orazi
Silvana Sinisi
Teresa Macrì
Cristina Grazioli
Rossella Battisti
Bibliography / Bibliografia
Photocredits / Crediti fotografici
11/13
15/19
25/55
95
261
279
285
307
313/325
316/328
320/332
322/334
99/102
110/115
130/140
152/166
205/214
229/237
249/253
269/273
281/301
339
357

12. When I watch the gradual unveiling of space in one of Crisa-
fulli’s works, I associate it with the analytical aptitude of
Michelangelo Antonioni due to the relationship between pho-
tography and film narrative, or with the apocalyptic vision of a
world without human beings, explored from the perspective of
a solitary survivor, as in Guido Morselli’s Dissipatio H.G. But this
is just a partial impression. The world of Crisafulli tends to oc-
cupy an inhabited universe, thwarted and questioned by pres-
ences, establishing an alternating process of desertification and
reanimation on stage. [...] The distance of disenchantment and
another level of consciousness in the use and production of im-
ages, lies between his work and the constitutive experience of
the avant-garde of the first half of the twentieth century, and
between him and the closely related experience of the ‘theatre
of images’ of the Roman directors in the seventies. It is a dis-
tance that separates the image as an assertion, and its use as a
projective element of design, and object of suspence and cap-
tious, estranged analysis [...]. Crisafulli’s presence in the the-
atre is not the mere projection of skill in visual art, it is its
redefinition in terms of theatre, while also being one of the
possible reformulations of the director’s identity. Twentieth cen-
tury divides should be re-examined in this respect, between the
director as a creator of action through actors and a mentor of
the actors themselves, and the director who, in a different sense,
acts indirectly on actors through the material context and re-
quires the actor’s contribution through mutual research.
Raimondo Guarino, ’Disegno-luce-regia’, in Simonetta Lux (ed.), Linguastellare.IlteatrodiFabrizioCrisafulli,1991-
2002, Rome: Lithos, 2003, pp. 17-20
When I watch the gradual unveiling of space in one of Crisa-
fulli’s works, I associate it with the analytical aptitude of
Michelangelo Antonioni due to the relationship between pho-
tography and film narrative, or with the apocalyptic vision of a
world without human beings, explored from the perspective of
a solitary survivor, as in Guido Morselli’s Dissipatio H.G. But this
is just a partial impression. The world of Crisafulli tends to oc-
cupy an inhabited universe, thwarted and questioned by pres-
ences, establishing an alternating process of desertification and
reanimation on stage. [...] The distance of disenchantment and
another level of consciousness in the use and production of im-
ages, lies between his work and the constitutive experience of
the avant-garde of the first half of the twentieth century, and
between him and the closely related experience of the ‘theatre
of images’ of the Roman directors in the seventies. It is a dis-
tance that separates the image as an assertion, and its use as a
projective element of design, and object of suspence and cap-
tious, estranged analysis [...]. Crisafulli’s presence in the the-
atre is not the mere projection of skill in visual art, it is its
redefinition in terms of theatre, while also being one of the
possible reformulations of the director’s identity. Twentieth cen-
tury divides should be re-examined in this respect, between the
director as a creator of action through actors and a mentor of
the actors themselves, and the director who, in a different sense,
acts indirectly on actors through the material context and re-
quires the actor’s contribution through mutual research.
Raimondo Guarino, ’Disegno-luce-regia’, in Simonetta Lux (ed.), Linguastellare.IlteatrodiFabrizioCrisafulli,1991-
2002, Rome: Lithos, 2003, pp. 17-20
Archivio romi_Layout 1 9/10/13 2:11 PM Pagina 130

13. What unmistakably defines Fabrizio Crisafulli’s activity in the context
of contemporary theatre research is his ability, almost a dowser’s in-
stinct, to go beyond the purely formal value of artistic tools, to capture
a hidden dimension, a special disposition of the soul, impenetrable to
the relentless recognition of the eye, visible only through the sensitive
antennae of an inner movement.
The originality of his work isn’t in the selection of tools or in spectacular
multimedia solutions, but in how materials are investigated and re-
viewed using a process that springs from a rare quality in a theatre
professional, in other words the ability to be receptive or, even better,
what I would call, a bent for listening. Crisafulli’s works never originate
from a rigid plan, nor do they obey a narrative logic or immediately
recognizable laws. They are actually the result of a slow process, which
follows in the intangible wake of suggestions of the imagination, literary
inspiration, and evocative ideas or memories. Even when he uses a lit-
erary work as a reference point, as has been the case on some occa-
sions, the reference to the source survives only as an inspirational
impulse, but does not affect the creation directly, which proceeds by
inner dynamics in absolute linguistic autonomy.
With a background in architectural studies and a strong connection to
visual arts contexts, Crisafulli is an ambassador of theatre poetics
which stem from the encounter between different languages, and aim
to create a ‘text’ from within theatre practice itself, where, on the basis
of a different theme each time, the elements – light, space, actors and
sound – give life to a new system of relationships, to an audio-visual
score, nourished by visionary imagination. This is where the ‘bent for
listening’ comes into play, which isn’t only about the director’s attitude
towards the action, but also involves all forces in the scene interacting
with each other, which take on various echoes, depending on the con-
text and secret correspondence established during the course of the
work. In accordance with a now common practice, adopted recently in
mainstream theatre, Crisafulli tends to spurn the traditional stage set
up and works on reinventing space using installation tactics, once a
prerogative of the visual arts. Equally unconventional is his use of ma-
terials, removed from their habitual functions and promoted to the role
of protagonists on set in line with a non-hierarchical vision, where
15
Foreword
An Inner Sound
Opposite: Giovanna Summo
in Centro e ali, 1996
by Silvana Sinisi
What unmistakably defines Fabrizio Crisafulli’s activity in the context
of contemporary theatre research is his ability, almost a dowser’s in-
stinct, to go beyond the purely formal value of artistic tools, to capture
a hidden dimension, a special disposition of the soul, impenetrable to
the relentless recognition of the eye, visible only through the sensitive
antennae of an inner movement.
The originality of his work isn’t in the selection of tools or in spectacular
multimedia solutions, but in how materials are investigated and re-
viewed using a process that springs from a rare quality in a theatre
professional, in other words the ability to be receptive or, even better,
what I would call, a bent for listening. Crisafulli’s works never originate
from a rigid plan, nor do they obey a narrative logic or immediately
recognizable laws. They are actually the result of a slow process, which
follows in the intangible wake of suggestions of the imagination, literary
inspiration, and evocative ideas or memories. Even when he uses a lit-
erary work as a reference point, as has been the case on some occa-
sions, the reference to the source survives only as an inspirational
impulse, but does not affect the creation directly, which proceeds by
inner dynamics in absolute linguistic autonomy.
With a background in architectural studies and a strong connection to
visual arts contexts, Crisafulli is an ambassador of theatre poetics
which stem from the encounter between different languages, and aim
to create a ‘text’ from within theatre practice itself, where, on the basis
of a different theme each time, the elements – light, space, actors and
sound – give life to a new system of relationships, to an audio-visual
score, nourished by visionary imagination. This is where the ‘bent for
listening’ comes into play, which isn’t only about the director’s attitude
towards the action, but also involves all forces in the scene interacting
with each other, which take on various echoes, depending on the con-
text and secret correspondence established during the course of the
work. In accordance with a now common practice, adopted recently in
mainstream theatre, Crisafulli tends to spurn the traditional stage set
up and works on reinventing space using installation tactics, once a
prerogative of the visual arts. Equally unconventional is his use of ma-
Foreword
An Inner Sound
ppagine_Layout 1 9/10/13 2:25 PM Pagina 15

14. each element acquires the same level of dignity and importance. This
is the case with light, no longer employed to illuminate, but used in-
stead to define and structure space and images, and even affect the
dramaturgical creation.
Similarly the actor, originally the linchpin of the performance, loses
his/her role as interpreter, becoming a live presence, with an individuality
of tangible depth, able to act in space and time with the voice and ex-
pressive tension of gestures and movements.
Sound, never pre-existent or brought in from the outside, is also closely
related to the situation and context and arises from the same functional
process, through the contamination of musical elements with sounds,
voices and sonorities produced by the moving objects or people during
rehersal, restoring the flow of past experiences through intermittent
traces of memory.
Also closely related to the theme of memory is the treatment of space.
It’s an aspect already present in performances made for the stage. It
became the core inspiration for an original line of research from 1996
onwards, which Crisafulli calls the ‘theatre of places’1
.
The starting point for a ‘theatre of places’ project is choosing a location
which, once selected for its specific typology and characteristics, in
addition to the theme and meaning associated to it, is no longer con-
sidered as a simple set or backdrop, but actually becomes the perfor-
mance’s roots and script.
In some respects the process would seem to be related to the technique
of sampling, widely used in the visual arts. However, while with visual
experiences the choice, the ‘framing’, tends to confuse expectations
and de-contextualize the object, in this case the opposite is true – the
place regains its identity, presenting itself as a catalyst for a series of
energies, striking evocations, memories stratified in time, which also
radiate from the surrounding environment and enrich its symbolic ca-
pacity.
Every place tells its own story, but to hear its voice and draw reason
from it for inspiration you need to be ready to ‘tune in’ and, morpho-
logical and environmental characteristics aside, capture the hidden
side, inhabited by presences which have evolved over time – deep-
rooted memories, but also mythical and legendary figures in some
cases, which come into a visionary short-circuit with aspects of today’s
reality, drawn from everyday life.
What we’re actually dealing with is not a nostalgic recovery of the
place, but the probing of its several realities to be inscribed on the
pages of a fresh dramaturgical creation entrusted to the driving force
of the images and suggestions of the sound score.
Dance, performances, poetry and visual events transform the pre-existing
surroundings and create an evocative journey that annuls the usual
16
silvana sinisi
temporal distinctions, creating a suspended dimension that welds the
events unfolding to the spirit of the place.
Natural or archaeological sites, historic buildings or Italian style theatres,
each environment, beyond its importance, can become a ‘place’ and a
theatrical template, taking on symbolic significance in a dialectic be-
tween past and present, real facts and poetic transfiguration, in a se-
ductive game of roles, characterised by the movements of memory and
the imagination.
Silvana Sinisi
1. Cf. F. Crisafulli, ‘Il luogo come testo’, in R. Guarino (ed.), Teatro dei luoghi. Il teatro
come luogo e l’esperienza di Formia, 1996-1998, Rome: Gatd, 1998; Id., ‘Teatro dei luoghi:
che cos’è?’, Teatro e storia, vol. XV, 22, Rome: 2001; Id., ‘Teatro dei luoghi: riflessioni a
partire dalla pratica’, in R. Guarino (ed.), Teatri Luoghi Città, Rome: Officina, 2008; S. Lux
(ed.), Lingua Stellare. Il teatro di Fabrizio Crisafulli, 1991-2002, Rome: Lithos, 2003; S.
Tarquini (ed.), Fabrizio Crisafulli: un teatro dell’essere, Rome: Editoria & Spettacolo, 2010.
an inner sound
17
which stem from the encounter between different languages, and aim
to create a ‘text’ from within theatre practice itself, where, on the basis
of a different theme each time, the elements – light, space, actors and
sound – give life to a new system of relationships, to an audio-visual
score, nourished by visionary imagination. This is where the ‘bent for
listening’ comes into play, which isn’t only about the director’s attitude
towards the action, but also involves all forces in the scene interacting
with each other, which take on various echoes, depending on the con-
text and secret correspondence established during the course of the
work. In accordance with a now common practice, adopted recently in
mainstream theatre, Crisafulli tends to spurn the traditional stage set
up and works on reinventing space using installation tactics, once a
prerogative of the visual arts. Equally unconventional is his use of ma-
terials, removed from their habitual functions and promoted to the role
of protagonists on set in line with a non-hierarchical vision, where
15
ummo
radiate from the surrounding environment and enrich its symbolic ca-
pacity.
Every place tells its own story, but to hear its voice and draw reason
from it for inspiration you need to be ready to ‘tune in’ and, morpho-
logical and environmental characteristics aside, capture the hidden
side, inhabited by presences which have evolved over time – deep-
rooted memories, but also mythical and legendary figures in some
cases, which come into a visionary short-circuit with aspects of today’s
reality, drawn from everyday life.
What we’re actually dealing with is not a nostalgic recovery of the
place, but the probing of its several realities to be inscribed on the
pages of a fresh dramaturgical creation entrusted to the driving force
of the images and suggestions of the sound score.
Dance, performances, poetry and visual events transform the pre-existing
surroundings and create an evocative journey that annuls the usual
16each element acquires the same level of dignity and importance. This
is the case with light, no longer employed to illuminate, but used in-
stead to define and structure space and images, and even affect the
dramaturgical creation.
Similarly the actor, originally the linchpin of the performance, loses
his/her role as interpreter, becoming a live presence, with an individuality
of tangible depth, able to act in space and time with the voice and ex-
pressive tension of gestures and movements.
Sound, never pre-existent or brought in from the outside, is also closely
related to the situation and context and arises from the same functional
process, through the contamination of musical elements with sounds,
voices and sonorities produced by the moving objects or people during
rehersal, restoring the flow of past experiences through intermittent
traces of memory.
Also closely related to the theme of memory is the treatment of space.
It’s an aspect already present in performances made for the stage. It
became the core inspiration for an original line of research from 1996
onwards, which Crisafulli calls the ‘theatre of places’1
.
The starting point for a ‘theatre of places’ project is choosing a location
which, once selected for its specific typology and characteristics, in
addition to the theme and meaning associated to it, is no longer con-
sidered as a simple set or backdrop, but actually becomes the perfor-
mance’s roots and script.
In some respects the process would seem to be related to the technique
of sampling, widely used in the visual arts. However, while with visual
experiences the choice, the ‘framing’, tends to confuse expectations
and de-contextualize the object, in this case the opposite is true – the
place regains its identity, presenting itself as a catalyst for a series of
energies, striking evocations, memories stratified in time, which also
radiate from the surrounding environment and enrich its symbolic ca-
pacity.
Every place tells its own story, but to hear its voice and draw reason
from it for inspiration you need to be ready to ‘tune in’ and, morpho-
logical and environmental characteristics aside, capture the hidden
side, inhabited by presences which have evolved over time – deep-
rooted memories, but also mythical and legendary figures in some
cases, which come into a visionary short-circuit with aspects of today’s
silvana sinisi
ppagine_Layout 1 9/10/13 2:25 PM Pagina 16
temporal distinctions, creating a suspended dimension that welds the
events unfolding to the spirit of the place.
Natural or archaeological sites, historic buildings or Italian style theatres,
each environment, beyond its importance, can become a ‘place’ and a
theatrical template, taking on symbolic significance in a dialectic be-
tween past and present, real facts and poetic transfiguration, in a se-
ductive game of roles, characterised by the movements of memory and
the imagination.
Silvana Sinisi
1. Cf. F. Crisafulli, ‘Il luogo come testo’, in R. Guarino (ed.), Teatro dei luoghi. Il teatro
come luogo e l’esperienza di Formia, 1996-1998, Rome: Gatd, 1998; Id., ‘Teatro dei luoghi:
che cos’è?’, Teatro e storia, vol. XV, 22, Rome: 2001; Id., ‘Teatro dei luoghi: riflessioni a
partire dalla pratica’, in R. Guarino (ed.), Teatri Luoghi Città, Rome: Officina, 2008; S. Lux
(ed.), Lingua Stellare. Il teatro di Fabrizio Crisafulli, 1991-2002, Rome: Lithos, 2003; S.
Tarquini (ed.), Fabrizio Crisafulli: un teatro dell’essere, Rome: Editoria & Spettacolo, 2010.
an inner sound
17
temporal distinctions, creating a suspended dimension that welds the
events unfolding to the spirit of the place.
Natural or archaeological sites, historic buildings or Italian style theatres,
each environment, beyond its importance, can become a ‘place’ and a
theatrical template, taking on symbolic significance in a dialectic be-
tween past and present, real facts and poetic transfiguration, in a se-
ductive game of roles, characterised by the movements of memory and
the imagination.
Silvana Sinisi
an inner sound
ppagine_Layout 1 9/10/13 2:25 PM Pagina 17

15. In his works nothing is ever completely
‘comprehensible’. Rational comprehension
requires simplification, explicit analogies and
contraposition. This artist’s research goes in
another direction. Each element is, to use a
term from psychoanalysis, overdetermined. In
other words, it is motivated by many factors.
Opposites may coincide. His work has an es-
sentially erotic nature, which is collected,
mediated and delivered through a very subtle
irony that often comes full circle making an
ending possible. [...] I’ve asked myself if the
work of this theatre researcher could be con-
sidered as representational art. I would say
no, unless it’s that particular kind of repre-
sentation of something that remains unre-
vealed, as can sometimes be the case in the
great paintings of the past.
Silvia Tarquini, ’Il danzatore e il cespuglio’, in Id. (ed.), Fabrizio Crisafulli: un teatro dell’essere, Rome: Editoria & Spetta-
colo, 2010, pp. 8-9
In his works nothing is ever completely
‘comprehensible’. Rational comprehension
requires simplification, explicit analogies and
contraposition. This artist’s research goes in
another direction. Each element is, to use a
term from psychoanalysis, overdetermined. In
other words, it is motivated by many factors.
Opposites may coincide. His work has an es-
sentially erotic nature, which is collected,
mediatedand delivered through a very subtle
irony that often comes full circle making an
ending possible. [...] I’ve asked myself if the
work of this theatre researcher could be con-
sidered as representational art. I would say
no, unless it’s that particular kind of repre-
sentation of something that remains unre-
vealed, as can sometimes be the case in the
great paintings of the past.
Silvia Tarquini, ’Il danzatore e il cespuglio’, in Id. (ed.), Fabrizio Crisafulli: un teatro dell’essere, Rome: Editoria & Spetta-
colo, 2010, pp. 8-9
Archivio romi_Layout 1 9/10/13 2:11 PM Pagina 110

16. «Alcune iniziative romane esaltano l’archeologia collocandola in uno spazio
di interferenza con altri territori […].A questi eventi si deve aggiungere l’ap-
porto diffuso dell’arte che reinterpreta forme e luoghi dell’archeologia at-
traverso interventi site specific. Come nelle proiezioni di Jenny Holzer sul
Teatro di Marcello o sulla Mole di Castel Sant’Angelo o nell’evento multi-
mediale di Fabrizio Crisafulli che a Ponte Milvio evoca i suoni e i colori della
battaglia di Massenzio».
Giovanna Donini, Paesaggi dell’allestimento, testo introduttivo a Id. (a
cura di), L’architettura degli allestimenti, Kappa, Roma, 2010, p. 27
228
archive / archivio
2003
Et molto meravigliosi da vedere,
installazioni di luce sui ponti di Roma,
2003. L’intervento a Ponte Milvio
Archivio romi_Layout 1 9/10/13 2:13 PM Pagina 228
Artdigiland Ltd
23, Griffith Down - The Crescent
Drumcondra, D9 Dublin
Rep. of Ireland
info@artdigiland.com - http://artdigiland.com
Et molto meravigliosi da vedere,
by Fabrizio Crisafulli
Installation, Rome 2003