Definitions such as art theatres, exceptional theatres, little theatres, or independent theatres between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries refer to non-commercial experiments, especially in the European theatre. In Italy, their season was short-lived: The first was Anton Giulio Bragaglia’s Teatro degli Indipendenti, while the most famous was Pirandello’s Teatro degli Odescalchi. Often small, organized as private clubs to avoid censorship, they all had economic difficulties and generally brief lifespans. In Europe, however, they marked a significant phenomenon, privileging a repertoire that was often not only intellectually but also “politically” engaging: plays that spoke of new ways of being men and women, of new relationships between human beings. They corresponded with demands for change that were not only theatrical. In Italy, however, this chapter argues, the rise of the little theaters took place during the years of Fascism, so their innovations were cultural rather than political and lacked the extra-theatrical values that had been fundamental to other European art theatres.

The introduction of Pirandello’s works to Latin America started in earnest after the controversial Italian success of Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921), which was then staged by Dario Niccodemi’s company in Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Rio de Janeiro. When Pirandello’s newly established Teatro d’Arte found itself in serious financial trouble in 1927, it welcomed the proposal by the Teatro Odeón in Buenos Aires for a tour that promised to cover the deficit. On his first trip to South America the author sparked a fervor that made him the tour’s protagonist while dispelling the perception of his theatre as simply a conduit for Fascist propaganda. Pirandello’s second trip to Argentina in 1933 saw the author directing the successful world premiere of When One Is Somebody, which had not yet found an Italian production due to its autobiographical content and heavy technical requirements. An important connection between Pirandello and the Buenos Aires professional theatre scene was actor Luis Arata, whose company systematically offered his plays between the 1930s and 1940s. Over time, Pirandellian productions gradually spread across the official, commercial, and independent circuits, and Pirandellian tropes have continued to influence Argentine playwriting to this day.

The chapter considers Pirandello’s unsuccessful attempts to establish a national theatre in Italy. Influenced by examples of national theatres in other countries such as the Comédie Française in France and disappointed with the lack of financial resources to sustain his own very successful Teatro d’Arte, Pirandello tried to use Mussolini’s influence and the rise of Fascism to create a national theatre run by himself with full state sponsorship. He developed elaborate plans for a national theatre that would operate in three major cities and house ensemble casts, some of whose members would travel between the cities to facilitate touring productions. The plans would have involved considerable expenditure, including the costs of establishing the technical infrastructure for the three theatres as well as of maintaining three ensembles of actors. Despite initial encouragement and support from Mussolini, Pirandello encountered competition from other entrepreneurs and artists and political opposition, and eventually failed to achieve his goal.