Italian Puppet Theater

My research on Italian puppetry focuses on the many ways this tradition has carried meaning within Italian culture and continued to evolve across time. I look at puppetry not only as a form of performance, but also as an imaginative language that has entered literature, cinema, and other expressive domains. A central part of this work traces how distinct puppet traditions reappear in modern texts and films, where they preserve older symbolic resonances even as they are reshaped for new aesthetic and cultural purposes. I am interested in what puppetry reveals about cultural memory, but also about the lasting power of animated figures to embody deep human questions in material form.

Selected Studies

  • The Image of the Puppet in Italian Theater, Literature, and Film. Pesaro: Metauro Editore, 2020 / London: Palgrave Macmillan 2022 *Winner of the Jury Award of Premio Cibotto, 2020 and of the Union Internationale de la Marionnette’s Nancy Staub Award For Excellence in Publications on the Art of Puppetry, 2024.

  • Il burattino multimediale: le illustrazioni delle Avventure di Pinocchio. Prima parte. Eds. Irene Lottini, Federico Pacchioni and Roberto Vezzani. Special issue of Letteratura e Pensiero [Rivista scientifica Area 10 ANVUR] 26 (2025). Castiglione di Sicilia: Il Convivio. (Conference Proceeding).

  • A Global “Puppet”: Pinocchio in the Marionette and Puppet Theatre. Eds. Daniela Marcheschi, Irene Lottini, and Federico Pacchioni. Special issue of Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance 18.2 (2025).Bristol, UK: Intellect (Conference Proceeding).

  • “The Transnational Puppet: From Italy and Back” Italian Americans in Films and Other Media. The Immigrant Experience from Silent Films to the Internet Age. Eds. F. Orsitto, D. Fioretti. London: Palgrave Mcmillan, 2024. 173-187.

  • “Lo schermo e il burattino: intermedialità e rimediazione tra teatro di figura e cinema muto”. California Italian Studies Journal. Vol. 7.1 (2017). Online journal.

  • “Il pupo emigrato: dal teatro allo schermo”. Italian Canadiana. Vol. 31 (2017): 155-164.

  • “Novecento tra poesia e politica: Bertolucci e il teatro popolare dei burattini.” Rivista Luci e Ombre. Trimestrale di informazionecinematografica e culturale. 4.1 (April-June 2016). Online journal.

  • “La contaminazione tra teatro di figura e cinema in Cosa sono le nuvole?”. Contaminazioni culturali. Musica, teatro, cinema e letteratura nell'Italia contemporanea. Eds. Simona Wright and Fulvio Orsitto. Roma: Vecchiarelli, 2014. 233-244.

  • “Volgarità e grazia: il cinema di figura di Lina Wertmüller.” L'ANELLO che non tiene: Journal of Modern Italian Literature. 24.12 (Spring-Fall 2012): 147-160.

  • “La passione di un Burattino: Teste di legno ribattezzate all’ombra della Commedia dell’Arte.” Intersezioni. Review of the History of Ideas 3 (2009): 339-356.

Selected Speaking Engagements

  • “Italian Puppetry Across Borders” Italy in Transit. Plenary Session of the international symposium organized by the FAU Italian Studies Program in collaboration with the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute. Florida Atlantic University. Boca Raton, Florida. February 7-10, 2024.

  • “The Image of the Puppet in Italian Literature, Theater, and Film.” Talk at the Italian American Museum of Los Angeles. March 4, 2023.

  • “The Puppet-Actor: Italian Inanimate/Animate Hybridity Across Borders.” CICIS (California Interdisciplinary Consortium of Italian Studies). California State University Long Beach. February 24-25, 2023.

  • “Puppetry Aesthetics in Lina Wertmüller’s Cinema.” Italian Cinema and Media: Past and Present, Continuity and Change, Expectations for the Future. Third International Conference of the Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies. The American University of Rome. Rome, Italy. June 16-19, 2022.

  • “Transhistoricity: Pasolini and the Puppet Metaphor.” One Hundred Years of Pasolini: A Translational Gathering of Critical Voices. Invited panelist at a symposium organized by The George L. Graziadio Center for Italian Studies, California State University - Long Beach. March 4th, 2022.

  • “An Unbearable Guest: The Italian Puppet on the International Silver Screen.” CICIS (California Interdisciplinary Consortium of Italian Studies). University of California, Davis. Virtual. March 26-27, 2021.

  • “Hidden Treasures of Italy: The Opera dei Pupi.” Hosted by Fondazione Italia, Los Angeles, California. Virtual talk. November 18, 2020.

  • “The Intermedial Life of Puppets: The Case of Italy.”Talk. California State University - Long Beach. November 19, 2019.

  • “Transcending Representation: The Function of Puppetry in Pasolini’s Cosa sono le nuvole?” AAIS (American Association for Italian Studies). Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, March 14-16, 2019.

  • “Il pupo emigrato: dal teatro allo schermo.” IASA (Italian American Studies Association). University of California, Long Beach. November 4, 2016.

  • “Marionetta, perturbante e sperimentazione negli anni Trenta.” PAMLA (Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association). Portland, Oregon. November 6-8, 2015.

  • “Journeys of Italian Puppets. A Translational Perspective.” NEMLA (Northeast Modern Language Association). 46th Annual Convention, Toronto, Canada. April 30-May 3, 2015.

  • “Tra poesia e politica: i burattini in Novecento di Bertolucci” The Sixth Annual Film Symposium on New Trends in Modern and Contemporary Italian Cinema. Indiana University Bloomington. April 22-25, 2015.

  • “Il film e il burattino: dinamiche di rimediazione nel primo Novecento.” AAIS (American Association for Italian Studies). Boulder, Colorado. May 26-28, 2015.

  • “Impulsi di libertà: la marionetta in Marinetti, De Chirico e Bontempelli.” PAMLA (Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association). Riverside, California. October 31-November 2, 2014.

  • “La morale dell’animazione: scambi tra teatro di figura e cinema muto.” Intersections: Italy in Music, Art, Literature, and Cinema. Turin, Italy. June 6-7, 2014.

  • “Teatro di figura e cinema delle origini in Italia: fruizione, collaborazione e rimediazione.” NEMLA (Northeast Modern Language Association). 45th Annual Convention, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. April 6, 2014.

  • “The Bertoluccis and the Ferraris.” PAMLA (Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association). San Diego, California. November 2, 2013.

  • “La marionetta umana nel cinema di Pier Paolo Pasolini.” Intersections: Contemporary Italy in Music, Art, Literature, and Cinema. Turin, Italy. June 7-8, 2013.

  • “Italian American Film and the Sicilian Puppet.” Italy in the Age of Globalization. California State University, Chico. October 22-23, 2012.

  • “Ancient Actors on Modern Screens: The Filmic Lives of Puppets.” Italy’s/Italies Today. An Interdisciplinary Conference Marking 150 Years of Italian Nationhood. University of New Hampshire at Durham, April 1, 2011.

  • “La passione di un Burattino: teste di legno ribattezzate all'ombra della Commedia dell'Arte.” SAMLA (South Atlantic Modern Language Association) 80th Annual Convention. Louisville, Kentucky. November 7, 2008.