Fondare il teatro italiano negli Stati Uniti: La commedia di Giovanni De Rosalia (1864-1934)

This essay explores the migration and stabilization processes of Italian-style theatrical genres on the American stage in the 19th and 20th centuries, with particular attention to the comedies of Giovanni De Rosalia. They spread the Italian performing arts heritage, which, with their mixed and flexible nature, was able to influence, albeit in a subtle way, theatrical culture overseas. With his theater companies, De Rosalia was not only the undisputed star of the America/n stage and discography of the 1920s, but also created, around the character of the Sicilian immigrant Nofrio, a comic genre of caricature that became a reference point for Italian theater, and sought to launch it into professional acting.