Santarcangelo 1980, Festival del Teatro in Piazza. Nuovi metodi di indagine sui rapporti tra fotografia e teatro e uno sguardo nell’Archivio Carla Cerati

This essay illustrates a so far unknown episode relating to the 1980 edition of the Festival del Teatro in piazza of Santarcangelo di Romagna. The episode induces new thoughts on the complex connections between photography and theatre and on the numerous interactions – theoretical and not only theoretical – between these two fields of research. Starting from a detailed analysis of the sources and of a slim catalogue published on that occasion, this essay aims at reconstructing the documentary work of a photographic team, active in Santarcangelo during the Festival. It also analyses papers from the personal archive of Carla Cerati, member of the team, with the aim to define new methods for the study of the theatrical photography considering the factual importance of the photographic objects involved