| This dissertation examines the theatrical performances of cloistered women in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Venetian convents. It traces how the convent's dramatic tradition complemented and/or diverged from other religious and popular dramatic traditions at the time, and it challenges received histories that still overlook women's participation in early modern theatrical production. My discovery that nuns in one out of every two Venetian convents performed publicly, before audiences of men and women, religious and lay, significantly revises current understandings of class and gender relations as well as theatre conventions of the early modern period. By reading across a variety of sources including church and state archival records, printed plays and dedications, and popular literary and journalistic publications, this dissertation first substantiates the nuns' performance tradition from the angles of production and reception. It reconstructs the world of convent theatre from dramaturgical details gleaned from close analysis of local anti-theatrical measures and their subsequent violations, the logistics and gendered symbolism of a convent parlor mise-en-scene, the relationship between convents and the Venetian press, and printed plays bound for the Venetian cloister. In particular, this study investigates the nuns' intersection with professional playwrights Luigi Groto, Paolino Fiamma Crocifero, Iacomo Donati, Fabio Glissenti, Francesco Pona and Giacinto Andrea Cicognini, proving there to have been indelible links between the city's sacred and secular theatrical realms. It also tracks evidence of musical crossover through the influences of Venice's burgeoning operatic empire and the ospedale's oratorio tradition upon convent theatrics. Finally, this dissertation explores the figure of the Venetian nun-as-actress through the writings of Venetian nun Arcangela Tarabotti and playwright Carlo Goldoni, both of whom address the highly produced religious ceremonies during which the city witnessed the nun's performative transformation into a role she would play for the rest of her life. In short, this study argues that the life of a Venetian nun was far from truly cloistered and her theatrical and ceremonial offerings were entertainment products on the open Venetian market, making her representative of a new breed of early modern actor. |
