| Abstract: | Between 1944 and 1950 the publishing house Rosa e Ballo renewed the Italian repertoire of German dramatic literature by collecting translations from Büchner, Wedekind, Toller, Kaiser and Brecht in the book series ‘Teatro/Teatro moderno’. The series was designed by Paolo Grassi, who was then struggling to legitimize the teatro di regia (director’s theatre) against the dominant teatro del grande attore (lead actor’s theatre), a revolution he would accomplish after WWII by establishing the Piccolo teatro in Milan. The company and the network of collaborators set up in Turin and Milan by the editor-in-chief Ferdinando Ballo provided Grassi with an ideal instrument for his subversion in the field of theatre. In turn, Grassi’s networking in Rome, where the most recognized men of theatre were based, brought to Rosa e Ballo its most successful book series and finally a position within the field of publishing. By joining forces, newcomers in two different fields mutually contributed to their primary accumulation of symbolic capital. |
