Abstract
The following text aims at investigating spectator participation, here called also “spectator dramaturgy”, within the specific context of an
international theatre festival, La Biennale di Venezia. After offering a brief theoretical schema on the penalized condition of the role of the spectator has always been had in theatre studies and not only there (Rousseau, Mervant-Roux, Grotowksy), its autonomous and emancipated positioning from statute (Rancière) is then made to emerge. In particular, three case studies (Club Gewalt, Julian Hetzel and Miet Warlop) present in the Biennale are then considered in order to analyse and highlight the different dramaturgical strategies of audience involvement and how, despite the different uses, “participation” is a conditio sine qua non of the relationship between stage and auditorium.