PERUGIA – “The people of the future love” is the show signed by Vittoria Corallo born within the project For Aspera Ad Astra – reconfiguring prison through culture and beauty, promoted by Acri, created with the support of the Perugia Foundation and produced by the Teatro Stabile dell’Umbria. The dates to mark in the calendar are Thursday 9 May at 6pm in the prison of Capanne and Monday 13 May at 7pm at the Morlacchi Theater in Perugia. The staging is the sixth chapter of a research carried out together with the inmates who participated in the previous five editions of For Aspera to Astra inside the prison of Capanne.
THE SHOW
Here are the director’s notes Vittoria Corallo: “Creating a theater show in prison is like going through a labyrinth in which in front of every wall and every dead end you encounter an inspiration, a vital and necessary element for the story that is composed in that journey. There are the times dictated by the needs of prison which naturally come before the artistic ones, there are the languages and cultures of the participants, the stumbles in chewing words that are foreign to some of them. Different expressive abilities, not prepared, not homogeneous. I try not to circumvent these circumstances but to enhance them, giving them space. We must then relate to the most obvious meaning that prisoners inevitably carry with them throughout the experience, that of prison, crime, punishment, re-education, repentance, how can one transcend this underground text when the experience itself Do you identify with theater in prison? There is a need to ask the theater to be so strong and courageous as not to sit on that definition, to overturn it, to be radical to the point of imagining that only through its presence, that place and those people can transform themselves infinitely. Artistic expression moves within these limits and reaches an integral or decomposed synthesis, the result of a dialogue that accepts all its parts, even the thorniest ones: the exit from the labyrinth should be like this. The People of the Future Love was born from the shared reading of All about love and by the heated discussions it generated between us during the prison workshop. The idea for the game was born as we discovered, chapter after chapter, a new reverberation, like the circles in the water that continue to form after throwing a stone. A game without rules, in which the tests and stages try to lead the pawns to experience the totemic words disseminated by the author in the 13 chapters of the book. The development is the meeting between some figures and groups of figures, often locked in pre-established roles: men, young people, females, males, women, children, through their relationship will try to implement this vision of Love. The protagonists of this game-show will have to compete with tasks to reach a new collective consciousness of love, which heals them and frees them from abuses and dangerous interpretations, which are often embodied and transmitted in private and public spaces, causing pain in the name of it. La Popola is the germ of this new human trace of the future, and she loves right now.”
THEY SAID
The sixth edition of the project, designed to contribute to the recovery of personal identity and the resocialization of prisoners, was illustrated this morning, 24 April, at a press conference.
Vittoria Corallo director of the show: “This year we collaborated with some students from the G. Galilei scientific high school and the Bernardino di Betto artistic high school who shared the reading of the text of Bell Hooks All about love with prisoners, also participating in some laboratory days in prison. Some of them decided to continue the experience by participating in the show. Bell Hooks brings love back to the table, to all tables, imagines it capable of rebelling against the marginal role that the public and political sphere grants it, returns it to its universal nature as a guide and root of humanity”.
Cristina Colaiacovo president of the Perugia Foundation: “My entire mandate was accompanied by the challenging and exciting presence of Per Aspera ad Astra, an initiative born at a national level and which found one of its most significant experiences in the Perugia edition. A social, cultural, artistic and relational adventure. Truly one of the most successful projects among those supported by our Foundation, as it embodies a plurality of objectives and constitutional values, managing to go well beyond our normal activities”.
Nino Marino director of the TSU: “10 years have passed since Vittoria Corallo went to the Capanne prison to ask the director to be able to work with the inmates to create a theater project. Her sensitivity, her talent, her passion and determination have made a project possible which has today become one of the most anticipated events of the year. This year too, the inmates will be hired as actors by the Teatro Stabile dell’Umbria to present, first in prison and then at the Morlacchi Theatre, the fruit of a work that has a dual artistic and pedagogical value. Compared to past projects, this year the high schools of Perugia were involved, whose students carried out workshops both inside the prison and at the Morlacchi Theatre. A show, therefore, which gives voice to those who need listening and participation more than others and which stimulates communication between the prison world and the civil society of Perugia”.
Antonella Grella director of the Capanne prison: “Remaining inactive, waiting for time to pass without intellectual or manual commitment, does not help to reflect on oneself and on the events of one’s existence that led to living illegally and finding oneself in prison. Inactivity can lead to a chronicization of ways of thinking, acting and relating to others that are not correct and which will inevitably lead the subject, once he has finished serving his sentence, to repeat the same behaviors, to retrace paths already known or even more dangerous. And for this reason it is important that within penitentiary institutions there are treatment proposals that help inmates re-elaborate their life experience to redefine themselves and give a different meaning and direction to their existence. The theatrical dimension, in addressing the human from different points of view, gives the opportunity to experiment, to reveal something more about oneself, about one’s wealth, one’s abilities and personal resources. Theater allows you to create paths that can help in the transformation of the person by making positive contributions in terms of relationships and personal well-being. Thanks to the therapeutic power of theatrical art, new avenues of change can open up.”
Fabrizio Stazi general director of the Perugia Foundation: “The shows we will see in Perugia are the result of great and continuous study and experimentation. Our support for this initiative is increasingly convinced, as is our appreciation for the methodological approach chosen by the production, which is eminently artistic and aimed at avoiding any reduction to the prison context”.
THE BOARD
THE PEOPLE OF THE FUTURE LOVE
Freely adapted from “All About Love” by Bell Hooks
text and direction Vittoria Corallo
with the inmate actors of the Capanne prison, students of the B. Di Betto artistic high school and the University Theater Laboratory of the University of Perugia, care of the movement Daria Menichetti, sets and costumes Rosa Mariotti, Ruize Ma, with the collaboration of the students of the B. di Betto artistic high school
lights Emiliano Austeri
sound Giacomo Agnifili
with the collaboration of the inmates of the Lighting Techniques and Theatrical Sound Engineering course
collaboration with Carlo Dalla Costa training
a TEATRO STABLE DELL’UMBRIA production
produced within the PER ASPERA AD ASTRA project promoted by ACRI
created with the support of the PERUGIA FOUNDATION
In the cover photo from left Stefano Salerno, Vittoria Corallo, Antonella Grella, Fabrizio Stazi
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For Aspera Ad Astra was born in 2018 and is underway today in 15 Italian prisons. The initiative, promoted by Acri and supported by 11 Foundations, has involved over 1000 prisoners since 2018 who participate in professional training courses in theater professions, which concern not only actors and playwrights, but also set designers, costume designers, make-up artists, sound engineers, lighting workers.
Info: both shows are free of charge and open to all citizens. For the one on Thursday 9 May at the prison it is possible to send an email to the address: [email protected] by Wednesday 1 May. For the show on May 13th at the Morlacchi Theater it will be possible to book tickets starting from Thursday May 2nd, by registering on the Eventbrite platform. The registration link will be distributed online via the communication channels of the Teatro Stabile dell’Umbria and the Perugia Foundation.
