In Campania a network to enhance the Prison Theatre
April 24, 2024
Create a regional network in Campania that enhances and promotes theatrical activity in penitentiary institutions, according to the programmatic lines of the Department of Penitentiary Administration. This is what is provided for in the ‘Prison Theatre’ memorandum of understanding signed on 22 April by the regional Superintendency of the Campania Penitentiary Administration, the Campania Prison Theater Coordination, the ‘Il Carcere Possible’ non-profit association, the surveillance courts of Naples and of Salerno and the Interdistrict External Criminal Enforcement Office of Naples.
Mimmo Basso, operational director of the Theatre, wanted to remember, on the occasion of the signing of the agreement, the lawyer Massimo Polidoro who passed away some time ago, former president of the Il Carcere Possibile Onlus Association, with which in recent years the first theatrical reviews of companies active in Campania prisons.
The presence, among the signatories, of the supervisory judiciary, which supervises the execution of the sentence and is the body responsible for granting convicts release from the penitentiary, was appreciated and underlined. In fact, it is now common for internal theater companies to be allowed to perform in local theaters in the presence of safety requirements.
“The presentation of the agreement in a prestigious city theater such as the Mercadante, thanks to the generosity of the management, which I thank – declares Lucia Castellano, Regional Superintendent of the penitentiary administration – allows us to address all citizens, and not just the employees at work, to talk about the prison that offers opportunities for change through the discovery of those talents that prisoners often didn’t know they had. And, if they knew it, give them the opportunity to express it fully.”
At the moment, there are seven theater companies working in Campania institutions that have joined the Campania Prison Theater Coordination, all present at the event who enthusiastically testified to the value of the theatrical activities carried out in prisons.
The interventions of the president of the supervisory court of Naples, Patrizia Mirra, of Gaetano Battista for the Carcere Campania Theater Coordination, of Mara Esposito Gonella president of the Il Carcere Possibile Onlus Association, of Claudia Nannola, director of Uiepe of Naples highlighted the support convinced of the agreement whose objectives they share.
Finally, the supervisory magistrate Marco Puglia presented the show “Macbeth, black heart”, in preparation with the inmates of the Arienzo prison which will be performed on June 13th at the San Ferdinando Theatre.
