Waiting for final evening of the City of Velletri Student Theatrical Palio 2024of which Castelli Notizie is also a media partner and member of the jury, we host the statements of artistic director Giacomo Zito, who enthusiastically stated: “Is theater a game? Then the Palio is a surprising theme park!”
“Waiting for the final date of the review, scheduled for Friday 10 May 2024 at 9pm and which will see the delivery of certificates of merit to all participating theater groups at the Teatro Artemisio Gian Maria Volonté and the proclamation of the winning groupin addition to the staging of the guest show of the City of Udine Student Theater Palio – with which our Palio is twinned, it seems to me that it is already possible to share objective data and impressions obtained from the eight evenings and the fourteen shows applauded by around two thousand spectators and which they involved three hundred and fifteen artists, including actresses, actors and musicians on stage, without counting all the directors, school representatives and collaborators.
The objective data is the increase, compared to the first edition, in the number of institutes involved and in the number of shows performed and, consequently, in the number of spectators. An extremely significant element was the financial support of the entire event by the Municipal Administration of Velletri and the organizational collaboration fully shared with ATCL Lazio.
The involvement of two such important bodies, which accompanied the event with the presence of their representatives FondArC for all the evenings of the Palio, direct witnesses of how much the Palio fueled a generative process of energy, enthusiasm and emotions every evening, gave us the measure of how much those who supported us had understood the potential of this initiative.
The peculiar characteristic of the Palio is in fact that of offering to school theater groups an absolutely professional context: programming to which FondArC dedicates the same passion and commitment that is offered to a professional theater season; an equipped theater and stage; tutors identified among recognized performing artists; professional audio-light technicians, ticket collectors and room staff; photos and videos taken by accredited photographers; a jury of experts; visibility increased by the involvement of numerous media partners, and above all by the scrupulous work of the Foundation’s communications manager. And the girls and boys involved react proportionately to this investment in their skills and their work, because they perceive the value of the responsibility entrusted to them. Finally, an objective fact is the massive presence in the theater of an adolescent age group that hardly fills theater halls: this seems to me to be the most gratifying result.
I hope that the Palio experience can carve out a place in the hearts of all those who participated, in any role and with any task. The Palio has proven to be a training ground where trust, listening, courage and the value of belonging can be trained. I believe it offered all the participants (including many for the first time on a stage) a moment of enchantment, a suspended time which is the time of the show as it unfolds before the eyes of the public; a magical time that awakens in everyone their own essential spiritual sphere, which risks being malnourished in this era that we have had to live in, an era where the constant solicitation from “device” risks drowning the time for reflection in a tsunami of superficial images and content.
I also believe it is evident that the quality of relationships that manages to create the experience of doing theater – conducted and nourished by people who have in turn developed a loving relationship with this artistic language and who are able to transmit it and share it with girls and kids – is also different from what schools or some sports environments produce, because it does not leverage competition and antagonism, but on a perspective of equality, of complementarity, of an original shared creation.
What I hope for future editions is that the Palio is even more of an event for the kids, as well as for the kids: that they feel the Palio is something that belongs to them, and that this encourages exchange, interest and curiosity for viewing the shows of other groups and other institutes, which encourages comparison, discussion, maturation and individual critical ability, both among the artists involved and among the public. I hope that the (in some cases surprising) outcome of the Palio experience among the girls and boys who participated will foster the belief that theatrical practice should become a curricular path within school programs.
To conclude, a next objective for future editions will be to bring students from different schools into contact even during the period that constitutes the staging phases of the shows, to exchange and share opinions, knowledge, techniques and passions. And together with this, we sincerely hope for it, also for dreams.”
These are the words of artistic director, Giacomo Zitor, on the sidelines of the review of the Città di Velletri Student Theater Palio, now in its second edition. The final evening of May 10 promises to be spectacular and crackling. The appointment is at 8.45pm. Free admission.
