Live shows that travel from town to town, crossing hills and valleys, in a tour carried out entirely on foot, with a backpack on your shoulders. Is called “Mountain climber”has the voices of a lyric soprano and a swing singer, was born in Piedmont in the heart of the pandemic (summer 2020) and step by step is conquering the whole country.
Let’s go in order. “Our project was born in summer 2020 to bring the home show at a time when organizing events could not be easy, we found ourselves unable to do our job. Walking and nature enthusiastsnot being able to perform in theaters, we thought of doing it in the squares and above all reaching them on foot – say the creators Irene Geninatti Chiolero, sopranoAnd Danilo Ramon Giannini, singer and actor -. We realized that the formula had enormous potential in terms of slow and sustainable tourism development, conscious cultural enjoyment, but also promotion of those marginal areas of Italy that hide villages, paths and food and wine excellences to discover”. Comedy-musical shows, some inspired by famous musicals, others taken from operettas, still others with a culinary theme, conquer the public in small numbers, one evening at a time, one square at a time, and the next morning they set off again.
“We started from the Bormida Valley and the Lanzo Valleys. During the morning commute, people joined us, they walked alongside us, we discovered wonderful places near our house together. We said to ourselves: why not do it elsewhere too?”. And so Scalalcamontagne, the name of the company, has become a traveling event and has been renewed year after year: the fourth edition ended in mid-September 2023, reaching four regions and eight provinces along a path that involved 43 municipalities and more than 500 km. “We arrived for the first time in the high mountains, in suggestive places such as Lago della Rossa and the Collerin Pass (3200 meters above sea level), accompanied by an alpine guide. It was a success with audiences and critics.”
The 2024 edition is ready: the backpack is just waiting to be worn. Departure is set for June 7th, with the new production “Se mi lanci non vale” set in New York. “We will travel more than 700 km involving over 70 municipalities in ten provinces and five regions, from Piedmont to Liguria, from Lombardy to Puglia up to Sicily”. The project is followed by a medium-mountain guide, Elia Origoni, known for having just finished “In solitaire”, that is, the feat of covering the entire Sentiero Italia continuously alone. “The structure is very simple: the company of artists crosses a territory on foot. The idea is ensure that every day a small nucleus of walkers/spectators is created who arrive in a place and experience it in a slow way, on the other hand to bring “home” to the inhabitants of the small and wonderful villages touched by the project, where often a theater there is not, a varied cultural offer and suitable for all audiences.” Each Municipality participates by welcoming the artists, offering them food and accommodation, a small fee, the town square. There is no entrance fee, but at the exit there is a hat to leave an offering to the artists.
A project born in response to a complicated context, which was able to grow and become a path to bring the public closer to the theater, to a simpler and more direct use, and to the concept of participatory community. “The fact of walking every morning clears the mind and makes it available to create, think and devise new things. On an artistic and spiritual level, it is a priceless dimension. We deeply believe in the value of taking theater outside the theater, where theater doesn’t exist or doesn’t arrive.”
[Foto Manuel Cazzola]
