Great emotions at the debut of the show “Piccole Memorie” presented by the Compagnia degli Originali Talenti, of the “Mettiamoci in Gioco” association, at the ZṐ Centro Culture Contemporanee theater in Catania. In the room, the very large audience followed the delicate and poetic performance of the 8 special protagonists, involved and moved: Marco Bumbica, Sebastian Di Caro, Chiara Ingaglio, Alessandra Longo, Nanni Marletta, Silvia Minardi, Damiano Puglisi, Alessandro Samperi.
On stage, the actors appear as ethereal presences in an evocative, almost completely silent sequence of images made even more enchanting by a clever play of light; the common thread is the memory, the nostalgia for times gone by through an old armchair, the table at home from childhood or even the prom dress of the best years. Objects that embody “madeleines” that everyone keeps in their hearts and that catapult into the past, awakening a poignant and melancholic desire to go back even just for an instant.
“The theme of remembrance, of memory – explains the director, actress and author Smeralda Capizzi who has been working with the children of Metdiamoci in Gioco for some time – allowed me to work on the humanity and uniqueness of each of these children, so that they could try and return emotions, creating a sort of mirroring process between the audience and what appeared on stage. A work of images, in which there is particular attention to aesthetics; paintings that come alive and tell fragments of life, fleeting memories, moments. The objective – she adds – is always to search for in each of them, through the movement of the body, the gaze, the mimicry of the face, the personal story that can be brought within the collective narrative”.
The theater workshop is one of the creative activities that the voluntary organization Metiamoci in Gioco, located in Sant’Agata Li Battiati, in the province of Catania, makes available to people with disabilities and frailties, an extraordinary means that allows them to free emotions, expressing potential, talent and affirming one’s self.
The commitment with them – underlines the director – is not limited to a mere volunteer experience, for me it is a real process of artistic creation, possible thanks to their great availability and lack of superstructures. Over time, a relationship of mutual trust was created through which I learned to understand how to enhance them without ever exploiting their person. An absolutely equal exchange experience that allows me to create images from a directorial point of view.”
The result of so much work and commitment was truly magnificent judging by the pathos that was created in the room and which the audience chose not to break by limiting the open stage applause as much as possible, which would have involved more faces, especially with respect of the great concentration of extraordinary performers, powerful even in the expression of their fragilities.
