On Saturday 27 April, at 10 am, the laying of a laurel wreath is scheduled in Piazza Teatro near the plaque placed last year in memory of the civilian and military victims of the Anglo-American air raid of 1943.
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«27 April 1943, death and rebirth of the municipal theater of Trani» is the title chosen for the event co-organised by the Association “prof. Mauro Cignarelli”-ODV and the Municipality of Trani which will be held on April 27th in the Ronchi room of the municipal library of Trani (4.15 pm).
This event is relevant for the city because 81 years after the bombing of the S. Ferdinando theater in Trani, today there is the possibility and the concrete will of the administrators, associations and many ordinary citizens to come together to debate and plan to make reborn a new theater from the foundations of the Supercinema theater, which the administration recently decided to purchase together with the Impero cinema.
It is the first step – we believe – of a possible civil and cultural awakening of our city.
The opening program includes a reference to the history of the S. Ferdinando theatre, made interesting by the citation of particularly significant episodes and anecdotes, from its opening in 1792 to its closure following the damage sustained in the bombing of the city on 27 April 1943.
The theater could have been rebuilt but this incredibly did not happen and the decommissioned building was removed in 1956, while Francesco Paolo Mongelli was mayor. This very curious and unedifying episode deserves further investigation and will be the subject of debate: what motivations pushed the people of Trani and the administration of the time to erase such an important memory of the city?
Then we will talk about the plan put in place by the Municipality for the reconstruction of the new municipal theater of Trani from the foundations of an abandoned building, the Supercinema, which was both theater and cinema, built in the 1920s, characterized by a large stage , good acoustics and notable accommodation (around eight hundred seats).
Finally, the initiative of the Prof M. Cignarelli Club will be presented: the memorandum of understanding (to which twenty city associations have signed up so far), to ask the municipal administration for a co-planning table and to integrate the reconstruction of the new theater with the opening of a school for artists and entertainment professionals.
The new theater will have an easier guarantee of success if it is not only a place for performances but also for the production of shows, with the valorisation of local talents.
Antonio Sasso – President of the Association Prof. Mauro Cignarelli
