There are just a few hours left until the show is staged Talk «Adolescence. Because growing up can be difficult” which will be held tonight, Wednesday 8 May, at 9pm at the Ponchielli Theater in Cremona. An initiative aimed at younger people, but also at parents, teachers, educators, health and social-health workers and all interested people.
The event was born from the meeting and discussion between Teatro Ponchielli, Rotary Cremona Monteverdi, ASST Cremona and with the contribution of the Province of Cremona, Growens and Rotary District 2050; is sponsored by the Municipality of Cremona and the Medical Association of Cremona. It takes place in collaboration with the Cremona Student Council.
FOUR EXPERTS FOR FOUR ISSUES OF OUR TIME
Sara Segantin (Writer and scientific communicator, collaborator of the television program Geo&Geo) will talk about ecoanxiety, because «we are in an extremely complex historical moment where fear of the future and anxiety of the present pervade every moment of our lives. Young people are told that they are not enough, which is why talking to them is essential.”
Alessandra Lupi (Psychologist and psychotherapist, expert in adolescent distress, collaborator of the free counseling center of the Minotauro Cooperative in Milan) will talk about wounded body and “of the deep and silent pain that our young people feel but are unable to talk about”.
Debora La Pusata (Clinical psychologist and pedagogist ALA Milano Onlus, expert in issues relating to gender identity) will talk about gender identity to “give words and meaning to a topic that too often becomes a terrain of misunderstanding, confusion and even discrimination, but which in reality concerns everyone”.
Michele Marangi (Media educator and professor at the Catholic University of Milan) will talk about new digital addictions to «better frame new ways of relating to technologies, grasp the risks and problems, but also understand possible interpretations and usage practices that are updated with the transformations of the times we live in».
The plot of the evening will be woven there Company of the Little Ones which – between one intervention and another – will bring to the stage some emblematic fragments of the show «Elsewhere» with the directed by Mattia Cabrini. Interviewing the guests will be the boys and girls who participated in the event Keep in Mind project and some members of the student council. He leads Andrea Marchesi of Radio Deejay.
YOUNG PEOPLE INTERVIEW THE EXPERTS
The experts will be interviewed by: Maria Capomolla, Salvatore Lentini Scarcina and Simona Shegaj of the Keep in Mind project; Carlo Ferrari, Filippo Giazzi and Angelica Zanacchi of the Student Council).
THE MENTAL HEALTH OF YOUNG PEOPLE A PRIORITY
«With the idea of the Talk – he explains Enrico Basola, Rotary President Cremona Monteverdi – we have accepted the invitation of our international President Gordon McInally to identify the theme of mental and emotional health and well-being in young people as a new priority for our service projects. During one of his speeches, the President stated that “the very act of asking for help is considered a weakness. But nothing could be further from the truth. It’s brave to be vulnerable and admit you don’t have all the answers.” We found these words of great inspiration and we worked in our Cremona to promote an initiative which, with the necessary support of the required professionalism, could make our young people not only beneficiaries of the project but also protagonists. It was a great joy to find two formidable interlocutors in the Ponchielli Theater and in the ASST of Cremona with whom to make all this a reality.”
THEATER A PLACE OF THOUGHT AND SOCIALITY
«Through the Talks that we have been organizing for three years now – he claims Andrea Cigni (Superintendent of the Ponchielli Theater of Cremona) – we can give shape to one of the fundamental roles of the theatre: talking about current affairs. We could not, then, not address the problems and expectations of adolescents. All this was possible thanks to the Rotary Monteverdi Cremona, the contribution of the ASST of Cremona and the boys and girls of the Council and the support of the Province of Cremona. The participation of four experts will allow us to address four important themes that have to do with anxiety, identity and the future. Young people, with their needs, will therefore be the real protagonists: what do they expect from society for their well-being and their life path? What can we adults do? The theater is a place of thought, exchange, sociality, a tool for growth, dialogue and listening. We would like it to be increasingly central in people’s lives, with special attention to the new generations and their needs. I thank the theater staff who made the event possible, in particular Laura Seroni and Barbara Sozzi, and all the technicians who will work behind the scenes.”
LISTENING CONSCIOUSLY, NEVER MINIMIZE THE DISCOMFORT
«The student council accepted the invitation to participate in the organization of this event because we immediately believed in the working table of the Ponchielli Theater dedicated to “Youth and social” – explains the spokesperson Carlo Ferrari. After my experience in contact with boys and girls within the activities of the Consulta, I felt obliged to make a contribution. The themes addressed in the Talk are all very important, I am thrilled to know that the audience, made up of very young people and adults, responded with great interest. I thank the President of the Council Alice Masserdotti for her support. The message of the Consultation is actually an invitation: to listen to young people with respect and awareness, without minimizing and underestimating the different expressions of discomfort. In this regard, I would like to point out that we make ourselves available to boys and girls who wish to delve deeper into the topics covered through the representatives of the Council that they find in their school”.
AGAINST STIGMA THE POSSIBILITY OF EXPRESSING YOURSELF
«According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately half of mental health disorders begin before the age of 14 and, if untreated, persist with serious implications even into adulthood. Globally – he specifies Ezio Belleri (General Director ASST of Cremona) – between the ages of 10 and 19, one teenager in seven suffers from depression, anxiety and behavioral disorders. Data that makes you think and that calls services into question, inviting them to find new organizational methods and forms of communication to provide answers to the people in need. The Talk dedicated to adolescents is an example of how a treatment path can be transformed into a concrete possibility of understanding, dialogue and sociability – continues Belleri – Knowing that very young users have taken the opportunity to become testimonials as equals and create an institutional social column , collaborating with healthcare and communication professionals, is beautiful, as well as interesting and important. I think knowing them struggling with interviews with experts is a therapeutic achievement that strengthens their self-esteem and overall well-being. Above all it is a practical way to give full expression to their skills and abilities against any stigma. A strong and clear message for everyone”, concludes Belleri.
«HOME ARTISTS» STAGE EVERYDAY LIFE
«We decided to participate in this Talk because it is literally an event: it doesn’t often happen that the world of art and entertainment meets that of healthcare and services to create culture», he states Mattia Cabrini (Director). «Going up as “house artists” on the stage of the most important theater in the city – which welcomes guests from all over Italy and the world on a daily basis – and bringing the voices collected by service workers and young people from the area is a great opportunity. We feel like we can bring a little bit of the public’s life to the stage, so that it can be recognized by everyone.”
For Cabrini «adolescents have always represented, and in particular in this time, the warning light of many social dynamics. Knowing how to read these signals helps us not to melt down the machine of our society. Metaphor aside: we can learn a lot from them! Adolescents are not a foreign body in the social fabric: their discomfort, their sadness, hope, aggression, energy, apathy are reflections of the adult world which, if understood and taken seriously, can allow us to change.”
THE COMPANY OF CHILDREN
The actors and actresses of the Compagnia dei piccolo di Cremona will play the roles of the teenagers: Maddalena Parma, Francesca Poli, Andrea Sangiovanni, Luca Taino and Ester Tolomini, with the technical support of Carolina Griffini and Gabriele Pensieri.
WITHOUT RELATIONSHIP THERE IS NO CURE
«The original idea of the Talk is closely connected to the Keep in Mind project, created by the Territorial Child Neuropsychiatry and the ASST Communication and External Relations Office of Cremona. In 2023, it involved 614 teenagers through a survey to understand how they informed themselves about mental health” explains the manager Stefania Mattioli. «The results of the research provided the elements to build an Instagram column together with a group of boys, girls and health and social health workers, edited by Laura Rizzi and with the contribution of Roberta Dall’Olmo. The experimentation involved the inclusion of communication professionals in the multidisciplinary team and the involvement of young users. This unusual way of working, outside the clinic and with the common objective of informing, served to open up and get to know each other: the doctors were able to see the adolescents through their creativity and resourcefulness, grasping their potential and abilities with greater freedom. Boys and girls, on the other hand, have realized that psychologists and educators are ordinary people, capable of feeling emotions. In particular, they felt their embarrassment during on-camera interviews, where the teenagers were running the show. Strong empathy was generated which strengthened trust and constructive dialogue: role barriers fell in favor of content. This method will be replicated on the Ponchielli stage where the young people will have the last word.”
A COMMON LANGUAGE WITHOUT JUDGMENT
“Keep in Mind was born from the desire not to make any teenager feel unheard, as happened in the past,” he adds Lara Bez Anibi (Psychiatric rehabilitation therapist, Territorial Neuropsychiatry ASST of Cremona). «Spreading knowledge, raising questions, stimulating curiosity are the objectives behind the project. Creating a language between different worlds and generations, useful for authentic and non-judgmental understanding, is the common intent that has accompanied us in recent months.
Adolescent discomfort has always existed: «Today it is much more evident – concludes Anibi – also thanks to the change that began with the millennials. Psychology has been cleared through customs, it is no longer seen as something elitist but accessible to all. Having arrived at the Ponchielli Theater is an unexpected gift for us. I hope it can be the first seed with which to weaken the stigma which, even today, is present in people’s minds as prejudice and judgment.”
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