Theatre is a formidable study method. Through the arts, play, comedy, writing, confrontation and physical work, a person can grow as an individual and as a citizen. Doing theatre means dealing with one's inner self, with the past and the future, with skills, awareness and limits. Working on the stage also means dealing with the dynamics of the group, the relationship with the other, with what is similar and what is different from us. In this sense, it is possible to imagine theatre as a human and civil laboratory, a place where a person can analyse major issues of fundamental importance, but as if it were a game.
A theatre workshop can prove to be an opportunity for growth and exchange only if its aim is to give young people a voice, providing them with technical tools and a critical way of thinking. Theatre is a relationship in the present between those who act and those who see. And those who act have the task of transmitting something to those who watch, something that speaks of them, of their time, of their being in the world. The theatre workshop does not aim to create actors or performers, but to train responsible, critical, active citizens; we could say “civil actors”, who learn to look at their own time and their own actions with awareness and willingness.
Photo by Estelo Anghilante and Matteo Mascella.
