Back in Ravenna, Gambettola, Longiano and Gatteo is the Arrivano dal Mare! Festival, now in its 48th edition. The event will run from May 19 to 28 with a dense schedule of performances, international projects, meetings, exhibitions and master classes. More than one hundred guest artists and masters for this edition, from all over Italy and six foreign countries

The International Festival of Puppets and Figures Arriving from the Sea!!! among the longest-running festivals entirely dedicated to Figure Theater in Italy and the world, reaches its 48th edition with the title What we talk about when we talk about love., a quote from the American poet and writer Raymond Carver which intends to once again place the issues of accessibility, inclusiveness and peaceful cohabitation between communities and cultures at the center of artistic and political attention and debate.

The event, which for years has been an unmissable appointment for artists, operators and spectators, will take place from May 19 to 28 in Ravenna and in the towns of Gambettola, Longiano and Gatteo, with a wide range of performances for adult audiences and families, meetings, exhibitions, workshops. The Artistic Direction of the Festival is by. Roberta Colombo and Andrea Monticelli - Teatro del Drago/Famiglia d'Arte Monticelli of Ravenna in collaboration with the host municipalities, the Emilia-Romagna Region, the Ministry of Culture.

"The Festival Arriving from the Sea," says Ravenna City Councilor for Culture Fabio Sbaraglia, "from one edition to the next has grown, becoming richer and more participatory, and is heading in great shape toward the milestone of its 50th year. It is an event of which we are very proud just as we are pleased with the theme chosen this year on inclusiveness and confrontation as roots of daily living marked by tolerance and love. Puppets and puppet theater are very old, they have always captured the attention and imagination of young and old and are an important and authoritative educational and didactic vector, capable of making people think while entertaining all generations."

What do we talk about when we talk about love...?

...a thought that has characterized this past year of artistic reflection. What does it mean to talk about love, through art, in a world dominated by words like "war," "emergency," "crisis," and "extinction"? What can be the role of art, theater and, in its small way, figure theater in this discourse? This year's Festival attempts to emphasize the theme of inclusivity and confrontation as inescapable roots of daily, peaceful coexistence, and it attempts to do so through one of the richest and most heterogeneous programs, capable of connecting different artistic worlds not only as languages but also as generations. This edition of the Festival, in fact, sees represented all the traditional techniques of Italian Figure Theater and beyond: the puppets, the puppets, i puppets sicilians and the guarattelle Neapolitan puppets. At the same time, they also have in the program a representation of excellence the shadow theater, the theater of objects, the theater on black, and in general the more contemporary panorama of this theatrical world. The confrontation between these languages, however, does not take place in an oppositional dynamic between new and old, between experimental and traditional, but rather intersects these elements by bringing different generations into dialogue. And so, a technique such as traditional puppetry now passes from the hands of a historical family like the Gran Teatro Burattini Niemen to those of the very young Valerio Saccà, the new representative of the Lombard mask of the Meneghino; up to the experience of the Spanish puppeteer Paz Tatay, who will open the confrontation to a European tradition of figure theater. the language of shadows is now proposed in the historical guise of the Teatro Gioco Vita, an internationally recognized excellence, now in that of the more contemporary and emerging company Unterwasser. The themes are also transversal: war, the brutality of war, will inhabit the scene of the "ready-made" objects of Israeli Ariel Doron as well as the shack of Parma puppeteer Patrizio Dall'Argine. Finally, the attempt to "include" in the broadest possible sense will touch on the most sensitive issues of disability with the international project Sixth Sense Theatre, but it will also take the form of broader and more radical thinking and an attempt to open more or less theatrical spaces to a real tout public, capable of welcoming different generations of spectators, without sharp separations between targets and labels. A theater of all and for all, this is our idea of love for this Festival.

The Festival - The Performances

International guests

Once again this year the Festival was committed to creating a program schedule that could feature excellence from abroad, with representation from six different countries. The Franco-Spanish Compagnie Pelele, represented by puppeteer Paz Tatay, which will bring to the stage one of its workhorses, La muerte de Don Cristobal, in Gambettola and Ravenna. Another excellence on the international scene, the Belgian Tof Théâtre by Alain Moreau, in double repetition in Ravenna on Monday, May 22 with Dans L'Atelier. Among the Festival's chief guests are Israeli artist Ariel Doron. master of international object theater who will hold a masterclass on the subject at the Festival (May 22-24 at the Casa delle Culture in Ravenna, info and registration at www.arrivanodalmare.it) and will be on stage Thursday, May 26 at the Artificerie Almagià with Plastic Heroes, a visionary performance of object theater for adult audiences that boasts many years of touring around the world and irreverently addresses the theme of war. Also on stage at Artificerie Almagià from May 25 to 27 is Macedonian Alex Mihajlovski, also known as "Barti" after the name of the sophisticated puppet that has made him world famous in twenty formidable years of touring. Finally, it will be staged at the MAR art museum of the city of Ravenna from May 25 to 27, the interactive virtual reality exhibition Puppets 4.0 - Museum without walls, an innovative all-digital exhibition experience on the world of figure theater conceived by the director of the Fidena Festival in Bochum (Germany) Annette Dabs and by the young artist Mareike Gaubitz.

Sixth Sense Theatre

Also in the area of internationalization, which Dragon Theater and the Festival Arriving from the Sea! have been dedicated to for many years, we would like to highlight the project Sixth Sense Theatre, a research project on sensory theater and the inclusiveness of blind and visually impaired spectators by the very young Ukrainian artist and researcher Kateryna Lukianenko. The project, supervised by UNIMA International representative Daria Ivanova and in collaboration with SAMPO Festival (Finland) e Summer Puppet Tier (Slovenia) includes the realization, in Ravenna, of a masterclass by Lukianenko herself with the students of the training course for expert operator in the techniques and languages of puppet theater ANIMATERIA, with an outcome open to the public, particularly the visually impaired. In addition, the project includes the translation of Lukianenko's research into Italian and English. The project is a winner of the European call for proposals EFFEA European Fund for Emerging Artists.

The shows for families

Family entertainment activity plays a key role again this year, with diverse programming capable of intercepting all audiences, from the very youngest audience to the full-fledged tout public. Also this year a location fundamental of the festival will be the outdoor spaces: Rocca Brancaleone in Ravenna, Piazza Pertini and the amphitheater of the Municipal Library in Gambettola, Rio Parco Budrio in Longiano and Piazza Vesi in Gatteo will host a schedule of performances with free admission for children and parents. The puppet shows will be a lively testament to the vitality of Italian puppet theater in the area of regional traditions (Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Campania) with companies of various generations representing a unique sector: from the young Milanese company of Valerio Saccà, I Burattini Aldrighi with the mask of Meneghino, to the Grand Puppet Theater Niemen, a historic art family from Vercelli with Gianduja, the Romagna-based Bottega delle Favole-Famiglia Maletti, and again Giorgio Gabrielli, Ivano Rota, Bambabambin e Zanubrio Marionettes. Among the figure shows of innovative and experimental cut, The Company of the Week After with Area52 in Vesi Square in Gatteo.

It will inhabit the streets of downtown Gambettola on Sunday, May 21, the parade Fish Parade, a project making its debut by the Italian-Japanese Studio Ta-daa! by Michele Cafaggi and Izumi Fujiwara with the participation of the G. Pascoli elementary school and the "City of Gambettola" band corps.

A new space for this edition of the Festival will be, thanks to the collaboration with Casa Fellini, the "Petit Cabaret" chapiteau that will host shows and parties on the weekend of May 19-21 including a party dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Fulesta Sergio Diotti and the very young Komorebi Collective by Erika Salamone with the family show Happy B-Day to Me.

A key part of the family programming will also take place indoors, at the Gambettola Municipal Theater, the Artificerie Almagià and the Teatro Rasi in Ravenna, with at least one afternoon performance each day from May 21 to 27 and some evening performances. Hosted by some of the most important Italian figure companies for the new generations, on stage with long-running shows as well as new productions; among them, we highlight the Umbrian Fontemaggiore with the new production by Marco Lucci and Gigio Brunello, Cracrà Punk; the young Rebelot Grocery with the shadow theater and theater-on-black show Dear Wolf; Ravenna Teatro/Drammatico Vegetale, fundamental partners and interlocutors of the Festival with the remounting of the historic Journey by Plane; Teatro Gioco Vita with the new production A Little Further; the Sardinian Is Mascareddas with the new Mrs. Rossetta, a retelling of the timeless Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale; the Vladimiro Strinati Company with the new show The Iron Mask; Dragon Theater with its show cult which now boasts more than 1,500 performances worldwide, Pinocchio; Maestro Bruno Leone and the young OfficinaCommedia for a morning entirely dedicated to the world's most famous Italian character: Pulcinella

Also of note are two appointments truly for everyone and of great importance to the Festival: the first with the historic Compagnia Marionettistica Carlo Colla & Figli, Italy's leading representative of the string puppet tradition, guest in Ravenna after a tour at the Monte Carlo Opera House and departing for Salzburg with the show Wooden Heads, from an idea of the great master Eugenio Monti Colla; and, another guest dear to the Festival and the art world, Mimmo Cuticchio and the Associazione Figli d'Arte Cuticchio with the performance of Puppet Opera. The Madness of Orlando. Or rather, the marvelous journey of Astolfo to the moon. based on ancient canovacci. Two companies that, together with the hostess Dragon Theater and other notable guests such as Teatro Gioco Vita, Bruno Leone and the company Niemen, bear witness in the Festival program to both the best Italian tradition and historical experimentation in the field of figure theater.

The shows for schools

Some appointments of the festival, in matinees, will be reserved for school audiences in Ravenna, Gambettola and Longiano: this is the case of the All'InCirco, which will meet the kindergartens of Longiano with Stories Hanging by a Thread; by Drogheria Rebelot; by Ravenna Teatro/Drammatico Vegetale; by Vladimiro Strinati Company; by Ubu Prize-winning playwright, set and costume designer Emanuela Dall'Aglio with Once upon a time. The Fairy Tale Museum and others. The festival will also host the Parma-based Hypnotic Medical Theater by Patrizio Dall'Argine with To Take Away, an unpublished project dedicated to high school students.

The shows for adults

Among the prerogatives of the Festival Arrivano dal Mare! is to support a Figure Theater that is not only dedicated to children's theater or family audiences, but that knows how to make itself a language and theatrical medium for adolescent and adult audiences as well. In this sense, there are several events that the Festival will host, in the evening, at the Artificerie Almagià and Teatro Rasi in Ravenna and the Municipal Theater in Gambettola, including several new productions. This is the case of the Venetians Paolo Papparotto and L'Aprisogni, with the show Pantalone Memento Mori. To the adult audience will also be dedicated the show Plastic Heroes by Israeli Ariel Doron and the three events that intercept the most contemporary forms of research in the field of figure theater: the Roman group Unterwasser with its latest show Untold; the internationally renowned artist Marta Cuscunà, who will present her new project Medium, e Hombre Collective, with the new production At Arms. Three groups that are young but have already managed to carve out an important space for themselves in Italian contemporary theater.

Finally, it is worth noting the preview of. Tragic Drone: a flight on the Oresteia from Aeschylus to Pasolini, a multimedia theater project curated by the renowned Jester Theater, which will be premiered at the Ravenna Planetarium.

The Festival - The Exhibitions and Meetings

Once again this year the program of performances will be accompanied by parallel programming of meetings and the staging of four exhibitions. 

At Artists' Station in Gambettola will be set up for the entire period of the festival, the exhibitions Puppet, strings, sticks, a collection of materials from the Zanella/Pasqualini collection from Italy's most important art families of puppeteers, marionette players and puppeteers, and The Emilia-Romagna of Puppets: Fagiolino and Sandrone, an exhibition curated by ReTeFì - Network of Figure Theater Museums of Emilia-Romagna that tells the story of the two undisputed protagonists of Emilia-Romagna puppetry with a selection of pieces from the network's eight museums.

On the streets of Gambettola, however, in the store windows it will be possible to "visit" the exhibition Puppets in the window, curated by Gianluca Palma.

Finally, it will be set up at the MAR Art Museum of the City of Ravenna from May 25 to 27, the interactive virtual reality exhibition Puppets 4.0 - Museum without walls, an innovative all-digital exhibition experience on the world of figure theater curated by German Annette Dabs and Mareike Gaubitz.

In Ravenna, the venue for meetings and visits will be the Museum La casa delle Marionette, which houses the Monticelli Collection and from 2021 is part of the National Museum System and from 2020 coordinator of ReTeFì. Meetings will include the panel discussion. Puppets heritage of UNESCO., organized by UNIMA Italy; the presentations of the books Orcs, Anthropophagi and Butchers. Miscellaneous Stories for Juicy Children by Alfonso Cipolla, The Golden Poet. The grand imaginary theater of Giuliano Scabia by Massimo Marino e Le guarattelle, by Bruno Leone e, in collaboration with Writing Festival, The Dark Stone by Marco Balliani.

The artistic and organizational direction of the Festival is by Teatro del Drago/Famiglia d'Arte Monticelli. The Festival is held with the support of the culture departments of the municipalities of Ravenna, Gambettola, Longiano and Gatteo, the Emilia-Romagna Region, and the MIC Ministry of Culture. It is held in collaboration with Ravenna Teatro, Rete di Associazioni Almagià, Istituzione Biblioteca Classense, MAR Museo d'Arte della Città di Ravenna, Il Planetario di Ravenna, Akâmì, CittAttiva, Casa delle Culture, ScrittuRa Festival, Ve.Ra - La Velostazione di Ravenna, Ravenna Port Authority, Ravenna Port Cooperative, Associazione Circuiti Dinamici, Casa Fellini Centro di residenza per il Teatro, il Cinema e le Arti Circensi, P.A.C. Polo Artistico CreAttivo - Ex Macello Gambettola, Associazione La Casa delle Marionette, ReTeFì. Under the patronage of UNIMA Italia, ATF/Agis, Italiafestival. 

Information

The program details of the festival and all updates are available at www.arrivanodalmare.it and on the Facebook and Instagram pages @festivalarrivanodalmare. Information and reservations by phone at 392 6664211 (also whatsapp) or by e-mail at prenotazione@teatrodeldrago.it.
Sales online at www.arrivanodalmare.it
Tickets performances - Full €7 to €15, reduced €5 (under30, students, over 65), €20 family ticket (2 adults + 2 children), third child €1, free disabled and accompanying persons
Press Office festivalarrivanodalmare@gmail.com

Dialogue with the inert. The poetics of materials

with Marzia Gambardella | MalaStranaCompagnie (France)

Saturday, May 28 and Sunday, May 29, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Gambettola

The Seminar proposes to explore the dramaturgical possibilities that arise from the relationship between actor-manipulator and material. The dialogue with the inanimate is a continuous play of mirrors and cross-references: the stimulation of the manipulator corresponds to a response from the material that becomes a question for the manipulator and so on in a "mise en abîme" in which the boundaries between manipulator and manipulated are lost, or rather, merged in a continuous dialogue. 

Compasses of this exploration will be the tools of the Philippe Genty Company. We will encounter the material by putting ourselves at the service of its dynamics, listening to its essence, discovering its poetic qualities and metaphorical possibilities. We will let the evocative dynamics of the material guide the encounter with our intimate resources, our memory, our memories, our inner landscapes. We will discover the material as a partner, an extension, an echo of our unconscious. We will let ourselves be guided in this dialogue taking care to articulate our relationship with the material between dissociation and contamination to discover different possibilities of scenic writing.

 

Marzia Gambardella

A graduate in Philosophy, she trained and worked as an actress between Rome and Milan. She fell in love with puppets, learned to build them, animate them and in 2009 moved to France to work with Philippe Genty; she is performer and puppeteer in Voyageurs Immobiles and in the object theater show La llamada del mar. She collaborates with other companies as actress, puppeteer and director. In 2016 she founded MalaStranaCompagnie in Paris. What she is interested in is a visual theater not mediated by words - or rather by the mind. A theater in which gestures, sounds, images, materials, puppets give body to our feelings, our contradictions, what dwells inside us.What she is interested in is the human being in front of himself. In this sense, the puppet in her work becomes a double, declination and echo of the actor-puppeteer ... or vice versa. In 2010 she began teaching and over the years the pedagogical work has become increasingly passionate to her. Currently in Italy she is the only person authorized by Philippe Genty to teach her method.

 

The performer, the object and the secret in between

with Yael Rasooly (Israel)

Monday, May 23, 9:00 am-1:00 pm and 2:00 pm-6:00 pm
Ravenna
English language workshop

In this short and intense workshop, Yael Rasooly invites participants on a creative journey into the universe of object theater. Participants will explore the dialogue and relationships between the performer/character and "ready-made" objects. They will look for objects that are "loaded" with meaning, either from the use of the object or its symbolic associations, or objects that contain an emotional load related to memory and personal history. Group exercises and improvisations will take place, also touching on the theme of individual creation as a starting point for future development. The body will be used in relation to objects and their manipulation, as well as the voice, both in speaking and singing. Above all, the workshop aims to immerse participants in the process of creation itself, providing tools for individual and group work. To enter the inner space of invention and playfulness, going through the artistic traffic jam, improvising, working quickly, with heightened sensitivity and with pleasure.

Yael Rasooly

critically acclaimed director, actress, singer and puppeteer. Born in Jerusalem in 1983, she trained as a classical pianist and singer and went on to study stage design at Central Saint Martin's in London. Her personal theatrical language is based on a multidisciplinary approach that combines object theater, figure theater, visual art and music. In addition to her theater career, Yael performs as a singer with numerous ensembles/orchestras in Europe and North America. Her performances have been presented in more than 30 countries and hundreds of theaters worldwide, winning numerous international awards. Over the years she has taught at various institutions such as Trinity College, the University of Connecticut and the Eugene O'neill Theatre Centre.

Animation and manipulation workshop AnimaTO

with Tonino Murru | Is Mascareddas

Friday, May 20, Saturday, May 21 and Sunday, May 22, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Ravenna

Animation Theater is an art form in which an inanimate object comes to life through the technical expertise, sensitivity and human intuition of the puppeteer. Giving life to what life does not have also imposes an important inquiry into the characteristics of this "new existence." AnimaTO is an analysis of the different expressive possibilities of animation theater, a workshop aimed at adults to discover puppetry as a dramatic tool. It is a cognitive journey on the manipulation and dramaturgy of the puppet and other objects to be animated.

Topics covered:

  • Introduction to Figure Theater
  • The Buattini Theater: brief history and main animation techniques
  • The discovery of the dramatic instrument: exercises in puppet manipulation, gestures and anatomical action
  • Character creation through shack stage experimentation and identity and historical character analysis

Is Mascareddas

Founded by Antonio Murru and Donatella Pau in 1980, the Is Mascareddas Company is a cultural reality that has contributed greatly to the dissemination and awareness of Figure Theater in Sardinia, a theatrical tradition that until then was almost unknown on the island. The basic idea that sustains the company's activity is that theater animated by puppets is theater in its own right, with equal dignity to theater with actors. Alongside its production activity, the company plays an important role in Sardinia in the dissemination of Animation Theater - as well as children's theater - by conceiving and staging projects, festivals, and reviews that host Italian and international companies.

ORIPHOEA

A thousand origami on display
by
Lorenzo Gianmario Galli

In Japan it is said that the gods grant a wish to anyone who makes 1,000 origami cranes. Of this tradition, called senbazuru, I love the intimate ritual, the discipline it implies and the meditative repetitiveness it generates. While making my 1000 origami, perhaps because of the particular historical period we are living in, more than the crane I could not help but think of another animal, also linked to myth: the phoenix. Birth from one's own ashes, but also death in one's own nest and return in a new form... these are just some of the symbolic elements that thefirebird carries. So after shaping 1,000 origami birds, I realized that they could be little phoenixes. Why not? No one has ever seen a phoenix! That's why I called them "orifea" (from "phoenix origami"). 

The orphae became the starting point for a video project, divided into two parts: Oriphoea zero is a short film with flesh-and-blood actors and stop-motion animated figures; for I cacciatori di orifee, on the other hand, the idea is that of a "poetic documentary" to narrate, as a series of images without a real narrative thread, intimate creative gestures that I witnessed during this 2020/21. The intent is to want to find seeds of beauty amidst the welter of sensations that characterized such a unique and unprecedented condition as mandatory confinement . The orifee are no longer animated, but they are ever present both as physical objects and, more importantly, as metaphor. 

ANIMATAZINE

Experimental publishing project
by
Alessandra Amicarelli and Valeria Sacco

ANIMATAZINE is the first Italian, print and digital, trilingual (FR IT EN) fanzine dedicated to animated theater. An experimental and innovative publishing project, completely independent, it hosts artists, thinkers, creators and researchers from all over the world. During the festival, in conjunction with the launch of issue 0 of ANIMATAZINE and the opening of a crowdfunding campaign, the project will be presented to the press and the public. 

Friday, October 8, 12:00 p.m.
Gambettola - Fellini Hall

Project presentation press conference. In-person and online on Zoom platform. To report your attendance or request the Zoom link write to prenotazione@teatrodeldrago.it

Saturday, October 9, 6:30 p.m.
Gambettola - Former Slaughterhouse

Presentation of ANIMATAZINE, an experimental publishing project. Reservations required at 392 6664211 or by e-mail at prenotazione@teatrodeldrago.it

Oct. 7 to 9

Workshop on the theme ofwater dedicated to students in the figure theater courses Animateria and The Puppeteer's Crafts

Valentina Lisi

RELATIONSHIPS NEEDED

Friday, October 8, 6:00 p.m.
Municipal Theater of Gambettola

by and with Valentina Lisi
directed Nadia Milani
in collaboration with Festival Incanti, Teatro del Drago
show finalist Progetto Cantiere 2020*
Ages 12 and up

Reduced ticket €5, full ticket €10
Reservation required

What is an addiction? "Necessary Relationships" begins this way, with an uncomfortable but, indeed, necessary question. On stage, a large and dusty Family Album, repurposed as a Pop Up book version, with its photographs coming to life and animating through the use of paper silhouettes and figures. And then? Then there is Matilde, a young girl who tells us about the vicissitudes of her bizarre family of origin and her growing up amidst vicissitudes and dynamics that cyclically repeat themselves, amid vices, foibles, habits and impositions dictated by a patriarchal society that feeds on clichés, conventions and stereotypes.

Theater of Feet

TIPTOEING KITCHEN

Sunday, October 10, 9:00 p.m.
Municipal Theater of Gambettola

Laura Kibel and Veronica Gonzalez concept.
performer Veronica Gonzalez
direction Laura Kibel
scenes Rocio Matosas
realization puppets, costumes, objects Laura Kibel, Rocio Matosas
music elaboration Gaetano Ferrara
voice Artusi Mauro Magliozzi
photos M. Marchetti / E.Biguzzi
video realization GeoMultimedia
Figure theater for one actress and two feet. From 14 years old

Reduced ticket €5, full ticket €10
Reservation required

The extraordinary figure of Pellegrino Artusi told through the enchanted eyes of his faithful helper Marietta. Cooking is the backdrop to the relationship between the Master, gruff but good-natured, and the Pupil, bungling, dreamy but always devoted. With transforming skills, Veronica Gonzalez brings hilarious episodes to life using the "Theater of Feet" technique. Characters in the show arise from the actress' feet and legs, creating amazing inventions, gags and choreography accompanied by those giants (Rossini, Ponchielli, Verdi, Puccini, Collodi) who, like Artusi himself, made Italy of ITALIANS. This tribute to Pellegrino Artusi is not meant to be a biography nor a cooking treatise, precisely because of the expressive choice not to use words. Thanks to figure theater, the stimuli will be more visual and imaginative with a view to reaching an international audience. Artusi's book has been translated into many languages, emotions instead will travel "on tiptoe."

Duo La Fortuna

NOT JUST PUPPETS

Sunday, October 10, 6:00 p.m.
Pertini Square - Gambettola

by and with Gianluca Palma and Fabio Zanagelli
Street theater with puppets and actors
For all

Free admission
Reservation required

Fabio Zaganelli, in collaboration with Gianluca Palma are Duo La Fortuna, in a new show that draws from the repertoire of figure theater, clowning and juggling to create an original and engaging comedy duo. Otto the puppet, director of the Great Puppet Circus, is looking for a new performer for his show. Unfortunately, only one candidate shows up at the audition: Fabius! In a welter of mischief and bickering, amidst improbable musical rehearsals and controversial circus skills, it will be up to the audience's applause to decide whether the audition has passed...

Plant Drama

FOUR TIMES ANDERSEN

Friday, October 8, 9:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m.
Longiano - San Girolamo Hall

Compagnia Drammatico Vegetale/Ravenna Teatro
by Pietro Fenati
with Pietro Fenati, Elvira Mascanzoni
direction Pietro Fenati
set design and figures Pietro Fenati, Elvira Mascanzoni
lighting and sound Alessandro Bonoli
technical reference Alessandro Bonoli
organization William Rossano, Sara Maioli

Andersen's was a life spent writing and telling stories, cutting out strange and amusing figurines in paper to animate his personal, dreamlike theater of life. A shrunken pea, an old toy soldier, a cardboard box turned into a figure theater, a scissors and little else, set about telling stories. Souvenir-objects, enough to fuel the tale of Olechiudigliocchi, of The Princess on the Pea, of the two snails in The Happy Family and of Tenacious Tin Soldier. A simple little theater becomes, by the magic of theater, the microcosm of our fears and joys.

Salvatore Gatto PULCINELLA: 500 YEARS WELL WORN

Sunday, 23 at 8:00 pm
Almagià Artificerie

by and with Salvatore Gatto

This show is an ancient plot that has been traveling since at least the 1500s. Pulcinella is the protagonist and, together with the characters who follow the limelight, tells stories of everyday life. In fact, one of the "constant" situations in the world of guarattelle is the struggle between Pulcinella and Pasquale Finizio known as "terremoto" (the guappo) or cacciuttolo (the dog) or even Capa 'e provolone (death) and so on. In the end, good always triumphs over iniquity, truth over injustice, life over death. Here is the exceptionalism of Punchinello. Music intersects with the harmonies and rhythms of this show, embroidering a tapestry of joyful and captivating sounds. If Punchinello, seen in a symbolic key, represents man, the antagonists then are his needs and fears. It is precisely when he defeats them that those same fears and negative instincts within him and the audience are exorcised. So are the old songs and dances of exorcism and magic that restored the harmony of the whole. 

Salvatore Gatto is one of the most genuine representatives of the Neapolitan glove puppet tradition, the Guarattelle, and through his work has helped preserve a tradition that dates back to the 1400s. As much as he has participated in numerous festivals and events, he has never abandoned street theater.

Sgadizza Academy

THE TWO DOCTORS.

Saturday, October 9, 9 p.m. Municipal Theater of Gambettola

text and direction Romano Danielli
With Romano Danielli, Marco Iaboli, William Melloni, Grazia Punginelli, Riccardo Pazzaglia and Mattia Zecchi
technician Alessandro Benussi
Classic puppet show from the Emilia-Romagna tradition. From 14 years old

Reduced ticket €5, full ticket €10
Reservation required

I due dottori is a comedy that surely originated from that of dell'Arte, which takes its cue from the exchange of characters. In this story Fagiolino, disguised as Balanzone, attempts to force Rosaura to marry an unwanted young man, all accompanied by misunderstandings and misunderstandings with Sganapino and the Emilian characters of the puppet theater.

Hombre Collective

OUR HOUSE

Friday, October 8, 9:00 p.m.
Municipal Theater of Gambettola

directed by Riccardo Reina
with Angela Forti, Agata Garbuio, Aron Tewelde
with support from BRAT, Malerba Association, Teatro del Drago, UOT Association
Winner Scenario Prize Childhood 2020
Critics' Award Direction Under30 2021
Image and object theater. Ages 14 and up
Followed by discussion with the audience

Reduced ticket €5, full ticket €10
Reservation required

 

"What we deceive ourselves into fighting outside of us is already inside us, inside the everydayness of our lives, even if we are not aware of it." R. Scarpinato

Sept. 23, 2021: the Palermo Assize Court's ruling on the Trattativa Stato-Mafia trial brings a piece of the past back to the surface of our memory crowded with images. A piece of the past that, however recent, has already become history. A piece of history that, however decisive, is already in danger of falling into oblivion, with all its paradoxes and contradictions. A fundamental piece for understanding the puzzle of our present. A piece that has been tried in every way to hide, alter, ignore: a missing piece. Casa Nostra is not just a title: Nostra is the House we find ourselves inhabiting, with all that it contains. Ours, whether we want it or not, is that Weird Thing we inherited from the previous tenants. Ours is the playroom where we have hitherto been cooped up, where the children are left while the "grown-ups" take care of the serious stuff, those things the children are better off not hearing or seeing.

Riccardo's Puppets

DANTESQUE TRAVELS and BURTING.

Conference-show to celebrate 30 years in business by Riccardo Pazzaglia
Saturday, October 9, 2021 4:30 p.m.
Municipal Theater of Gambettola

edited by Riccardo Pazzaglia
introduces Alberto Beltramo, librarian of the Lyda Borelli Artists' Retirement Home in Bologna

Reduced ticket €5, full ticket €10
Reservation required

 

It was 1991 when 11-year-old Riccardo Pazzaglia took his first professional steps acting with puppets. Today, after 30 years, the Bolognese puppeteer relives the main stages of his career as a Dantean journey, in an attempt to untangle himself in a 'dark forest,' the world of his beginnings, made of chaos between the old puppets destined to disappear and the now established and pressing new forms of figure theater. Like Dante, Riccardino will also find his guide, master Demetrio Presini, who will accompany him on a long journey of his career. The talk will be enriched by readings and projections of images from the book, written by Riccardo, Puppets in Bologna. The story of the wooden heads Minerva editions. An art book, skillfully illustrated by Wolfango, also divided, like Dante's poem, into three parts and organized like a puppet script. A play in which, in the last act, a heavenly glimmer is glimpsed in the sky of our puppets. During the lecture, in addition to Dr. Balanzone, the puppet Dante Alighieri will, of course, also take the floor.Bon voyage to all and ... W the puppets!

Nasinsu Company

I'LL BE DAMNED

Sunday, October 10, 11:30 a.m.
Space in front of the Municipal Theater

by and with Sandra Pagliarani
shack assistance Emanuela Petralli/Brina Babini
dramaturgical collaboration Elena Baredi
Glove puppet show in shack - For everyone

Free event
Reservations required

What are keys used for? To lock, to possess or to open and offer? These questions, in the ancient game of wooden heads, the staging of this play attempts to answer. The story, retracing the classic structure of the comedies, tells the adventures of Miglio Gepponi, owner and keeper of keys that open his infinite treasures, a miserly and mean master, who would like to possess and have everything, even affections as well as sliced....persons even his lion-guard dog Ruggi. Gepponi is so stingy even of feelings that he would like to condemn his daughter to misery. But he will have to reckon with the cleverness and secret weapons of the servant girl Teresa who cares so much for Carolina! The audience will be led to reflect, with participatory laughter and in the best tradition of puppet theater, that true wealth does not depend on possession.

Puppet factory Mangiafoco

THE OGRE IN THE BEAN

Sunday, October 10, 4:00 p.m.
Gambettola - Pertini Square

Text by Margherita Cennamo and Nader Ghazvinizadeh
loosely based on the English folk tale "Jack and the Beanstalk"

set design by Michele Cennamo
Puppet theater. For all

Free event
Reservation required

Do magic beans exist? And if they do exist, what lies within them?
A fairy tale about the magical and frightening transition from childhood to adulthood.

Hypnotic Medical Theater

SAFARI

The adventure of little Verdi and his friend Violetta

Sunday, October 10, 5:00 p.m. Pertini Square - Gambettola

Puppeteers Patrizio Dall'Argine, Veronica Ambrosini
puppets, sets, costumes Patrizio Dall'Argine, Veronica Ambrosini
assistant Andrea Alberici
music Luca Maini
Puppet Theater. Ages 3 and up

Free event
Reservation required

In order to survive, the head comedian Lomé is still grappling with the problem of making his puppet theater relevant. He then invents a Format, the "fotosafari "and organizes a casting call. Among the candidates, young Violetta presents the most convincing project: she would like to bring balance to the excess of the "domestic" of our times, and to do so she plans to photograph the "wild" that lurks in the woods. The biggest problem is overcoming her fear of not being up to the task. Will he succeed? The spirits of the enchanted forest will try to help her....