Building the 21th century theatre

As part of the Europe Festival 2022, Saturday May 7, in Florence, Teatro della Toscana and Théâtre de la Ville in Paris suggest to all the european theatres the meeting and presentation day of artistic initiatives entitled Building the Theatre during the 21th century and aimed to create new forms of collaboration, solidarity and sharing between the arts, sciences, health, environment and education. The values of the construction of Europe are fundamental to nurture this new vision of theatre and culture, at a time when war and nationalism are once again threatening this union, built to preserve peace.

Starting from 11a.m, until evening, at Palazzo Vecchio, Repubblica’s Square and Museo Novecento, for the occasion opened the entire day and for free, will take place Consultazioni Poetiche, that are free and consist in moments of individual sharing of 20 minutes with an artist. Every consultation starts with a free dialogue and concludes with the reading of a poem chosen specifically for each person, a song or a dance performance, which at the end of the consultation is delivered in the form of “poetic prescription” tailored.

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Consultazioni, project ideated by the Théâtre de la Ville, by his director Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota and the author Fabrice Melquiot in January 2020 with the involvement of artists and cultural institutions in Europe and around the world, today move more than two hundred artists of twenty-five nationalities, united in an ensemble coordinated by the Théâtre de la Ville, the Troupe de l’Imaginaire. Seventeen are the partner countries of the initiative with over 25.000 consultations to the credit. The Teatro della Toscana is the first international theatre to engage, in May 2020, and to date ten Italian artists are part of the Troupe.

Sixteen artists of the Troupe that on May 7 offer poetic, musical and dance consulting in Italian, Greek, Estonian, Spanish, English, French, Portuguese and Ukrainian.

Coming from Italy, France, Greece, Estonia, Portugal, Ukraine, the artists are Maddalena Amorini, Giulia Bianchi, Thomas Brazete, Mattia Braghero, Jauris Casanova, Célia Cathalifaud, Dimitris Daskas, Letizia Fuochi, Francesco Goriill, Kirhavanski, Dimitra Kontou, Irina Lytiak, Gérald Maillet, Claudia Marino, Maria Paiste, Carolina Pezzini.

The day of Costruire il Teatro del 21° Secolo concludes in the courtyard of Museo Novecento at 6.30p.m with a poetic moment that sees the involvement of all the artists of the Troupe de l’Imaginaire that present poetic and musical pieces on the theme of Europe, on its diversity of languages, cultures.

Consultazioni poetiche have represented an important moment of listening to continue to maintain close ties between the public and the artists, strengthening the artistic alliances, establishing a dialogue between thoughts and individuals of different languages and cultures. A “poetic” solidarity celebrated first on the phone, in the most difficult months of the pandemic, and then in the presence, in the parks, gardens and theaters of Europe for unexpected moments of exchange face to face.

Thanks to their collaboration, the Teatro della Toscana and the Théâtre de la Ville are now promoting a New Alliance of European Theatres, whose aim is to build, invent, interrogate, through the power of culture, art, a common territory, The European Parliament has a duty to ensure that the European Parliament is fully involved in the 21st century and to unite the generations. The two institutions propose common values from which to create new forms of collaboration, combining science, art, culture and education.

The defence of the european project is fundamental to feed this new vision of the theatre and the culture, which is built on the richness of european culture in all its diversity: its artists, thinkers, and researchers, its openess to the world, from several centuries and until today. At a time where armed conflicts threathen european and world peace, theatre and culture are essential to stimulate the feeling of belonging to the european idea. This new alliance aimes to lay the foundations for a shared european citizenship, woven through a dialogue between cultures, languages, generations and disciplines.

On the theme of the involvement of young people, in 2018 the Théâtre de la Ville published a funding text of this new cultural philosophy, written by a group of artists, scientists and philosophers of all generations: the Carta 18-XXI. Translated in six languages – English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian – this text is an invitation to imagine and carry out projects with the youth of the 21st century.

The Teatro della Toscana is one of the first european partners to sign the Carta, in response to the awareness of the shared global context, in particular the climate emergency, and the ascension of the extremism and the nationalism. The text has been representated at Palazzo Vecchio in Florence in October 2019 in the presence of numerous personalities of culture, science, education and poltics.

Carta 18-XXI is a text of shared thought, in continuous evolution. It is a call to the imagination of all, young people, artists, researchers, philosophers, cultural, educational, scientific and university institutions. Following this spirit, the Theatre of Tuscany has dedicated the cycle of meetings Maps of a new world – online and in the presence of the Teatro della Pergola – to build a “system of orientation” on a world to come, with a precise objective: share with girls and boys the experience of young people, but born and raised in the previous century, who have achieved important results in the most diverse fields of culture and science. Not only their experiences, but the way they have dealt with this particular historical period and how they see what awaits us, especially from the perspective of a young man who faces the fundamental issues of life and the future.

In April 2022 has been proposed a new version of the Carta to take into account the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has profoundly changed our relationship with health and assistance to those in need and has called into question our common capacities for solidarity. Every artist has the duty to think about the future post Covid-19 and the theater has a fundamental role in the creation of the new post-pandemic society. The new version of the Charter thus raises the urgency of a Theatre that tells the current, that reflects the present and that speaks of the man of today.