ITALY, WHATEVER | a three-year project

Can Italian identity truly be defined?
Does it make sense to do so, and why?
What conflicts does this definition or the need for it generate?
What transformations does it generate or should it generate in society?
What inequalities does it produce and sustain?

Italy, whatever (L’Italia è relativa) is a three-year project (started in 2022, set to conclude at the end of 2024) that addresses political themes concerning our present and future through theater and multimedia: citizenship rights and the debate between ius sanguinis, ius soli, ius scholae and ius culturae; equal access to education, health, employment, and culture, regardless of origin, background, religious, political, or sexual orientation.

The project includes the implementation of school workshops on acting and theatrical education, extracurricular workshops on writing and performative creation, a performative format designed for urban spaces, a theatrical performance featuring professional actors and adolescents, and a podcast on citizenship rights.

All activities will involve active participation, as creators, authors, and performers, of teenage students who, along with the Guinea Pigs artists, will investigate cultural themes related to the relationship between citizenship and identity. The goal is to intercept and tell the stories and perspectives of those who live in Italy and are between the ages of 14 and 20: girls and boys born/grown in Italy from non-Italian families. Then, starting from these stories, create an experimental artistic form to put before the audience.

Every aspect of research, interviewing, and creation will be designed, written, composed, acted, and recorded in collaboration and dialogue with the group of adolescent participants: a collective and intergenerational creative process where even those not recognized as citizens by the Italian state’s law can find a space for storytelling, action, and representation.

PROJECT PARTNER
Gaetana Agnesi State Teachers’ Institute in Milan
ITC and PACLE Elsa Morante in Limbiate
LAIVin Project 
Zona K

Centro Studio Attori in Milan
Scamamù – Books, games, and space
Ecate Cultura
Gioco Vita Theatre

CREDITS
Project management 
Riccardo Mallus
Artistic direction Giulia Tollis
Training and education
Letizia Bravi, Marco De Francesca, Riccardo Mallus, and Giulia Tollis
Project Collaborator
Mohamed Boughanmi Rengifo
Documentation and videomaking
Julian Soardi

WITH THE CONTRIBUTION OF

CITY OF MILAN

PROJECT ACTIONS

Click on the single action to read the detailed description

Extracurricular school workshops on theater, dramaturgy, and acting, and curricular school workshops on creation with the aim of fostering active citizenship processes.

from January 2022 to May 2024
@ ITC and PACLE Elsa Morante in Limbiate
@ Gaetana Agnesi State Teachers’ Institute in Milan

Laboratory meetings in which the Guinea Pigs artists explore the project’s main themes with a group of adolescents identified within the school workshops. This offers both a training experience focused on live performing arts (writing, acting, directing, video composition, sound composition, scenography composition, etc.) and an artistic creation experience to delve into the relationship between self-perception, identity, and granted or denied rights.

from September 14th to 18th, 2022
@ Centro Studio Attori in Milan

May and September 2024
@ To be determined

A series of performance in which a group of teenage performers interview customers and passersby in urban locations (parks, stations, markets), then develop on-site interviews into a choral and narrative theatrical form to highlight common, more or less accurate and/or in-depth perceptions regarding citizenship rights.

December 30th, 2022
@ Parco Nicolò Savarino in Milan

@ Giardino Franca Rame in Milan
Teenage Performers _ Alice Beltramin, Tiffany Guaygua, Giovanni Di Ponziano, Annasimon Edward Botr, Max Spoiala
Professional performers and guides _ Letizia Bravi and Marco De Francesca

September 16th, 17th, 23rd, and 24th, 2023
@ Various Parks in Municipality 9 of Milan

Theoretical-practical meetings to write short original scenes that will be presented to the public during a final convivial sharing. The workshop has two main objectives: involve new generation teenagers in ideating and writing original stories that represent their identity, generational, and cultural conflicts, and thus give voice to the desires, fears, ambitions, and emotions of future Italian citizens; tell Italy from a different perspective, beyond stereotypes and dominant beliefs; offer a free course that enhances the personal, linguistic, creative, and emotional skills of those involved.

from March to May 2023
@ Scamamù – Books, games, and space

Creation of a podcast that tells the stories of the next Italian citizens. Each episode will narrate the story of a girl and a boy from the new generation, of non-Italian origin, born and/or raised in Italy, encountered during the journey, and an aspect of the debate on citizenship rights and the political, social, economic issues surrounding this legal acquisition. The format will be storytelling accompanied by interviews with individuals with migration backgrounds active in public debate and in creating new narratives to decolonize theories, thoughts, bodies, voices.

Creation of a theatre performance featuring professional performers and teenage performers. The dramaturgy will be conceived and realized together with a group of adolescents: it will give voice to the protagonists of this transformation, their peers, and the adults they look up to. The stage device will see the performers acting out fictional situations, then stepping out of these narratives and directly engaging the audience, to delve into the raised themes or express their own viewpoints, even in contradiction with the characters’ actions.

Regional circulation in schools.

Regional and national circulation of the performance in theaters.

SCHEDULE

First Year
2022

School workshops
from January to May

@ ITC and PACLE Elsa Morante in Limbiate
@ Gaetana Agnesi State Teachers’ Institute in Milan

Scenic creation workshop
from September 14th to 18th
@ Centro Studio Attori in Milan

Performance #whereareyouitaly
December 30th
@ Parco Nicolò Savarino in Milan
@ Giardino Franca Rame in Milan

Second Year
2023

School workshops
from January to May
@ ITC and PACLE Elsa Morante in Limbiate
@ Gaetana Agnesi State Teachers’ Institute in Milan

Writing workshop #dearitaly
from March to May
@ Scamamù – Books, games, and space

Performance #whereareyouitaly September 16th, 17th, 23rd, 24th
@ Various Parks in Municipality 9 of Milan

Third Year
2024

School workshops
from January to May
@ ITC and PACLE Elsa Morante in Limbiate
@ Gaetana Agnesi State Teachers’ Institute in Milan

Podcast creation
from March to May

Scenic creation workshop
May and September

Creation and debut of the performance
October

Circulation in schools
from november onwards

Circulation in theatres
from December onwards

Associazione Culturale Laboratorio d’Arte Performativa Guinea Pigs

P. Iva | C. F 11504490969

Via Bernardo Davanzati 28
20158 Milano – Italia
guineapigsteatro@gmail.com