ACROBATIC POETRY

The Goals of the Project

The Acrobatiche Poetiche review represents a major theater initiative organized by Retablo ETS, now in its fifth edition in 2024. The project stems from the need to create a space dedicated to research and innovation theater, which often finds it difficult to emerge in large commercial circuits. The review is structured around shows that investigate new languages and dramaturgical styles, allowing professional companies to engage with the public in a context oriented toward artistic experimentation.

The review includes ten nationally selected titles, with weekly repeats contributing to cultural continuity and audience retention.The programming also involves events and workshops for students, focusing on relevant social issues and innovative languages, with the aim of promoting social inclusion and youth participation.

Acrobatiche Poetiche is based on a vision that sees theater as a tool for cultural and social regeneration, especially in peripheral or marginal territorial contexts. The primary objective is to offer local communities constant access to quality performances, helping to build a cultural network that fosters social cohesion and community dialogue. Specifically, the project aims to:

  1. Create a circuit for Research and Innovation Theater, offering companies a space to test their work in an environment that fosters experimentation and interaction with audiences.
  2. Connecting places and communities in a single theater network, involving a number of theaters in the Cremona province (including Teatro Filo and Teatro Monteverdi in Cremona, Teatro Gonzaga in Ostiano, Teatro Comunale in Rivarolo del Re, and Teatro Vittoria in Spino d'Adda). This network makes it possible to reach small communities usually excluded from traditional cultural offerings, ensuring the dissemination of cultural events in areas far from major urban centers.
  3. To retain local audiences and bring them closer to quality theater, including through training initiatives and educational activities aimed at young people and students. Active involvement of the audience is central, and in fact the review includes parallel activities, such as meetings with artists and workshops, to foster audience education and promote theater understood as a community experience.

Acrobatic Poetics 2024's review includes a selection of ten titles, chosen nationally partly through collaborations with leading theater festivals and events such as the Mi Fringe, Milan Off and the Catania Fringe Festival. The shows, spread throughout the year, are offered in multiple runs and in different venues, allowing for the optimization of promotion resources, technical and hospitality costs for the companies, and fostering cultural continuity for the audience. 

The shows are aimed at a wide audience, with reductions and subscriptions designed to encourage access by different age groups, including students and the elderly. Proposals are divided into shows of various genres, some dedicated to high school students as part of educational programs on issues of legality and citizenship, and others aimed at children and young people through theater workshops.

A key aspect of Acrobatic Poetics is social inclusion, in which theater becomes a vehicle for raising awareness and discussion of socially relevant issues. Performances such as *Morire dal Ridere*, which explores the story of Jewish comedians in the Nazi concentration camps, or *Mamy Blues*, which deals with the issue of postpartum depression, are examples of the project's willingness to deal with sensitive and emotionally impactful issues, promoting reflection on issues such as disability, social integration and psychological distress.

Retablo ETS has established a close network of collaboration with local institutions, such as the municipal administrations of Cremona, Ostiano, Rivarolo del Re and Spino d'Adda, which offer patronage and make spaces available for performances. In addition, collaboration with voluntary associations, pro loco and local cultural networks makes it possible to build side events and enhance the promotion of the festival, amplifying community participation and optimizing costs. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

In addition to local support, the review benefits from wider cultural networks, such as C.Re.S.Co. (Coordinamento Nazionale delle Realtà della Scena Contemporanea), the ETRE Association, a network of theatrical residencies in Lombardy, and the Sicilian Rete Latitudini, active in organizing reviews in smaller towns.

Acrobatiche Poetiche pays special attention to the involvement of young people, both through performances featuring a strong participation of artists under 35 and through an offer of educational activities designed to bring young audiences closer to theatrical languages. In Cremona, the project collaborates with the Coordinamento degli Studenti di Cremona Città Universitaria (Cremona City University Students' Coordination), incentivizing access to performances through special discounts and subsidized subscriptions.

Acrobatic Poetics aims not only to expand access to research and innovation theater, but also to help reverse the process of depopulation and loss of identity that plagues many suburban centers. The choice of small spaces in locations often distant from major cultural centers makes it possible to offer a sustainable alternative for the cultural and social revitalization of these areas.

In summary, Acrobatiche Poetiche takes the form of an inclusive and innovative cultural project that harnesses the potential of theater to build community, stimulate debate on relevant social issues and foster territorial cohesion, proposing a model of widespread culture that meets the needs of a diverse and growing audience.

Acrobatiche Poetiche contains in its title the prospect of programming capable of leaning beyond the center of gravity of the comfort zone of institutional theater schedules toward more daring balances, with a high coefficient of cultural risk.

The overall view of the dramaturgies proposed by Retablo returns an ideal bisector that intersects the plane of a theater as an art capable of producing events capable of putting man in the presence of his public dimension-every thing that happens in the theater is res-pubblica-and subdivides it into complementary stylistic figures and scenic languages: on the one hand a series of auteur shows that light the fuses to deflagrate the contradictions of the present - Mafia Nord, Morire dal ridere, Il Capro, Ballata per San Berillo, Sindrome Italia o delle vite sospese,Ladies Body Show, Parole Mute 2. 0, The Land of Swollen Faces, My Name is Marisce I Come from the Sea - on the other a highly advanced experimentation, and yet, subsuming an equally critical and political attitude, on new technologies applied to the performing arts - An Escape to Egypt XR, a dramaturgical experiment with live acting for augmented and virtual reality viewers; Typhoeus, the betrayal of the ear, acted within a scenic hologram created by generative videos influenced by the actor's movements and voice captured with motion capture technique; The Wall, live&drama set, dramatronic chronicle of a civil apartheid, a multifocal and polysemantic techno-novel that incorporates in the form of the multimedia live set the elements of an epic song devoid of heroes. It pursues a theater as an art capable of producing events that put man in the presence of his public dimension-everything that happens in the theater is res-public divided into complementary stylistic figures and scenic languages: on the one hand a review of auteur shows capable of igniting the fuses to deflagrate the contradictions of the present, on the other hand workshops devoted to a highly advanced experimentation, and yet subsuming an equally critical and political attitude, on new technologies applied to the performing arts multidisciplinary palimpsest using the language of the performing arts, digital and relationship to rethink and reactivate spaces and communities, actively engaging audiences in immersive, interactive and socially relevant experiences six extraordinary productions that will explore the challenges, injustices and complexities of the human condition through different narrative and stylistic lenses. The common thematic focus is critical reflection on human and social challenges, with a focus on injustice, resistance, identity and the impact of art as a vehicle for expression and change.

These performances, while diverse, invite audiences to deeply consider their own position in the world and the power of art as a tool for reflection and transformation.
Each performance is a window into different aspects of the human experience, inviting audiences to reflect on their position in the world and the power of art as a tool for reflection and transformation an emotional and intellectual journey that not only entertains but also provokes and inspires.
Six contemporary drama productions that will explore the challenges, injustices and complexities of the human condition through different narrative and stylistic lenses.

Project Title: Acrobatiche Poetiche  

Sponsoring entity: Retablo ETS  

Goal: To build a theater circuit of research and innovation, offering audiences an experience that challenges the boundaries of traditional theater.  

Venues: Province of Cremona - Teatro Filo and Teatro Monteverdi (Cremona), Teatro Gonzaga (Ostiano), Teatro Comunale (Rivarolo del Re), Teatro Vittoria (Spino d'Adda)  

Project Description

Acrobatiche Poetiche is a theater review that embraces boldness and cultural risk-taking, aiming to push beyond the comfort zone of institutional theaters. This initiative provides a platform for research theater, in which selected productions explore contemporary social issues, confronting the viewer with questions concerning the public and collective dimensions of being human. Through innovative theatrical language, each performance is transformed into a “res-publica” event, an occasion in which reflection on the present becomes collective and participatory.

Artistic Vision

Acrobatic Poetics moves along a programmatic line divided into two complementary areas:

- Auteur drama and social reflection: a series of shows that address the contradictions and complexities of the present through a critical lens, highlighting themes of justice, identity, marginalization and resistance. These shows aim to stimulate deep reflection on the role of the individual in society, exploring the dramas and challenges of contemporary times.

  

- Technological experimentation and new languages: an innovative program schedule that integrates advanced digital technologies, such as augmented reality, virtual reality, and holographic installations, to create immersive and interactive theatrical experiences.The festival experiments with the technological possibilities of theater, exploring new ways of telling stories and engaging the audience in a deep dialogue with the work.

The Goals of the Project

  1. Promoting Research and Innovation Theater: providing space for theater companies that operate outside the commercial circuits, offering them a place where they can test their creative work and expand their contact with the public.
  2. Building a network of cultural spaces: connecting different theaters in the province of Cremona, forming an active and inclusive cultural network that can make programming accessible to communities often excluded from mainstream cultural offerings.
  3. Retaining and training audiences: developing a cultural continuity that allows audiences to identify with the artistic proposal, educating and raising awareness among the younger generation through workshops, educational activities and educational performances.
  4. Supporting social inclusion: coming up with themes that address issues of social justice, inclusion and disability, with performances that engage younger audiences and raise awareness of human and social challenges.

Programming and Collaborations

Acrobatic Poetics offers a theater season of ten titles, with shows replicated in different theaters to optimize promotion and technical resources. Programming takes place throughout the year, alternating between performances for adult audiences and activities for high school students in educational tracks on the themes of citizenship and legality. 

The review collaborates with local institutions, voluntary associations and national cultural networks, such as the National Coordination of the Realities of the Contemporary Scene (C.Re.S.Co.), ETRE (network of theater residencies in Lombardy) and the Latitudini Network in Sicily. This synergy strengthens the impact of the project, optimizing resources and promoting quality theater regionally and nationally.

Public Involvement and Youth Training

The project pays special attention to the involvement of young people, both as spectators and active participants. Through a policy of discounts and subsidized subscriptions, Acrobatiche Poetiche facilitates access to theater for the younger generation, also offering workshops and educational activities with local schools. This educational dimension aims to sensitize children to theatrical languages, developing critical and conscious participation.

Inclusion and Social Sensitivity

Acrobatic Poetics is committed to making theater an inclusive space without physical or cultural barriers. Although there are no shows specifically dedicated to disability, the review features narratives that explore themes such as inclusion, marginality, and mental distress. The shows aim to engage audiences in deep reflection on issues of strong social and personal impact, which find in theater a powerful vehicle for expression and change.

Impact and Sustainability

The project is designed to be culturally and socially sustainable, aiming to boost participation in the marginal areas of the Cremonese province, countering depopulation and loss of local identity. The decision to bring theater to smaller communities, often far from the main circuits, represents a significant investment in revitalizing the cultural and social life of these areas.

Acrobatiche Poetiche is a cultural regeneration project that embraces theater as a tool for collective transformation, making it a place of encounter, dialogue and critical reflection. Through programming that combines dramaturgy and technological innovation, the project establishes itself as a unique proposal in the cultural landscape, aimed at a wide and diverse audience, with the intention of creating a cohesive and active community around the value of theatrical art.