Activity

HECUBA – Ports and suburb of the Mediterranean Sea – Bologna

Theatre research for the production of a new play devellopped through steps in the ports and suburbs of the Mediterranea

An activity by

Explores the borders

local international

Why

HECUBA weaves together a theatre research for the production of a new play with the desire to approach new audiences to the languages of performing art.
The goal of this project is double:
– to create a new performance that is nourished by several experiences in different cities and countries
– to test the specific method of “neighbourhood activation” developped by the company in the Pilastro area in Bologna by extending it to different territories and countries.

Location

Via Alfredo Panzini, Bologna, Metropolitan City of Bologna, Italy

Characteristics

Area

Pilastro Neighbourhood in Bologna is a suburbian part of the city, built in the 1966 to house immigrates from southern Italy.
Laminarie theatre company directs the cultural centre DOM in this neighbourhood since 2009.

Audience

Hecuba involves three kind of targets:
- the local partner in each city - in this case it's ourselves
- the partecipants to the workshop - in this case an old woman aged 83 who have been lived for 40 years at Pilastro that was never on stage before: Anna Maria Bergonzoni
- the audience of the performance

How the audience/participants were reached or discovered

We know Anna Maria Bergonzoni since many years as she is one of the most active inhabitants of Pilastro.
She’s 80 years old. She lives in the “Torre 19”, a self-managed apartment block in Casini Street at Pilastro. She collaborates to the self-managment of the building, her husband is the founder of the pilote experience “TeleTorre 19”, a television broadcasting in the building itself.
With Laminarie’s Hecuba she’s on stage for the first time in her life.

How it was done

performance
theatre
workshops

How

The first step of Hecuba was realized as a theatre production. Anna Maria Bergonzoni worked with director Febo Del Zozzo and dramaturg Bruna Gambarelli for two weeks in order to prepare the performance. Febo Del Zozzo created the scenic machine, which resembles a huge loom where the actress moves. Febo himself acts on stage as a stagehand. The performance was premiered at DOM on 28th feb 2015.

Results

How it went

Main lessons learned

It was a great success to bring on stage such an old person who never went approached theatre before. The relatioship built with Anna Maria was very touching, she had the opportunity to live an intense and unforgettable experience as a “professional” actress.

Inspiration

HECUBA project sums up Laminarie theatre company’s wish for “getting closer” to things. Professor Claudio Meldolesi once wrote “Laminarie  expresses its vocation to contact – with matter, with objects, with words, with bodies, with the world inside and outside the theatre scene, with the places – and through interconnections between fairy tales and tragedy, playing and thinking, creative and fghting experiences, between city center and outskirts”. Laminarie theatre company always aims to get in touch with new and unforeseen audiences.

Greek mithology has been a strong inspiration for this project, together with the idea of deeply exploring the border between micro-local actions and international ones.

We decided to focus on Hecuba’s character because:
– the Greek tragedy is universal and it can be used as a mean of dialogue between diferent cultures people across the Mediterranea Sea. Its characters are strong enough to involve people of different ages and backgrounds.
– Hecuba is the story of a war told by the perspective of losers. It’s a symbol of a possible change of point of view in History’s narration.

Credits

A project by Laminarie
direction and scenography Febo Del Zozzo
with Anna Maria Bergonzoni
dramaturgy Bruna Gambarelli
organization Federica Rocchi
with the support of Bologna Municipality, Emilia Romagna Region, Ministry of Culture

Activity Timeline

2015

  • Hecuba - first step: Bologna/Pilastro

    Since 2009, LAMINARIE has its headquarter at theatre DOM la cupola del Pilastro, situated in a suburb of Bologna. Here, Laminarie has been working in deep contact with citiziens and inhabitants of the area, creating a supporting community for its projects.

    HECUBA weaves together a theatre research for the production of a new play with the desire to approach new audiences to the languages of per- forming art.

    The goal of this project is double: – to create a new performance that is nourished by several experiences in different cities and countries – to test the specifc method of “neighbourhood activation” developed by the company in the Pilastro area in Bologna by extending it to diferent territories and countries.

    The project last three years (2015-2017) and involves many Italian suburbs and small villages where there’s a lack of stable theatre structures, and several ports along the Mediterranean Sea.

    In each place, the project will mark out specific characteristics in order to meet the local context. Laminarie looked for local partners interested in the project wiling to cover the role of benckmarks of the local context and can help us building the relationship with places and people.

    Laminarie’s intent is to take root in suburbs and ports along the Mediterranean Sea, working with local people and actors such as associations, libraries, institutions, schools and so on. Activities may include: workshops, conversations and meetings, lectures, involvment of citizens and local actors, single or collective narrations, urban performances, shows, video and so on. At the same time, the production of Laminarie’s new performances is going to get richer and richer while each new step is added to the final dramaturgy.

    The very first step of the project is in Bologna at Pilastro’s neighbourhood with the citizens of the area