LET THE THEATRE TAKE YOU BY THE HAND

Interview with Graziano Melano, artistic director of the Youth Theatre Foundation (TRG) (www.fondazionetrg.it), by Roberto Mazzone of www.digi.to.it.

What's the background of the Youth Theatre in Turin and how did the activity of the TRG Foundation get involved with it?
Giovanni Moretti was the founder of "Teatro dell'Angolo" in the early seventies. I became an actor myself taking part in animation teams (I also attended the Teatro Stabile Academy). We were invited by Rivalta and Settimo City Councils in order to work in a difficult environment with the young people living there, because they were mainly immigrants from the south of Italy. I toured around the world with many colleagues of Teatro dell'Angolo to act out several stage productions (Canada, the USA, Russia); from these experiences, about twenty years ago, I got the idea of finding a place in Turin where it would be possible to create a theatre like the ones I had seen around the world. So I suggested the local authorities to restore this place, which had been abandoned until then, and in 2006 the Casa del Teatro Ragazzi e Giovani was born.

What's the role of the Foundation as for the events that will be held on the occasion of Turin 2010 Youth Capital?
Our Foundation has an obvious role within the programme of Turin 2010 Youth Capital because this is the place where theatre activities dedicated to young people continuously take place. There are so many events in 2010. The first one is "Giocateatro", the Youth Theatre Festival,with Italian performances but also foreign ones (Rumanian, German, French, Belgian and Swedish). Then "Lingue in Scena", with stage productions from different European countries. Finally "Scuola Super", where secondary school pupils can use different means of expression (music, dancing, acting).

The theatre and the young audience. What difficulties may arise from this relationship and how is it possible to overcome them both in Turin and in Europe?
First of all when you work with young people you realize that the meaning of a word or of a gesture may change if compared to working with an adult public. Other European countries like Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and to a lesser extent Switzerland have developed before Italy the concept of creating a conscious public, that is an audience informed about a language which would otherwise be confined to an elite. Since the seventies we've been trying to make the theatre become more "democratic", especially in Turin. It's part of a process whose main aim is the making of a generation who will be able to appreciate the theatre in a critical way, to get to know this reality and become actors, if they want to.

Actor or theatre coordinator: what kind of opportunities and training does Turin offer to the young people who want to become actors?
The two professions (and their respective training) should run parallel. And that's just what the "Casa Teatro Ragazzi e Giovani" is trying to offer the people who show interest: along with the theatre season there's some training activity taking place at the "Piccola Accademia (the Little Academy) del Teatro Ragazzi e dell'Animazione" (so called for this purpose). A lot of young actors, as well as more experienced ones, started their career as coordinators, then they became actors never forgetting their young audience, who, as everybody knows, is subject to very fast changes.