Theatrical workshops for the children and youths living in the Stadio quarter of Lecce
THE PROJECT IN DETAIL
Objectives
To recognize neighborhood theater’s role as a “social-urban capacitor”, promoting exchange and interaction, increasing the quality of local cultural opportunities and activating synergies among local institutions and citizens. To combat the school drop-out rate and the isolation of women residing in the area, to educate people to actively listen, overcoming isolation and implementing a form of dialogue, enriching occasions to meet in theater. To activate rational intelligence and well-being and promote inclusive welfare via critical thought.
Beneficiairies
Approximately 50 children and youths in the Stadio quarter and the entire city of Lecce.
Activities
The project foresees the realization of creative activities at the Nasca il Teatro, an area on the ground floor of public, residential condominiums in the Stadio quarter – ex Zone167B – in Lecce.
For 2025, the project is called UNicA Senzaconfini to emphasize research into the fusion and mixture of peoples, putting differences together, acting as the zone of contact that harmonizes relationships between the quarter and the city. The aim is to continue strengthening the workshops for children and adolescents started in 2023, and which in 2024 registered a record number of participants and in 2025 has already exploded with requests, by staging performances dedicated to them with an ever more active participation of the inhabitants of the quarter, thanks also to the collaboration of social service associations, such as Volare Alto, managed by the L’albero cooperative.
In the workshop for children (6-11 years old), the starting point will be games, an amusing process to get to know and accept one’s own human machine, both via the body and through physical exercise, becoming acquainted with emotional space and expression which, through using voice and words, tells about a poetic and adventurous voyage.
The workshop for youths (12-16 years old) has as a main objective discovering the world of theater and reawakening the desire to believe in oneself and one’s ability. The young participants train and observe, getting to know and use scenic space, listening and respecting their own bodies and those of others and, beyond giving voice to their own feelings, discovering what it means to collaborate in order to reach a common objective – in this case, the creation and staging of a final theatrical performance written together. It is a fun and constructive adventure that promotes creativity, theater, writing and dance as important vehicles of personal and collective expression. Finally, the project foresees monthly meetings with external experts to get to know and become integrated into the annual activities of other arts (music, literature, cinema, meditation, contemporary arts and the circus arts), as well as to view performances to add to their training and complete the experience of the young workshop participants.
