Compagnia Teatro Scalzo, based in Genova, Italy, was founded in the year 2001 by Ms. Bianca Barletta and Mr. Cesare Mancuso.
Teatro Scalzo is specialized in theater for children, street theater, music bands, comic theater, medieval shows, social theater.
I saw shows presented by Teatro Scalzo in Bucharest, in three different years, in The "B-Fit! in the Street!" International Street Theater Festival and in The "Childhood Memories" Festival.
This autumn, Bianca and Cesare very kindly offered me an interview. Here is the interview.
Why was Teatro Scalzo born?
Bianca: The Company was born from the need to say something. Also, we want to exist as a group of artists, not as individual actors or performers.
Thereby, what Teatro Scalzo means to you?
Bianca: We have the possibility to give artistic forms to ideas and feelings and, in this way, to send messages to people, to fight for our conceptions about life, to be free and independent. For these reasons, we are often alone.
What do you mean, Bianca, by being alone as a Theater Company?
Bianca: When one fights for his / her rights, often people do not support that person's ideals because it is easier to be on the side of the power.
I believe that your work is great, equally for your public and for you.
For your public, because you bring, by hugging people in the street through the funny characters you impersonate, a little bit of warmth in the people's hearts. I believe that, for your public, your work is in truth much more than entertainment, it is about them feeling warm feelings through Chichi's hug, for example.
For you, also because with the street theater you can observe people in many regions of the world.
Cesare: You have expressed a thought which is invisible for a lot of people. You are right, when we hug with people, it is a sincere hug! With Chichi & Coco we performed in different countries, and the reaction of people is the same.
What makes you to be enthusiastic about Teatro Scazlo?
Bianca: We love to work with and for children, they are the hope for a better world. For example, South Korea invited us to perform at the opening ceremonies for the new "Asia Cultural Center for Children", the biggest cultural project of South Korea for young people. They invited us because they watched our video clip and they like our work. Teatro Scalzo enthusiastically travels in Italy, in countries in Europe, in countries in Asia, in far countries!
Cesare: We try to put in all our shows a message, an ideal, a wish for a better world. We promote moral values like solidarity, forgiveness, self-acceptance, the capacity to love, the capacity to see in the diversity of persons a spiritual richness of our world, a spiritual value that enriches our souls, thereby the capacity to accept a person who is different from us.
We also promote the idea of recycling materials in creative ways.
We play funny characters and funny performances.
What is the greatest satisfaction Teatro Scalzo offers to you?
Cesare: To express our ideas and emotions in performances and shows.
The fact that we are invited at international festivals - Romania, France, Spain, Switzerland, Croatia, Slovenia, Malta, Thailand, South Korea - represents for us a great satisfaction and a confirmation that our work is good. For us, each show, performance or animation, little or big, is important.
And another thing: when we perform abroad, we have the opportunity to meet interesting, friendly, great people everywhere in the world. This equally means very much to us.
Please, tell us about The Forundio Festival, the summer festival Teatro Scalzo is organizing.
Cesare: All the shows in The Forundio Festival are offered to the public for free. Each year the shows are different from the shows in the previous years.
The festival is entirely produced and realized by a group of friends; we do not have any financial contribution from the government. Therefore, the agenda of the festival depends on the budget.
Bianca: During four days at the end of July, up on the mountain, the most important thing is the conviviality! The festival represents a beautiful experience, many people come because they know the festival. Children also love it, they are free to safely play, to safely run, to safely climb the trees.....
What inspires you when you create a new show?
Cesare: Usually it is like this: something happens that touches us, and from this little sensation we work to create a show that expresses our ideas and feelings. When the show is designed in its final shape, we believe that this show represents the perfect way to explain our vision.
What future plans do you have for Teatro Scalzo?
Cesare: We present our performances in Italy. But here, in Italy, in some cultural circuits only some artistic groups play.
Bianca: We present our work abroad, and we are honored by the interest we find in different countries for our shows.
Teatro Scalzo was present in Bucharest more than once, and it also performed in Sibiu. How was your experience in Bucharest, in Romania?
Cesare: We have a beautiful experience in Romania. Sibiu is a great city. Bucharest is the capital of Romania and one can feel this.
Would you like to express a message for your fans in Romania?
Cesare: Every time when I come to Romania, I study some words in Romanian language. So, I say to everyone:
Va multumim! Va imbratisam!
We want to say 'thank you' to all the people. They are always giving us a warm welcome. We hug you all!
Bianca, Cesare, thank you very much for this interview.
I wish you and Teatro Scalzo all the best! God bless you!
Bianca and Cesare: Thank you, Lucia, for your attention to our theater.
All the best for you too!
