Workshops

The core activity of the project is a series of workshops with groups of migrants of any definition and provenance held by all the partners in a space of their choice. The work developed during the workshops was modulated depending on the specificity and needs of each reality, and at the same time all workshops shared some general features in terms of cultural aspects, theatre approaches, common working methods. In fact, the project starts from a shared thought concerning the artistic production through theatre with groups of immigrants and residents, with the following objectives:

Codify this approach in order for it to be shared at a European level, thanks to the cooperation among partners;
Verify, by the mean of European cooperation, the worth of this approach, putting it into practice in each specific reality and checking it with the living experience of the participants and the local communities;
Use cooperation and dialogue with various European realities to produce meaningful cultural products, represented by the workshops, the events, and the outputs, allowing a wider diffusion and reproducibility of what was generated.

The transnational cooperation is a core aspect of Crossroads, its backbone, the reason of its own existence. This finds substance in the method of creation of the project’s actions and products, based on a dialogical approach lasting all the project’s phases: from devising the workshops to the remote workshop activities to the transnational events, every step of the project is focused on a constant dialogue.

This will be confirmed during the middle-term transnational event in Palermo, planned for September 2023. During this three-days meeting, the fruit of each workshop will be shown to a local and international audience, giving a practical turn to the dialogical approach of the project. Moreover, since only few of the participants will be able to travel to Palermo, the core of this action will rely again on the dialogue built among the single workshops’ results and among all the participants involved.

Participants: refugees and asylum seekers/migrants, non-native Italians and native Italians. Open specifically to youngsters, minors under 18. 15/20 participants.

Trainers: Flavio Cortellazzi (artistic director) and José Andrés Tarifa Pardo (trainer and workshop tutor).

Starting concepts: some ideas were developed from the topics addressed by the trainers, going deeper into the possibilities of communication without spoken words, into the topics of travelling, crossing borders, exchanging experiences, feeling distant, giving trust.

Artistic language: The workshop followed Teatro Magro’s methods that pertain to the field defined as “research theatre”. Moving from a situation of permanent laboratory, in which everyone’s experience becomes collective material of dramatisation and representation, the work focused on the techniques of body knowledge, on musical deepening, on the cleanliness of the gesture, giving awareness to the participants step-by-step.

Participants: Italian language school students, refugees and asylum seekers/migrants, non-native Italians and native Italians. Open to all people of all ages and backgrounds. 15/20 participants.

Trainers: Tamara Bartolini and Michele Baronio (artistic directors); Luca Lotano (organisation and workshop tutor); Federica Mezza (workshop tutor and Italian teacher); Maria Rossi (workshop tutor and social operator).

Starting concepts: The human voice. Learning to understand our instrument with people who are learning a new language and taking a time that looks at learning a new language through the body, emotions, something that affects everyone involved. Bringing one’s own voice.

Artistic language: Starting from pedagogical work, research tools are made available that cross different languages: audio (microphones, recordings), images (analogue type work with overhead projectors, various materials and instrumentation). Voice is also the place of memories.

Participants: Groups of Italian migrants in Brussels, second or third generation, locals. Range to 15 to 55 years old. 14-20 participants.

Trainers: Francesco Moraca (body and voice), Serenella Martufi (dramaturgy).

Starting concepts: Starting from dramaturgical exercises inspired by choreographer Simon Vincenzi, Medeber will lead students to composing a collective dramaturgy. Moving forward along the dramaturgical continuum created last year for the performance Vie, this season we shall investigate the dramaturgical possibilities offered by texts. A common text will be developed by piecing together different forms of texts, proposed and written by participants. In particular we would like to investigate the form of the dialogue, opening up the space of this investigation to the formal structure of the dialogue as well as to a wider reflection on the word dialogue, in the social, artistic and political spheres of the contemporary.

Artistic language: Physical theatre, spoken theatre, poetry, oral poetry, collage, creative writing, collective writing.

Participants: Groups of Italian migrants in Brussels, second or third generation, locals. Range to 15 to 55 years old. 14-20 participants.

Trainers: Francesco Moraca (body and voice), Serenella Martufi (dramaturgy).

Artistic language: Physical theatre, spoken theatre, poetry, oral poetry, collage, creative writing, collective writing.

Participants: Groups of Italian migrants in Brussels, second or third generation, locals. Range to 15 to 55 years old. 14-20 participants.

Trainers: Francesco Moraca (body and voice), Serenella Martufi (dramaturgy).

Artistic language: Physical theatre, spoken theatre, poetry, oral poetry, collage, creative writing, collective writing.

Participants: refugees and helpers

Trainers: Carlos Manuel Rodrigues do Nascimiento

Starting concepts: It is important to get to know what they can do (abilities, knowledge they bring with them) and to look to the future, because refugees only see the future.

Artistic language: Physical theatre, spoken theatre, poetry, oral poetry, collage, creative writing, collective writing.

Remote workshops

In order to allow a real international dialogue among all the participants, the partners chose to extend the branches of their work via internet and devised a collaborative mechanism called “The Rooms”. Using Trello as a shared working platform, seven folders were created in order for the participants to share materials themselves: like memory boxes, each Room has a title guiding the participants to put any type of content related to the title. Week after week, the trainers will show the participants the new contents added by the participants from the other countries and will be able to make confrontations and directly dialogue with them without words.
The Rooms are at the participants’ complete disposal, but each partner appointed a responsible among their staff member to coordinate the activity. The materials may also be used by the artistic directors to be included in their regular workshop and/or in the final events, with the previous approval of those who uploaded said materials.
At the end of the workshops the participants will be asked the authorisation to make some of that material public, to give the direct and indirect audience a chance to see the actual exchanges created by the participants. A selection of the materials will be included at the bottom of this page.
Along with “The Rooms”, another remote activity will be held on a specific schedule: three online meetings will be organised in March, April and May 2023. In each online meeting, two directors from two of the partners will involve a selection of the participants in a few activities that will allow a dialogue on the topics of the Rooms (or others) with an artistic and innovative approach. The directors will divide as follows:

28 March 2023: José Andrés Tarifa Pardo (Teatro Magro) – Serenella Martufi (Medeber)
27 April 2023: Carlos Manuel Rodriguez Do Nascimiento (Sozial Label) and Bartolini/Baronio (Asinitas)
3 May 2023: Costas Lamproulis (S.Mou.TH.) – Sergio Beercock (Progetto Amuni)