Dr Margherita Laera curates new public engagement project, ‘Performing Italy’

Senior Lecturer, Dr Margherita Laera, launches latest public engagement project, ‘Performing Italy’. Dr Laera has curated seven 15-minute video portraits of theatre makers of migrant heritage working in Italy. This is to amplify the voices of these fabulous young artists who too often struggle to have a platform in our exclusive theatre establishments.

The team at Performing Italy share the importance of the project: “Italy has second largest number of resident foreigners in the EU (stats taken from January 2019). Millions of migrants of first, second and third generation permanently live and work in our country: many have obtained Italian citizenship, and many others haven’t, including young people who have grown up and gone to school in Italy. And yet, Italian theatres, on and off stage, seem to be oblivious to this reality.

In order to explore cultural identity and represent the social changes happening in Italy, we have asked seven theatre-makers of migrant heritage – of first or second generation, or mixed heritage – to share their stories, their artistic development and future projects in seven video portraits.

‘Performing Italy’ amplifies the voices of a selection of so-called “new Italians” who work in theatre today, highlighting the significance of their artistic contribution to the current artistic landscape and confirming contemporary theatre’s key mission of representing Italian society for what it currently is.”

The series was commissioned by the Italian Cultural Institute in London. ‘Performing Italy’ has been curated by Dr Margherita Laera, and is in collaboration with Alberto Lasso, Carla Pierolero and Oliviero Ponte di Pino. The films are by Nicola Giordanella, with English subtitles by Corina Gabualdi, and produced by Suq Genova Festival e Teatro.

The video portraits will be available on ICI London’s Vimeo channel on the following dates:

21 January | Shi Yang Shi