For its sixth stop, Playing Memories returns home. The project of artistic residencies and TV docu-series for RaiPlay, conceived and led by the Saint Louis College of Music – in co-production with the Conservatorio Alfredo Casella de l’Aquila, the Fondazione Accademia Teatro alla Scala of Milan, RUFA, and ISIA of Rome – will be hosted at the Saint Louis Roman headquarters, before moving to Nemi for setup and debut.
“Pinocchio – from roots to sky” is the title of the new residency, a new multidisciplinary project conceived by the musician Emanuele Balsamo, which will engage selected performers for two weeks.
In this theatrical/musical reinterpretation of Carlo Collodi’s masterpiece, the famous wooden puppet becomes a representation of the chaos of contemporary life, where the lack of orientation results in disorder, misadventure, and death. To become human, Pinocchio must learn to see all that in him is mechanical, responding to life’s stimuli without awareness, and follow the path that allows him to go beyond himself: remaining machines moved by accidental events, and of this, the fairy tale speaks very profoundly, nothing good can truly happen.
Indeed, central to the story is the reference to school: Collodi seems to speak not so much of a school to submit to in order to align with what is good for social culture, but rather of a system of knowledge in which our most capricious nature, lacking will, recognizes that a new way of living can exist, a larger universe, to which, through effort, it consciously chooses to aim.
To become human, Pinocchio must find that School and that Master capable of making him discover what truly connects with his most intimate nature.
And in fact, the final test will be love for the other. Nothing more. This is what ultimately makes us human.
The plot, already rich in suggestions, is here deepened in its more grotesque nuances (the Cat and the Fox, the Shark, etc.) and redemptive (the Blue Fairy, the Talking Cricket), staged through masks specially created during the residency days.
The whole is amplified by a musical repertoire with a strong evocative and fairy-tale power: Renaissance music – or more generally, so-called ancient music – whose style, in some aspects simpler than other historical periods, allows for a fascinating reworking of the material with a contemporary ensemble, also including electronic elements.
Music thus assumes a central role, explored in various dimensions and combinations, in dialogue with the performers’ acting/dancing skills. They interpret parts of the original text, combining them with an intertwining of expressive languages, where poetry and stage action merge.
As in every residency, the performance will be offered in two replicas. The first will take place at the “Teatro di Paglia”, in the enchanting setting of Lake Nemi, near Rome: an outdoor venue, particularly fitting for the existential spirit of the work, immersed in nature and surprisingly “out of this world”, despite its proximity to the city.
The second replica will take place in Kazakhstan, where, thanks to the partnership with the main art academy of Almaty, the prestigious T.K. Zhurgenov Kazakh National Academy of Arts, the show will take shape in a new setting, at the Uyghur Theater.
SAVE THE DATE
July 4, 2025, 8:00 PM – Teatro di Paglia, Il Nemus – Via delle Navi di Tiberio – Nemi, Rome
July 8, 2025, 6:30 PM – Uyghur Theater, Temirbek Zhurgenov Kazakh National Academy of Arts, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Artistic Cast
Emanuele Balsamo, creator and pianist
Caterina Previdero, voice and piano
Pierpaolo Ovarini, sound design
Federico Apollaro, percussion
Chiara Ritelli, voice
Valeria Mancini, voice
Enrico Cendron, voice
Daniele Monaco, violin
Alice Montesi, viola
Giorgia Causo, cello
Taitoleu Akbayan, set designer/stage maker
Adele Cammarata, actress
Marica Mastromarino, actress
Ulzhan Zhaksylykova, theater dance
Bolat Dariga, theater dance
Tutors
Marta Jovanović
Giada Primiano
Maria Grazia Fontana
Fabio Cocifoglia
Alessandro Guariento
Stefano Compagnucci
Zhanat F Daliyeva
Madina F Kulseitova