“SCENES WITHOUT BARRIERS”

 

Since the convention "Scenes without Barriers", held in Pordenone in April 2002, there has emerged the need for links and comparisons between the experiences of theatre, dance, music and intercultural exchange within Italy. For a great number of years these experiences have come to the fore with results that have often proved to be of inestimable value, both in the artistic process and in the social and cultural validity of their proposals. The further development of the debate, which on that occasion found expression in conference papers, reports, demonstrations of work, workshops, performances, and tastes of inter-ethnic cuisines, did not limit itself to the time of the convention itself, but has continued through a network of contacts and has been maintained and amplified under the care of  "Scuola Sperimentale dell'Attore". Many of the speakers and performers present at the conference, and also many contacted in the preparative phase or subsequently, have contributed by sending documentation, witnessed accounts, and information on their own activities or their own notes and observations in the social field. Some of them have kindly provided conference papers and essays they had previously done. These "friends" of the debate, some by way of texts, some by images or other materials, have contributed to keeping alive further dialogue, which is itself "without barriers". Such has been the case that there has emerged a further need to publish, in the present volume, an account of what has been brought together. While recognising that we cannot even remotely begin to provide an exhaustive account in relation to the vastly rich panorama of of small and great cultural initiatives for difference, which persist and continue to emerge within Italy, we hope that this volume may in its turn contribute to the continuation of the national debate and to the revelation, also by way of a more widened collective imagination, of new strategies for communication, for understanding, for solidarity and respect.

 The volume, "Scenes without Barriers" therefore represents a wide review of the most representative initiatives for "Theatre of Difference" within Italy at the dawn of the new millennium. Taking off from the convention organised in 2002 under the same name, "Scenes without Barriers" brings together a rich panorama of conference papers, that has involved the various speakers in updating material as far as December 2004. Widely different themes of "Theatre in the Social Field" are dealt with in ample and well-organised sections: from the experience of recovery from social disadvantage of single individuals or communities, to the specific experiences of intervention in some social pathologies such as drug addiction, anorexia and bulimia in youth, Alzheimer's syndrome and the difficulties of communication of the elderly. Furthermore, there are dealt with the most representative experiences of "Theatre and Prison", of "Theatre and Handicap", of "Theatre and Other Cultures", with particular attention to to the intercultural phenomena that can be met within the area of immigration in Italy, or of "Theatre from Point of View of Women", with all of the problems of integration and expression that foreign women may have to face in our country.

A specific section of the volume, dedicated to the theme " Publishing for the Theatre of Difference", underlines the efforts of some Italian realities that sustain the informing and disseminating of these initiatives and experiences, but it also underlines the importance of promoting integrated initiatives on the discussion of social themes. In Italy, in the face of an ever increasing demand on the part of those working in the social field, volumes that actually deal in an integrated and interactive way with the different aspects of "Theatre of Difference" are rather rare. Rare and important volumes, published between 1999 and 2003, necessitated new opportunities for discussions and updating. The same contributors to those volumes have been invited to draw further comparisons in the issues related in the volume "Scenes without Barriers", which moreover represents, at the time of publication, one of the most up to date contributions in the Italian panorama.

INDEX OF THE VOLUME