TORINO – The situation in Italian prisons is dramatic and we report on it almost daily, even if only limited to what happens in prisons of Piedmont. Overcrowding and insufficient staff have led to a widespread extreme situation, which urgently needs a solution. Just a few days ago we offered you an interview with the guarantor of prisoners Monica Gallo.
It must be said, however, that there are already those who work with strength and passion so that living conditions in prisons are more acceptable or at least a glimmer of hope can be found, so that one can grow even in extreme situations such as detention, without ever forgetting that in the Italian legal system prison should be rehabilitative and not punitive. A place where one can learn, train and return to society as a citizen useful to the community.
The theatre in prison in Turin
Among the activities that have culture and rehabilitation as their objective we are pleased to include a theatre workshop (performing art) that the Association Supporting is developing in Lorusso and Cutugno prison in Turin. A two-year project that saw the light in April, with the presence of five young people. Today, August 2024, the participants in the project are 7/8, after the inevitable difficulties of initial adaptation.
The meetings are weekly and are continuing also during the month of August, traditionally more difficult and this summer in a particular way. The laboratory is carried out by the operators Alessandro Di Mauro, Yuri D’Agostino, Raffaele Musella, Monica Battaglia and Carolina Dardano.
The aim will be to stage, in a Turin theatre, the opera that the group, which changes over time, will work on staging from time to time.
The most ambitious objective, however, will be, as stated in the initial project, “the emotional awakening of the children, made possible thanks to the “work of the theatre”, so that they can come to feel their “inside”, be able to adhere to it and can try to make it resonate also “outside” of themselves“.
Art in prison
Added to the theatre (but the two things go hand in hand) is a art laboratoryproposed in collaboration with MAU – Museum of Urban Art in Turin. A mural to paint in
curated by the artist Francesca Nigra at the F (female) pavilion with the involvement of the
inmates, where there is also the idea of bringing the theatre laboratory.
August in prison
We close this article that wants to be the story of a positive project and a voice of hope for the future with the words that the Avvalorando Association used on its social media to tell the story of August in prison.
In prison, the month of August is a period of [non]time even more difficult to pass, during which the ordinary routine of activities (school, courses, laboratories, etc.) is suspended, thus leaving in this [non]place there is more space for solitude, heat and silence which sometimes become unbearable.
Hence the (achieved) goal of continuing with the theatre workshop also in August: “This year we will be there with a participatory and “musical” theatre workshop with the aim of establishing relationships and attributing meanings to the personal and collective stories of those who want to be part of it.“.
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