The Site-Specific Projects of Teatro Potlach: The City as Set Design and Dramaturgy

Abstract

Teatro Potlach is an Italian theatre company founded in 1976 by Pino Di Buduo and Daniela Regnoli in a little village, Fara In Sabina, after a period of training by the two young people at Odin Teatret, under the supervision of Eugenio Barba. The principles of the company are those of the theatre anthropology followed by Odin, the work exclusively based on the body and the transformation of the space through the body. In 1991, to create a relationship with the citizens of the place where the company lives, the director begins to perform the first site-specific performance, Invisible Cities, inspired by Italo Calvino’s book, which explores the memory of a place and gives it back to its inhabitants, letting a never seen before city appear. Subsequently he creates other similar projects like Contemporary Landscapes, inspired by the intangible culture of the places; Angels over the City, about the theme of the artist and I Landscape – The Secrets of the Building, which creates its dramaturgy based on a historical value building. The projects are developed with an interdisciplinary and multimedia approach that involves, in addition to the performing arts, anthropology, history and above all architecture and the work on a space. Indeed, on the place chosen for the performance, the company builds a path of about 1 kilometer that is transformed by means of different elements. Unlike theatre shows where the space is generally not binding, for these projects the space is the primary founding core. All the stage elements and the performances are linked to the real city, which is not a neutral element but an active subject. The final set design is partly built and partly real, but the built one depends on the real one that determines it. The city is not only set design but also dramaturgy because it is staged and tells itself. For this reason we can speak about “dramaturgy of space”, referring to dramaturgy, not only to the written text but also all the elements that create the whole performance. The final goal is to put citizens in contact with the culture and memory of the place where they live, which are the dramaturgical roots of these projects so that they are not forgotten and they are transmitted to the new generations.