We’re in a station.
But there are no trains leaving nor arriving.
A station where we go to fix something in our lives.
Someone leaves and someone arrives, someone must leave, someone else shall go back.
Fleeting, short, intense meetings take place, here you can finally tell the unspoken word.
You can explain something that has been for a long time confused; you can hold, maybe just for a moment, the person you haven’t been able to greet.
A station of living and dead people, of memories, of encounters.
An old man can see the child that he was, a girl can run towards the woman she has become.
A place where everyone comes to terms with his story. But it’s not a private place.
We are a multitude of lonely people.
Our intimacy belongs to us, to a myriad.
Here the soul becomes social, and social dimension takes place into a particular story.
That’s the way we want it to be, and we want something in our life to be fixed.
We just need it to know a bit more about ourselves, about our time, our past and our present.
From time to time, space will be crossed by history.
(translation by Caterina Cavallo)
César Brie. César Brie is an Argentinian actor and director, founder of the Comuna Baires in 1972; due to military dictatorship persecution he was forced to self-exile in Milan in 1974. After 1975 he started the theatre group Collective Tupac Amaru in Milan; among his shows is “Hey” with Danio Manfredini. Following the experience in the group Farfa and Odin Teatret, he founded the Teatro de Los Andes in Bolivia, whose exemplary works are rooted into History and Classics but prove to be truly actual (like Romeo and Juliet, in Ubu Bolivia, Only fools die of love, Inside a yellow sun, Fragile, Otra vez Marcelo, The Iliad, Odyssey).
In 2010 he left Bolivia further to threats following his documentary Tahuamanu (which reveals what really happened on September 11, 2008 in Bolivia). He currently lives and works in Italy as a teacher and as a writer, actor,director. Some of his works: The sea in your pocket, Tree without shade, 120 pounds of jazz, Karamazov, The Old Prince, Painless, Viva Italy.
Koreja. Koreja Theatre was officially founded in 1985 in Aradeo, and the company – named KOREA – lived in Castello Tre Masserie. The word koreja derives from greek dialect, where koreja means ‘circular movement’ , from ancient greek χορεια. The word can be found in one of Jerzy Grotowski’s writings to mean three things in one: dancing, music and singing. Since the beginning, the company has been directed by Salvatore Tramacere, actor and director who trained with the most important drama professionals like Eugenio Barba, Iben Nagel Rasmussen, Cesar Brie, Silvia Ricciardelli and Pina Bausch. In collaboration with public institutions, the first group (1983 to 1998) , has promoted and organized the international festival ‘ Aradeo e I teatri’, a landmark of the Theatre A Sud, that hosts national and international artists. Since the beginning koreja has offered dramatic productions, research and promotion works addressed to a large audience. In 1991 the drama poster ‘Strade Maestre’ was produced in Lecce, a dramaturgy project addressed to disadvantaged areas of the Country, also thanks to the supprt of Italian theatre and local institutions. In 1998 Koreja moved its laboratory to the outskirts in Lecce, in the neighborhood of Borgo Pace. They bought and renovated an old brick factory at their own expense and turned it into a theatre: Cantieri teatrali Koreja. An old brick factory was at the same time a challenge and a gift to a town that hasn’t always been inclined to hospitality. In 2003 Cantieri teatrali Koreja have been acknowledged by the Ministry of Culture and Education as ‘Theatre of Innovation’ in Salento due to their research and experimentation projects, to the vocation and to strong bond with local territory. In 2015 Cantieri teatrali Koreja were accredited like ‘Center of drama production and experimentation for childhood and youth’ by the Ministry of culture and education, the only one in Apulia. Since 2017 the theatre group has been joined by a scientific committee whose members were Eugenio Barba, Nicola Savarese and Franco Perrelli. The artistic project of Koreja produces works, performances and stories – both short and longer ones – moving from far away to the loved and hated South: a ‘residence for theatre and culture’, where innovations and generations cross each other. Kaleidoscopic arts and practices where roots and languages share mutual respect, experiment new directions, languages and poetry, overtaking self-pride and opposition. Koreja project overcomes the theatre borders. Works, actions and stories get started in the theatre and gain huge audience in tours, cultural meetings, exhibitions and outdoor rehearsals; young and disadvantaged people are mostly addressed by the topics and a permanent dialogue with audience and institutions plays an important role. Koreja experience was born in the 80’s based on the community as a place where differences coexist.The works of Koreja are unique. The original group with Salvatore Tramacere, Stefano Bove, Franca Carallo and Francesco Ferramosca is looking for symbols, suggestions, new approaches to a live drama, in a south which has had no drama, before. In addition to Tramacere’s artistic direction, Silvia Ricciardelli introduced an international scope. She is from Naples and has been training at the Odin Teatret for 10 years. What about her challenge? Teaching a type of drama that does not “exist”, actors producing materials which the director transforms through the play. ‘Theatre is like mercury: you divide it, it gets broken and then get joined again. It’s a game of molecules that join and fall apart in a succession of experiences.’ So the company has been experiencing research, attempts, mistakes, tracks; people are questioned about ‘what to do’ and ‘how’ to keep on testing their skills. Rather than the result, the experience process plays an important role; the group turns from pupil-actor into actor-pedagogue. The artistic core is still characterized by ‘practice looking for theory’, focused on the “getting together” more than on written words, on emotion and relationships more than on dictated and codified rules - although discipline and rigor lead the action. Little defeats and little achievements open to new perspectives, offer visions, guide languages, writings and experiences in a process of continuous change. Borders, those borders that cross and contaminate each other, are yet the key to the marginality. Every day we choose to be still artisans, to place ourselves in a corner, ‘to look better’ : and while doing it we need to remove cultural and ideological barriers, which are impeding a trans-cultural theatre starting from THE man. (teatrokoreja.it/en/the-history/)
