Author: martina

The first edition of Festivabìlia was presented by Massimiliano Badino, the rector’s inclusion advisor, Roberta Facchinetti, director of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Manuel Boschiero, professor of Slavic Studies and inclusion representative of the department, director Nicoletta Vicentini, and Davide Bonfante, president of the Teatro a Rotelle association.

The festival, sponsored by the City of Verona and the ESU of Verona, is part of the activities of the “Inclusive Humanities” Excellence Project of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. This project aims to promote inclusion in research and teaching, to eliminate social, cultural, and economic disparities both within and outside the university. The project has received five years of funding amounting to approximately 6.5 million euros. The department in Verona is one of five departments in this field of research that have been recognized for the second time as a “department of excellence” by the Ministry.

The Teatro a Rotelle company was founded in 2016 thanks to a collaboration between a group of students, the Office of Inclusion and Accessibility, theatre director Nicoletta Vicentini, and Professor Massimo Salgaro from the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. Today, the company includes about 20 students united by their passion for theatre and their desire to have fun by playfully blending their potential abilities. The word “rotelle” (wheels) in the name, while referring to disabilities, also evokes the wheels of the brain, constantly turning to make room for creativity.

A first meeting took place on Thursday, 23 November, with the preview presentation of Festivabìlia during the study day Inclusion on Stage: A Comparison of Inclusive Theatre Experiences. The festival will officially open on 4 December at 8:30 pm at Teatro Camploy with the company Emit Flesti from Trento, presenting the show Con voce nuova, l’inferno di Dante (With a New Voice: Dante’s Inferno). The festival continues on 6 December at 4:30 pm in room Smt. 06 of the Santa Marta complex with Making Music Inclusively: All-in Rock – The Integrated Concert Told by the Organizers and on 11 December at 4 pm, also at Santa Marta, with Self Help: The Utopia of the Mad – From Invisible to Citizen, a presentation of the book by psychiatrist Paolo Vanzini (Gabrielli Editore, 2022).

The festival continues on Wednesday, 13 December, at Teatro Camploy with the performance Triangoli, a contemporary reinterpretation of Cyrano de Bergerac, performed by the Teatro a Rotelle group from the University of Verona. On 18 December at 4 pm at Santa Marta, there will be a presentation titled I Fiori Blu: Musicateatro, an interdisciplinary journey of musical and theatrical training led by director Martina Palmieri. The final event will take place on 19 December at 8:30 pm at Camploy with the Gruppo Elettrogeno from Bologna performing the show Amuri.

All events and performances are free and open to the public.

The festival “Festivabìlia – Theatre of Potential Abilities” officially opened on Thursday, 23 November, 2023, with the study day “Inclusion on Stage: A Comparison of Inclusive Theatre Experiences”, organized by Prof. Manuel Boschiero. This event, dedicated to inclusive theatre at both the Italian and international levels, will run from 23 November-19 December, 2023, at the Camploy Theatre in Verona and within university spaces.

The event explored various forms and realities of inclusive theatre, presenting experiences and projects that, from different perspectives and contexts such as disability, prison, and LGBTQI+ activism, use the language and potential of theatre as tools for inclusion and the enhancement of diversity.

Among the speakers were Claudia Olivieri with Theatres Without Borders: Inclusivity on Russian Stages, Marta Fossati with Shakespeare in Prison and Inclusive Theatre: The TYPUS Project Experience, and Marta Marchetti, Pisana Posocco, and Lucy Bell with SPAZIO DENTRO: Integrated Performative Practices for Occupying a Courtyard in Rebibbia Prison. The event concluded with a presentation by Paola Bellomi titled In the Dark Room: The LGBTQI+ Collective in the Current Spanish Theatre Scene.

6-13 November, Daniele Artoni and Giorgia Pomarolli, researchers in Slavic Studies at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures – University of Verona, were guests of the Department of Translation Studies at Yerevan State University in Armenia. The University of Verona has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Yerevan State University and has activated Erasmus+ mobility exchanges.

The two researchers gave lectures on the Russian language and culture, with a focus on translation practices.

On 9-10 November, 2023, the conference “Desde los márgenes: retos, devenires, representaciones” took place in the Co-working room and room T.1. This research-sharing event focused on exploring the concept of the margin in its various forms—including geopolitical, cultural, and linguistic—in the Latin American context.

The conference, organized by Prof. Luca Salvi—an expert in Latin American Literature—and Sara Trentini, opened with a keynote lecture by Pablo Montoya, a renowned writer and professor of Literature at the University of Antioquia. Born in Colombia in 1963, Pablo Montoya has published several collections of essays and short stories, as well as novels such as La sed del ojo (2004), Lejos de Roma (2008), and Los derrotados (2012), which focuses on the wars of independence and the emergence of guerrilla warfare in his country. In 2015, he achieved sudden fame in Latin America by winning the Rómulo Gallegos Prize, one of the most prestigious awards for Spanish-language fiction (previously won by authors like Gabriel García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Roberto Bolaño).

The conference, adopting an interdisciplinary approach, featured the participation of numerous experts in Latin American literature.