World Theater Day, Milan's Piccolo occupied by entertainment workers

On World Theater Day, this morning about fifty people, including workers of the Coodinamento Spettacolo of Lombardy and students, occupied the Piccolo Teatro Grassi in Via Rovello in Milan. “A peaceful occupation of a symbolic place,” as the statement from the Coordinamento Spettacolo Lombardia reads, to protest against theater closures and build a “sustainable restart by all.” The initiative Prove for a live show was undertaken on “a date that is not accidental” and in the “first municipal prose theater in Italy,” which was born with the commitment to be “an art theater for all.”

A Permanent Cultural Parliament is then established to “bring back the work of cultural activities as a social urgency, for it to be a priority for the government”: a “place for meetings, assemblies, debates, workshops and artistic proposals.”

“Workers, cultural enterprises, small and medium-sized companies, institutions and all the realities that make up the sector are called to participate, for a shared assumption of responsibility,” the statement continues. "To build a restart that is sustainable by all, starting with the most fragile, considering labor as the centrality and engine of all categories, not just the cultural sector. Also participating in this action are the students of Milan’s Schools, Universities and Academies as an integral part and beneficiary of the world of culture. They will be at our side today in order not to become tomorrow’s precarious workers.
Rehearsals for a live performance is an artistic and political gesture that claims the space that has been denied to culture for more than a year, to discuss/denounce the contradictions that the pandemic has brought out harshly in our society."

“Today all over the world we celebrate theater and live performance,” said Minister Dario Franceschini. “In Italy it was supposed to be a day of celebration, a date of a first restart. Unfortunately, this is not the case: the serious health emergency did not allow the reopening of theaters and cinemas, which was already planned in the yellow zones, as unfortunately all of Italy is in the red or orange zones. This did not allow the usual celebrations, and for the second year in a row World Theater Day is remembered worldwide with closed theaters. But the time will come soon when they will reopen, and until then we will continue to help artists, workers and all those in the performing arts and support them with extraordinary measures. The pandemic was an opportunity to take emergency action on the serious gaps this industry has long suffered in worker protections. And that is why we are working on a bill that can finally correct these aspects, also by gathering the initiatives already in Parliament.”

Ph.Credit Ansa

World Theater Day, Milan's Piccolo occupied by entertainment workers

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