IL FESTIVAL SIAMO NOI

The Spoleto Festival now meets the world of schools every year, calling young people to the rediscovery of a cultural identity closely linked to the birth and development of the event. The initiatives proposed to the city's primary and secondary school children and young people have been structured according to age groups: the "The festival is us" project, theater education courses, school-to-work alternation and promotions on performances dedicated to young people.

The festival is us, in its seventh edition, is a project aimed to at all primary and secondary school pupils in the city of Spoleto and is also meant to be an opportunity to rediscover the city through stories and memories, documents and archival material, but above all an opportunity for the young people who participate to visit the city with different eyes: squares that become stages, secret places from discover, churches dedicated to the performing arts, everyday places that become special, historic monuments transformed by the hands of artists, dark cellars as precious ateliers.

In previous editions there have been different themes: knowledge of The Festival Trades to make people reflect on how the different roles of those who have worked for the Festival have evolved, consolidating over the years, or transforming and giving rise to new skills and professionalism; the memory of Spoleto on the 50th anniversary of Sculptures in the City, the historic exhibition of contemporary art that saw the City of Spoleto transformed into a "Museum City" in 1962; The Discovery of the Theater, the theme chosen for the last two editions, revealed to young people the secrets and hidden corners of two of Spoleto's iconic theaters, the Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti and the Teatro Romano, in a journey that took them to back in time to learn, while having fun, the history of these places, to know their architecture and structure, reconstruct the history of the Festival through the places of the city in which, from over half a century, the event takes place.

The workshops, all having a predominantly playful approach, take the form of a game thus increasing the children's knowledge, enabling them to develop their perceptual skills, imagination, creativity and helping them to communicate, express themselves and become familiar with the theater, its parts and its history.

With this year's theme, young pupils are asked to create a short film that tells the story of the 60 editions of the event: class 5°B of the XX Settembre elementary school are participating in the competition with a short film entitled "The Festival will be us," a tribute to the 60 years of the Festival that encompasses music, painting, large sculptures, dance and theater; classes 5°to and 5°B of Le Corone full-time elementary school with their teachers, with a short film created by taking inspiration from 6 posters - one for each decade - chosen from the 60 editions of the Festival and devising a ten-second mini-performance for each; class 4°to of "Sansi Leonardi Volta" classical high school with a short film dedicated to the history of the Festival, music and to one of the most beautiful squares in Italy.