THE EMPTY SPACE_Theatre in times of Covid-19

“The act of theatre is a release. Both laughter and intense feelings clear some debris from the system—in this way they are the opposite of tracemakers, for like all purgations they make all clean and new.” P. Brook (The empty space) The project documents the closure of Italian theatres after the lock-down started the 9th of March 2020 due to the COVID-19 emergency. From the sudden depletion and its deafening silence, hundreds of characters that are operating within its boundaries, have emerged. Those are the beating heart of theatre rising from curtains, seats, stages, offices and tool-rooms: many theatre workers have seen their lives suspended. My work started soon after the 2020's 'lock down', when, from the north to the south of Italy, theaters' doors were armored, and it is still keep going on today, after a year.

Notes from a travel journal.

Our meeting point is, as usual, outside the theatre. We greet ourselves by a gaze, someone by touching elbows that substitutes proximity in times of COVID-19. A sound of tinkling keys opens the door. After every key turn, we enter into places where time has stopped. Two months that felt like years. We find the remnants of the last play and our emotion is amplified like if we are in front of a crowded audience. Even the void can echo. The silence can have the same power of applauses that drain instead of filling.
“Everything is fine, ghosts do not exist, we create them. We are the ghosts!” Edoardo De Filippo, 1945.
Two months and twelve days have gone since the last time I turned on the lights on a stage. Today I enter, not to prepare a play, but to give life to an unavoidable photographic project that sheds light on the frailty of profession, the one of live performance and culture, essential because it always existed but at the same time surprisingly invisible.

May 14, 2020 - Teatro Garibaldi, Bisceglie (BT). Nunzia was the first person I captured on camera. At that time, it was not yet possible to move outside of one's own urban center. Taking advantage of the fact that we lived in the same city at that time, we opened the doors of the theater together, almost sneaking in. It was surreal. A theater that had begun its renovation right at the end of 2019... how long will it take? I asked Nunzia to bring her red dress with her; once she puts it on, she tells me, "Tea! You have no idea! I haven't worn a dress or makeup in two months! Thank you."

May 18, 2020 - They finally let us move outside the region, so I reach Bari's theaters. In the morning I go to the "Kismet Opera Theatre" where I meet my colleague Giovanni Pascazio (technical director) - Giovanni had not returned to the stage for two months, he had such a great desire to use again ropes and cables that he prepared all the lights on the set for me. Few days later he wrote me:
"He can't wait to start flowing again, to be blocked with the best knot, to support the weight in the air.
He can't wait to lie down again, being crossed by frequent waves of electrical charges to fill the air with light and music.
Sister rope, brother hollow, we'll be back together soon."

May20, 2020
h10 Anna Moscatelli (dancer) - 'Traetta Theater in Bitonto (BA) Anna tells me:' January the 6th is the last time I danced on this stage ... coming back today, after two months of suspension, excites me a lot.

May 21, 2020 - Curci Theater, Barletta. Mrs. Maria doesn't have a cell phone, so, when I call her at home and she finally answers, I ask her if she would like to pose for me. She doesn't immediately understand the meaning of my request.
Maria: "Then, I'll come at 8 o'clock to clean the theater, so by 9h30 it will be ready!".
Tea: "No, Mrs. Maria, I want to photograph you".
Maria: "Aaaaah, me!?".
Mrs. Maria has been working at the Curci Theater since 1972. Every morning, after cleaning the various venues, she makes coffee for her colleagues and guest companies on a small electric hotplate.
May 23,2020 - Carla De Girolamo (actress) -'Giuseppe Garibaldi 'theater in Lucera (FG)
Carla tells me: "When we step on the boards of the stage, I would like to sit on the stage and listen to the audience ... but that isn't there '
...
May 27, 2020 - Teatro Verdi, Brindisi. Sara wore the stage costume of her new show, which was supposed to debut in March. She wrote me this text, thanking me for the opportunity of coming back to the theater:
"I got on a stage after three months
Barefoot
With a candid stage dress, not worn yet
Blood red armchairs... empty
Time... suspended
Atmosphere... rarefied
Dust on the stage boards
And hidden in the fifth row is a wooden box with the inscription 'Fragile'...".
The soul of the Verdi Theatre is its manager, Valentina Marolo. Stepping onto the stage, she apologizes because the stage was dirty from the last take-down. She absolutely wanted to clean it up. Then she confessed, "I never left him alone! I came here almost every day during the lockdown."
...
June 5, 2020 - Teatro Verdi, San Severo (FG). Benedetto and Sergio, chief electrician and stagehand respectively, have been looking after the theater for 25 years now. When they learned that it was going to be closed indefinitely, they covered all the seats in the stalls to prevent them from being irreparably ruined by gathering dust.
...
February 5, 2021 - Giorgio Rossi (choreographer and dancer) for the company Sosta Palmizi. "I'm in Tuscany, in Castiglion Fiorentino. After 11 months I did my first stage setting. I laid out the cables, aimed the headlights, pulled strings, put my hands on the sliders of the console, but the theatre's doors did not open to let the public in. There were only three cameras and a video direction next to me in the room. Streaming theater is certainly better than no theater at all.