Founded in 2011, the assaiASAI (very ASAI) Theatre Company is composed of about 30-40 actors of different ages, backgrounds, and abilities: some are young people doing apprenticeships who are completing a learning experience in artistic methodologies in social work, some are theatre enthusiasts, and others are looking for friendships and a space where they can experiment and grapple with their relational and social difficulties.
assaiASAI Theatre Company
We operate on the basis of Argentine community theatre methodology. Beginning with a theme decided in a plenary session, actors and actresses contribute to the construction of the play through research, improvisation, and storytelling.
The group, composed of people aged 17 and older, has multiple purposes: to provide a space for gathering and well-being, to help them gain an understanding of their individual abilities and opportunities, to encourage sharing and inclusion, to build and refine social and artistic tools, to foster responsibility in the shared management of activities, and to work with theatre for and with the community.
Diversity is a hallmark of the group and a starting point for collective work. Actors learn to recognize and welcome their own and others’ uniqueness and to consider themselves competent individuals, carriers of knowledge, eager to learn from others and with others. AssaiASAI is also a community space that steps outside the walls of the association and creates human bonds critical to the self-esteem and social life of participants, who meet independently for evening outings, weekends, and summer vacations.
The quality of the artistic work over the years has made it possible to stage numerous shows on different themes: mental distress, the economic crisis, sports and human rights, migration, the web, history, literature, and human rights. The shows have been performed in Turin’s most prominent theatres (Astra, Casa Teatro Ragazzi, Gobetti, among others) and in different regions (Piedmont, Lombardy, Friuli, and Lazio).
Paola Cereda, a psychologist, writer, and theatre director with extensive experience in the professional sphere, is the director and coordinator of assaiASAI, in collaboration with educator, actor, and assistant director Simone Piani, who also runs the via Genè theatre group, open to adolescents aged 12 to 16.
For information:
paola.cereda@asai.it
simone.piani@asai.it
Our Shows
2024 – LITERARY COSPLAY
Books in a costume that tell beautiful stories. Actors and actresses describe a book in three minutes, bringing more than 30 classic and contemporary novels to the streets in beautiful costumes that represent the title, the cover, or one of the characters. Designed for the Tra le Righe reading promotion project, the Cosplay debuted during the Salone del Libro OFF, and today, they fill the piazzas and streets with joy, color, and beautiful stories.
2024 – WHATSAPP FAIRYTALES
Partendo dalla lettura delle Favole al Telefono di Gianni Rodari, attori e attrici riscrivono le favole attualizzandole al tempo presente, in collaborazione con i bambini del centro aggregativo di San Salvario e con gli adolescenti di Aurora. Le 17 favole sono tutte da ascoltare tramite QR code nella pubblicazione edita da Scritturapura oppure direttamente sul podcast di RadioLinea4.
After a reading of Gianni Rodari’s Telephone Tales, actors and actresses rewrite the fables by updating them to the present day in collaboration with children from the San Salvario community center and teenagers from the Aurora center. The 17 fairy tales can all be heard via QR codes on the leaflet published by Scritturapura or directly on the RadioLinea4 podcast.
2023 – PERICOLANTI (PRECARIOUS)
In search of definition. Starting with the characters of Giulia and Tancredi di Barolo, who founded the Refuge for Girls and Women in Turin in 1823, assaiASAI rediscovers the etymology of the term “precarious” and tells stories of yesterday and today. What does it mean to be precarious? The precarious words Friendship, Sin, Love, and Sharing, which have changed over time and struggle to find themselves in the present, appear on the scene, guided by a connecting thread that centers the modern characters of G (Julia) and T (Tancredi) and their priceless question: what are words for?
2022 – LA STRADA SI CONQUISTA (CONQUER THE ROAD)
Cycling tales on two wheels. Beginning with Manuela Mellini’s book of the same name, published by Capovolte, assaiASAI recounts 100 years of bicycle history and gender rights. After a bicycle ride along the bike paths of cities and towns, actors and actresses stop in the squares and streets to tell bystanders about the origin of the name bicycle, the evolution of women’s clothing in sports, the tenacity of Annie Londonderry, the strength of Alfonsina Strada, the courage of the partisan courier girls, to our own stories of falls and achievements.
2018 – BRICKS
Beyond the boundaries of the web. The virtual world of the web is home to a populace of haters, influencers, and chat addicts that move across the stage guided by a navigator who crashes them into the physical walls of a Europe that closes in the face of migration and the personal barriers connected to the kind of rapid communication that grows old after a tweet. AssaiASAi dismantles fake news and misconceptions about migrants, contrasting miscommunication with numbers and data that offer a different take on current events. From the stage, assaiASAI launches the question: is it still important to actually meet?
2016 – D(i)RITTI IN PORTA (GO/RIGHTS FOR THE GOAL)
Stories of sports and human rights. A lifesize Game of the Goose unfolds on the scene: three unlikely hosts try to dictate the wacky rules of a challenge between two teams. Throughout their journey, the players stumble over dice, boxes, champions, and sports stories from Argentina to Brazil, Rosarno to Scampia. A playful roundup of real-life cases where sports either violated or protected human rights and became a tool of oppression or redemption.
2014 – SE MI LASCI NON VALE (IF YOU LEAVE ME, IT DOESN’T COUNT)
Italy’s Call to Italians. A boat leaves for the Mediterranean loaded with young Italians. They want to land in Morocco to find work in a country “where money grows on trees, instead of dates.” Turned away at the border, they find themselves in the middle of the sea with their wacky bundle of improvised professions and questions about what it is about the new economy that makes the world move. A show in which Italy 2.0 makes an appeal to its Italians, “To get better, I need your trust.” Your dedication.
2012 – THE WORLD IS A SMELLY SOCK
(But if you find someone you trust, you can live happily ever after.). After the Basaglia law comes into force, a group of nutters leave the mental hospital and are forced to survive in the “Normal” world. Relationships born on the Internet, trips on improbable streetcars, and runs on motionless treadmills come together in a hilarious show where fun is matched by the pain of being human when you abandon the reassuring concept of being a category. Written from the story and poems of an autistic boy in the company, the play won the 2012 Moncalieri Off Prize.
2011 – FOR AN ELEVATOR IN PIAZZA MADAMA
Lorenzo Pautasso, known as Muscolo, is found dead in Turin, in the elevator of a building in Piazza Madama. On the same day, Amedeo, a tenant of the building, disappears without a trace. The inhabitants of San Salvario meet at the market and chat about the double mystery, expressing their doubts and mutual accusations. The play, loosely based on Amara Lakhous’ novel “Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio,” was written by actors and actresses after an open dialogue on prejudice, immigration, and coexistence.
Who We Are
Online articles
Dissertations
Final dissertation by Ornella Alberto
Degree Course in Educational Sciences
Year 2022/23
Final dissertation by Erika La Ragione assaiASAI educator and actress
Degree course in Educational Sciences
Year 2016/2017
