Progetto TYPUS-Transforming Young People Using Shakespeare. Creative Europe (2022-2024) The Creative Europe project TYPUS-Transforming Young People Using Shakespeare (2022-2024) promotes Shakespearean theatre as a tool to support the reintegration into society of young people living in conditions of disadvantage or marginality. In particular, TYPUS involves the development of innovative and multidisciplinary theater workshops based on the tragedy of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
The project is coordinated by the University of Milan and involves partners in Italy, Greece and Norway. In the Milan area, the Departments of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Mediations and the Department of Law "Cesare Beccaria" of the State University are collaborating with the Puntozero Association (the theatre company that has been working with the young inmates of the “Cesare Beccaria” juvenile detention centre for thirty years. Puntozero has opened at its own expense the first public entertainment hall in Europe inside a prison with an independent entrance. The theater is managed by the same association with young prisoners: Teatro PuntozeroBeccaria ) to organize theatre workshops involving young actors and actresses from Puntozero, a group of students from the University of Milan and inmates from the external and internal penal areas of the “Cesare Beccaria” juvenile detention centre. This is a consolidated collaboration that dates back to 2016 and has been documented by the short film La Statale at BeKKa: https://vimeo.com/801210079.
Project activities coordinated by are also carried out in the prison sector, while the Greek partner association, EDRA, works with young people, many of them minors, who live in disadvantaged conditions in the suburbs of Athens. In Norway, the Norwegian partner NTNU, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, has been using applied theatre and devising as a tool to prompt prisoners to reflect upon and act out their experiences for the last six years in the project “Theatre behind Walls” at Bjørgvin prison.
In Greece, EDRA - Social Cooperative Activities for Vulnerable Groups, has more than 20-year experience protecting the rights of vulnerable groups and raising awareness of mental health-related issues, using drama and creative techniques. Involving experts in theatre studies, social sciences and law, the three partners, each in their own country, ran theatre workshops inspired by the themes of conflict and law in Romeo and Juliet. Each workshop ended with a short performance. After sharing the best practices of their respective approaches and methods, the three partners concluded the project with a choral, theatrical event that took place in Milan on 17 and 18 May 2024 at Teatro PuntozeroBeccaria, to commemorate the early deaths of the young victims of Shakespeare’s tragedy (Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio, Tybalt and Paris). One of the main objectives of TYPUS is to develop theatrical practices and tools that can be replicated in different fields to promote the active participation of young people in contemporary society. An equally important outcome of the project is the definition of a training course for young professionals with skills in theatre, law and social sciences.
European project coordinator: Mariacristina Cavecchi (Università degli Studi di Milano, Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature, Culture e Mediazioni).
Artistic project coordinator: Giuseppe Scutellà (Teatro PuntozeroBeccaria)
Project participants: University of Milan: Department of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Mediation: Mariacristina Cavecchi, Marta Fossati, Harriet Carnevale; students. Departement of Law "Cesare Beccaria": Lucio Camaldo, Luigi Cominelli, Letizia Mancini, Enrica Valente; students.
Associazione Puntozero: Lisa Mazoni, Margaret Rose (dramaturg), Giuseppe Scutellà (artistic director), actors/actresses and inmates from the internal and external sections of the “Cesare Beccaria” juvenile detention centre.
NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology): Cecilie Haagensen, Marianne Nødtvedt Knudsen, with Astrid Koppen Mjanger (Theatre Behind Walls) and the inmates from Bjørgvin prison, Bergen.
EDRA (Social Cooperative Activities for Vulnerable Groups): Eleni Sakellariou, Maria Kosma, Danai Oikonomou Kerasoglou, and boys and girls from Athen’s suburbs.
Vitality Social: Matteo Matteini, Adam Clark.
In collaboration with: AFOL (Agenzia Metropolitana per la Formazione, l'Orientamento e il Lavoro), Milan: fashion designer Susan Marshall and her students.
K:13 scenekunst, Bergen, https://www.k13scenekunst.no.
The ARR project, Bergen, https://thearrproject.com.
As members of TYPUS Youth Advisory Board: Anastasia Apostolakopoulou, Claudio Favazza, Adamantini Kardianou, Kleanthi Liava, Carolina Mascotto, Valentina Stringhetti, Camilla Trosterud, Alessandra Turco, Despoina Panagiotou. Marta Fossati.
