"More funding for the theatre. It's not a promise but a certainty."
On the eve of World Theater Day on 27 March, there could perhaps not have been a more unexpected and welcome announcement than that of Undersecretary Gianmarco Mazzi, in the long procession of the third meeting, the one with theater after dance and music, in view of the first Entertainment Code.
Tomorrow, March 27, it will be the turn of circuses and traveling shows, historical carnivals and historical re-enactments.
"Theatre is life, it is a very important art form, even for the new generations. And it must be supported", sums up Mazzi who listened and took notes for six hours, surrounded by a crowd of artists, directors, associations, directors of public and private theatres, from Davide Riordino to Francesco Siciliano and then, among others, Davide Livermore, Luca De Fusco, Giorgio Pasotti, Paola Quattrini, Manuela Kustermann, Paolo Valerio, Giorgio Panariello.
"The theater is unavoidable, it is a place of gaze - begins Gabriele Lavia -. It was said that cinema would kill it, which seems to me to be an unlikely prophecy".
"I started with theater at the Academy and like Albertazzi, if I have to die, I too want to die in the theater", insists Michele Placido.
"Quality can only be achieved with money. The real problem today is the lack of industry", points the finger Luca Barbareschi.
"A country that does not have theatrical culture as its central culture is a less civilized country than others. But it is not enough to give it oxygen like a dying person. We need to encourage it", suggests Nicola Piovani.
There were many requests and suggestions, from Claudia Gerini who aims at training in schools to the valorisation of the twentieth century repertoire according to Geppy Gleijeses.
And then the contractual problems that often "starve" actors on tour, as reported by Mariangela D'Abbraccio, and the timing of financing that brings budgets to their knees, adds Alessandro Preziosi.
Up to the unfair competition of public theaters towards private ones, as denounced by the director of Parioli Piero Maccarinelli.
Among the answers of the next Code, the first is the one that the Theater has not heard for a long time.
"In Italy we have sectors that are a bit Cinderella - says Mazzi -. The theater receives 91 million euros a year in funding. 750 for the cinema, then 200 for the Opera and just over 300 for all the other arts. We will try to understand what is the minimum amount needed by the theater sector to improve the situation, but we will certainly increase the contribution by looking for fresh resources. If we don't find them - he adds - we will remodulate the financing. It's not a promise, but a certainty".
There is also "the tax credit" coming soon and then we are working on "widening the audience for the Art Bonus" and, he adds,
"The tax credit will certainly help all those who cannot benefit from the former Fus - comments Alessandro Longobardi, at the helm of the Sala Umberto and the Teatro Brancaccio in Rome - It is necessary to have further meetings to find out more, but I would say that with the Code we are on the right track street".
"A Code - comments Massimo Romeo Piparo, in the triple role of director, director of the Sistina in Rome and president of the Italian Association of Private Theaters - which finally rewards merit, aims to balance the resources between public and private theatre, between cinema and live show, but above all it overturns that ancient mechanism of the former Fus which rewarded losses and could finally reward merit and numbers. If half of the things mentioned today actually come to fruition, it will be the turning point for the sector that we have been waiting for for a long time".
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