Civica Scuola di Teatro Paolo Grassi

A one-of-its-kind in Italy, the School offers curricula for all the main professional figures in the field of drama. The School’s strong point is the real-life teaching experience. Each student takes part in seminars and workshops with other students who follow different curricula; this encourages them to develop their group-work skills and to share all the stages of the creative process – just like in the real world.

Many former students have become famous actors, including Antonio Albanese, Gigio Alberti, Beppe Battiston, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Claudio Bisio, Franco Branciaroli, Antonio Catania, Anna Della Rosa, Maurizio Micheli, Paolo Pierobon, Paolo Rossi, Fausto Russo Alesi and Arianna Scommegna. The course in direction has seen graduates such as Daniele Abbado, Ruggero Cara, Massimo Navone, Cristina Pezzoli, Gabriele Salvatores, Alfonso Santagata, Maurizio Schmidt, Serena Sinigaglia, Andree Ruth Shammah and Giampiero Solari. Playwrights include Patrizia Balzanelli, Magdalena Barile, Renata Ciaravino, Edoardo Erba, Carlo Gabardini and Renato Gabrielli. Many former students have become accomplished dancers and choreographers, such as Sergio Antonino, Maria Carpaneto, Alessandra Corti, Lorenzo Dallai, Gabrio Gabrielli, Cho Yong Min and Midori Watanabe. Prominent graduates from the live-show planning course include Antonio Calbi, Mimma Gallina, Chicco Minonzio, Sergio Oliva, Renato Palazzi, Oliviero Ponte di Pino, Giovanni Soresi, Claudio Trotta and Gianni Valle.

Programmes

Three-year courses

Drama Acting, Drama Direction, Playwriting, Live Show Planning, Dancing (Stage Dancing)

Open classes

Master Classes, Open And Evening Classes, Summer School

International programmes

Over the years, the school has set up a number of important joint projects with leading European drama and pedagogical institutions. These projects include: Olive, a mobile gathering of the Mediterranean area’s drama institutes hosted every year by a different and prestigious drama school; The International Workshop Festival of Young Directors, a project created by Milano Scuola Teatro Paolo Grassi in collaboration with St Petersburg’s ON. Teatr, hosted in Milan by Teatro Franco Parenti and in St Petersburg by Imeni Lensoveta State Theatre; A Window on German Dramaturgy, a three-year cultural exchange project on contemporary dramaturgy, originating from the collaboration between Teatro Paolo Grassi and Munich’s Residenz Theater, fostered by Milan’s Goethe Institute and hosted by ERT – Vie Festival and by Milan’s Piccolo Teatro Studio.

Theatre and the City

Performances of the School’s students are hosted by the main threatres of the city and of the Region of Lombardy, from Piccolo Teatro to Teatro Franco Parenti, CRT, Teatro Elfo Puccini, Teatro Dal Verme, Teatro Grande of Brescia and by the main theatre festivals such as Milano Oltre, Mittelfest, the Venice Biennale. In the wake of the staging of Dario Fo’s Mistero Buffo and other stories by Dario Fo and Franca Rame, the association between the School and Dario Fo is developing further, with a new cycle of workshop-lessons for the staging of the Story of Qu, which will involve many young artists from six training institutes for the première of Dario Fo’s latest work, written with France Rame. In 2014, jointly with the Municipality of Milan and La Triennale di Milano, a project called “Identità di Milano” (identity of Milan), consisting in a dense programme of performances, free-of-charge, staged by the School under the artistic direction of Massimo Navone, will tell the story of Milan through dancing, music and other stage-performed activities.