The idea of putting on a play began last year (1997) in the San Gregorio Magno community at S. Silvia Parish in Rome. It started as a parallel activity to the regular parents' sessions during group meetings. The young people embraced it immediately. Anna chose the story—Peter Pan—and Laura and Angela, serving as director and assistant director, adapted it into four essential scenes connected by a narrator's voice. They cast the roles thoughtfully, considering each person's personality, appearance, interests, and different abilities. Yet practical difficulties emerged at once. Everyone lacked experience, and more pressingly, there was no stage. You can do movement exercises in a room, perhaps, but real theater demands a real stage—one with basic sets where actors can practice entrances, exits, gestures, lines, and the handling of objects. In September, the project revived with a stroke of fortune: the parish theater became available for free rehearsals, as long as they worked around the schedule of the company that runs it. They reassigned roles once more, always with an eye to each young person's personality, appearance, interests, and abilities.
The earlier experience had taught important lessons. This time, they rehearsed more regularly—during group meetings and on four weekday afternoons. Parents stayed away to preserve the surprise. Only the director spoke during rehearsals; assistants and actors took notes on what needed work and discussed it at breaks or the end of sessions. They worked through one scene at a time, rotating actors in staggered shifts to prevent fatigue and chaos. The script had been printed in large type; each actor had their own copy, and a prompter followed them offstage with the full text. Most of the young people learned their lines well and even improvised within the scenes. The regular friends—only five or six consistent ones, though others rotated in—had to start fresh each time, reading their parts and taking cues from the young actors, who remained faithful and attentive. A few young people, despite having assigned roles, preferred to watch the show rather than perform, sharing fully in the collective joy nonetheless. The friends were given supporting roles that still mattered. The narrator stayed present throughout, threading the scenes together, dressed in gray, almost invisible.
A performance of roughly twenty minutes, brimming with joy and suspense
The music was varied and driving: songs by Bennato ("L'isola che non c'è," "Capitan Uncino"), the Forrest Gump soundtrack, and culminating in Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries." The opening night, thrilling and emotional, played at Christmas; a second showing came at Carnival. The performance ran roughly twenty minutes, brimming with joy and suspense. Many people contributed alongside Laura and Angela. Francesco handled sound and lighting. Angela's mother sewed costumes. Antonio's brother supplied wooden set pieces. Every parent became a set hunter and builder. The result exceeded all expectations. The company performed Peter Pan in a real theater, before a real audience, not once but twice—and a third showing is planned. The young people grew progressively less inhibited and more relaxed. They grew tired, certainly, but they had enormous fun. They managed to pass that fun and joy to the audience, especially—perhaps most powerfully—in moments of crisis and improvisation. As always with such work, the activity proved worthwhile for everyone: gratifying and moving for parents and friends alike.
— Bice Dinale, 1998
===FINE===