Webinar: Theatre in prison
2025-11-12 18:00 - 20:00 (Europe/Rome) | Webinar
Theatre in prison with: Julia Varley, Lorenza Cervara, Christian Flore, Patrizia Pertuso, Valentina Venturini.
Webinar in Italian (with simultaneous translation into English)
Free participation, registration required at this link:https://bit.ly/43d2Isy
“I Figli di Estia” is the theatre company of the PrisonArt Cultural Association, founded inside the Bollate Prison by a group of inmates who had previously worked with Michelina Capato and her Estia Cooperative.
Starting from physical work, relationships and dialogues are developed that are put into action beyond words: the training starts from the body which becomes the pretext to discover a different self that relates to the other. The first performance “And you, what job are you?” was born starting from body techniques to then arrive at original texts written by the same inmates who attend the theatre workshop.
Christian Flore, founder of the Prison Art Cultural Association, trained with Michelina Capato and is now the artistic director of the Theatre Company “I Figli di Estia”.
Lorenza Cervara. She is part of the Kollettivo Drag King of Atir Teatro Ringhiera. She has been leading theatre workshops inside the Bollate prison since January 2023.
Patrizia Pertuso is a professional journalist and anthropologist. She is collaborator of Barba Varley Foundation.Valentina Venturini, Professor of Storia del Teatro at the University of Rome 3

Award ceremony for the 2025 Barba Varley Prize
2025-11-14 16:00 - 2025-12-28 19:00 | IPM Casal del Marmo, Via Giuseppe Barellai, 140, Roma, 00135, Italy
Award ceremony for the 2025 Barba Varley Prize to Francesca Rotolo for the project “Anima liber” and to Gabriel Dombek for his work as a documentary filmmaker in Mexican prisons.
The award ceremony will be dedicated to Cosimo Rega, who chose to launch his acting career outside the prison walls where he was incarcerated. He requested and was granted permission to go there regularly to try to help young inmates through his testimony, inspired by the shared experiences of life, feelings, and pain that only prison can provide.
While serving his sentence, Rega encountered the theater, previously unknown to him, and finally his kingdom and his freedom. The prize, named after him, aims to support the small “kingdoms” that try to exist within the prison system.
Speakers:
Giuseppe Chiodo
Direttore Istituto Penale per i Minorenni di Roma “Casal Del Marmo”
Stefano Anastasia
Garante Regione Lazio dei diritti delle persone private della libertà personale
Valentina Venturini
Prof. di Storia del Teatro, Università degli Studi Roma Tre
Francesca Rotolo
Associazione MAST – Officina delle Arti
Gabriel Dombek, Regista
Eugenio Barba e Julia Varley (Fondazione Barba Varley)

Refuge Project 2025 Meeting with Roxana Pineda Labario
2025-12-09 16:00 - 18:30 | Fondazione Fo Rame, Frazione Santa Cristina, 14, Gubbio, 06024, Italy
Roxana Pineda’s participation in the “Open Pages” project is part of the activities promoted by the Fo Rame Foundation and the Barba Varley Foundation to foster theatre as a tool for intercultural exchange, social reflection, and artistic experimentation.
During the meeting, the program of cultural activities aimed at raising awareness about the issue of missing persons and the protection of women who are victims of violence and discrimination will be presented.
The project is supported by Casa Alda Merini (Milan), IMJUS, the Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino Chair (Mexico), the Taz Panther Foundation (Berlin), and the Amazzone Center in Palermo.

Ecology of Theatre: Pedagogy as a Space for Exchange
2025-12-11 18:00 - 20:00 | Webinar
Ecology of Theatre: Pedagogy as a Space for ExchangeJulia Varley dialogues with Eugenia Cano (Mexico) and Teresa Ralli (Perú)
Webinar in Spanish with simultaneous translation into English and Italian
Participation is free; registration is required at the following link: :https://bit.ly/4rt4EYc
Eugenia Cano and Teresa Ralli are actresses, directors, activists, and teachers who belong to the environment of group theatre, with a tradition of self-taught apprenticeship. Teresa Ralli, founder of the Yuyachkani Cultural Group, is a recognised point of reference for a Latin American perspective on theatre technique.
Eugenia Cano, founder of Teatro Kalipatos, spent many years in Kerala, India, learning Kathakali, an Indian dance-theatre form, which she now shares with performances and classes in Mexico. Both have organised festivals and meetings in collaboration with the Magdalena Project network.
Both teach at universities, creating a not necessarily academic environment for exchange and development.
The theme chosen for this last online conversation of 2025 will allow us to discuss training and learning, and how the passage of experience in theatre is a responsibility we assume to sow transformation.
Eugenia Cano is a theatre artist, feminist, and mother. She studied acting at the National School of Theatre Arts and, after graduating, moved to Canada to study mime. She then went to Kerala, India, to study Kathakali. In 2001, she returned to Mexico and founded the Teatro Kalipatos group, which brings together artists from various disciplines and with which she continues to collaborate today. She teaches at the University of Guanajuato, central Mexico, and at the Iberoamerican University in Mexico City. A supporter of lost causes, she firmly holds onto the utopian ideals that once drew her to theatre.
Teresa Ralli is a founder and member of the Yuyachkani Cultural Group since 1971. She attended the International School of Theatre Anthropology (ISTA), where she received training from Jerzy Grotowski, I Made Pasek Tempo from Bali, Katsuko Azuma of Buyo Kabuki in Japan, and Sanjukta Panigrahi from India, all of whom continue to influence her today. She is part of The Magdalena Project, a network of women in contemporary theatre. She is completing a Master’s degree in Cultural Studies at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and a Master’s degree in Advanced Theatre Studies at the UNIR in La Rioja, Spain. She has received the Medal of Meritorious Personality of Culture from the Peruvian Ministry of Culture.

Webinar: The dramaturgies of the Odin Teatret performances
2026-01-22 18:00 - 20:00 | Webinar
The dramaturgies of the Odin Teatret performances: Thebes at the Time of Yellow Feverwith Eugenio Barba e Julia Varley
Webinar in Spanish with simultaneous translation into English and Italian
Free participation, registration required at the following link: https://bit.ly/492JKrX
Films of the performance: https://youtu.be/LIOhgpqdMu0
It is the day after the last battle. The war between Oedipus’ two sons for the rule of Thebes is over. The rebellious Antigone has been punished for not respecting the laws of the city.
The families bury the dead, among whom the ghost of Oedipus wanders. Creon and Tiresias prepare for peace. The Sphinx returns to the throne. For young people, it is spring, a time for falling in love. The future is a frenzy of sun and gold: a yellow fever.

Webinar: Centro Amazzone
2026-02-24 18:00 - 20:00 | Webinar
Centro Amazzone – A multidisciplinary space dedicated to the fight against breast cancer
A conversation between Eugenio Barba and Julia Varley with Lina Prosa and Anna Barbera.
Webinar in Italian with simultaneous translation into English.
Free participation, registration required at the following link: https://bit.ly/4bePhx0
As the first international model for integrating medicine and culture, the Centro Amazzone effectively eliminates the distinction between healthy and sick patients, aligning healing expectations with personal growth. Its activities, both humanistic and scientific, are dedicated to the comprehensive prevention of breast cancer and supporting women through the disease.
The Centro Amazzone organises breast screenings, scientific and cultural seminars, theatre workshops, and meetings with a psychologist. These activities aim to restore the mind-body circuit, disrupted not only by illness but also by the degeneration of modern life. Access to the Centre is open to women and families of all ages and conditions, without distinction and without a medical prescription.

Dramaturgies of Odin Teatret’s performances: Ave Maria
2026-03-26 18:00 - 20:00 | Webinar
The dramaturgies of Odin Teatret’s performances: Ave Maria
Dialogue between Eugenio Barba and Julia Varley with participants who have seen the film of the performance: https://youtu.be/7qecY480b6g
Participation is free; registration is required at the following link: https://bit.ly/47JEHLH
Webinar in Spanish with simultaneous translation into English and Italian
María Cánepa (1921-2006) is a renowned Chilean actress who has received numerous awards and the Chilean National Prize for the Performing Arts.
In 1988, during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile, María Cánepa hosted Julia Varley in her home during Odin Teatret’s tour when they clandestinely performed in a church.
The friendship with Julia Varley lasted for years, with exchanges and visits, including to the Transit Festival in Holstebro, Denmark.
Ave Maria by Odin Teatret is dedicated to María Cánepa. Mr. Peanut, the character representing death, brings her back to life, transforming mourning into an act of love.

METIS Winter School “Artistic coherence and political engagement.”
2026-04-08 08:00 - 2026-04-10 17:00 | Teatro Potlach, Via Santa Maria in Castello, 28, Fara in Sabina, Rieti, 02032, Italy
In ancient Greek, Metis was the name of the goddess of wisdom and cunning. In common parlance, “metis” is used to refer to people born to parents of different ethnicities or with a different phenotype, or to designate cultural mixing.
The METIS Winter School aims to develop new relationships between theory and practice, academia and theatre, traditions and fashions through intensive residencies in which teachers, students, artists, and artisans share other types of intergenerational transmission of knowledge.
The seminar is reserved for students of the University of Roma Tre. Some activities are open to everyone based on availability.
For reservations and registrations: teatropotlach@gmail.com

The Magdalena Project, a network of women in contemporary theatre:origins and perspectives
2026-04-22 18:00 - 20:00 | Webinar
The Magdalena Project, a network of women in contemporary theatre:origins and perspectives.
Julia Varley in conversation with Jill Greenhalgh (UK), Geddy Aniksdal (Norway), and Brigitte Cirla (France)
Webinar in English with Italian translation – Register for free at the following link: https://bit.ly/48Ji7Dx
Films of the Magdalena Project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoGqDi00pWU
The Magdalena Project is an international network of women in contemporary theatre, founded in 1986 in Wales to provide visibility and opportunities for dialogue and collaboration to women in the performing arts – artists, directors, actresses, performers, scholars, and theatre educators.
Across every continent, the network has organised and implemented festivals, meetings, workshops, and residencies, shared artistic and pedagogical practices, and developed research on the body, voice, and the artistic and political presence of theatre.
Various generations have succeeded each other in the network, but the needs remain the same: how can we, as women working in theatre, contribute to spreading beauty and poetry as a weapon to fight injustice and violence?

International Festival of Theatre in the Sahara
2026-04-29 08:00 - 2026-05-03 17:00 | Festival Teatro Sahara, 2 rue abdallah ben ezzoubeir, Kebili, 4214, Tunisia
International Festival of Theatre in the Sahara – El Golaa, Kébili Governorate, TunisiaWith the collaboration of: (Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Tunisia)
Wednesday, 29 April 2026: 21,30
Official Opening Ceremony with: Eugenio Barba, Julia Varley, Dr. Jabbar Joudi Al-Aboudi.
Saturday, 2 May 2026 09:00 – 13:00Workshop by Eugenio Barba and Julia Varley (Sahara Cultural Space – Istiftemi)
5 May 2026 – 09:00/12:00
Masterclass with Eugenio Barba, Julia Varley and Jean-Marie Pradier at the Tunis Opera Theatre within the framework of a partnership.

Inside the Skeleton of the Whale
2026-05-20 18:00 - 20:00 | Webinar
Inside the Skeleton of the Whale
Eugenio Barba and Julia Varley dialogue with partecipants who have seen the films of the performance and sent questions
Webinar in Spanish with simultaneous translation into English and Italian
Free participation; registration is required at the following link: https://bit.ly/4nl6zfV
Films of the performance are available HERE
Odin Teatret’s Inside the Skeleton of the Whale, directed by Eugenio Barba, premiered in 1997 and was last performed in 2022, the year Odin Teatret left Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium.
The performance has involved several generations of actors. In an early version, fifty spectators sit at a table, eat bread and olives, and drink wine. Another version, without tables, could accommodate up to two hundred spectators.
Subtitled “Before the Law” from a short story by Franz Kafka, the “skeleton” of the title refers to a essentiality that focusses on the dramaturgical backbone of a performance, which is to say the energy of the actors and of their physical and vocal actions.
Based on the structure of a previous Odin Teatret production, Kaosmos, but with texts from another production, The Gospel According to Oxyrhincus, Inside the Skeleton of the Whale reveals the complexity of information inherent in scores repeated for years, in a different context, without props, scenery, or costumes.

Meeting with Eugenio Barba
2026-05-29 16:00 - 2026-05-31 12:00
Meeting with Eugenio Barba
Location: Via della Valle 3 05022 Amelia
29 May, h. 16,00-19,30 “Theatre Outside the Theater.” Meeting with Eugenio Barba. Screening of the film “Zona Limite” by Stefano di Buduo. Organized by the “Beyond the Visible” Association. “A Mask a Day,” curated by Leonardo Gasparri.
30 May: h. 10,30 -13,00 “Lesson on Theatre Anthropology” A meeting with Eugenio Barba Screening of the film “Ways of Transmitting Embodied Knowledge.” Presented by the “Beyond the Visible” Association”. “A Mask a Day,” curated by Leonardo Gasparri.
h. 21,00, Teatro Sociale of Amelia “Ave Maria” performance of Julia Varley. Directed by Eugenio Barba
31 May h. 10,00-12,00, Teatro Sociale of Amelia “The Wedding”, collective performance.
Organized by: Atelier Nazionale del Centro Studi Nazionale U.I.L.T. in collaboration with Teatro Sociale di Amelia , U.I.L.T. Regione Umbria

Theatrum Mundi
2026-06-23 18:00 - 20:00 | Webinar
Theatrum Mundi: Copertino (1987), Bologna (1990), Londrina (1994), Copenhagen (1996)
Dialogo di Eugenio Barba e Julia Varley con partecipanti che hanno visto i film dello spettacolo.
Webinar in Spanish with simultaneous translation into English and ItalianParticipation is free; registration is required at the following link: https://bit.ly/3S5Bhhy
Film of the show: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLK8iTIUPsd3ijCkYYlxE-UmvePQ89VEE2
In Latin, theatrum mundi literally means “theatre of the world.” For Eugenio Barba, it refers to an intercultural theatre in which artists from diverse traditions work together: from Asia to Japan, via Europe, Latin America, Bali, and India, to name a few.
The Theatrum Mundi ensemble was born from research in theatrical anthropology, a discipline founded by Barba with the ISTA (International School of Theatre Anthropology).
The underlying idea is that, beyond cultural differences, there exists a shared “stage professionalism” among actors and dancers from different traditions.
This is why Barba himself speaks of “Eurasian theatre,” “a technical and theoretical dimension that unites East and West through the actor’s craft.”
Performances such as Ur-Hamlet, Mythos, and Kaosmos are examples of this approach, in which different languages, music, body techniques, and rituals coexist on the same stage without being reduced to mere exoticism or folkloric demonstrations.
