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Ernesto Salemme, a teacher of literary
subjects and Latin was born in Bacoli where he lives and works. He and his
students have been involved in theatrical writing for many years.
His Theatre Studio has been active for ten years and involves about a
hundred students and alumni fom the Comprehensive “Liceo” in Bacoli. There
is the tangible result of creating a wonderful atmosphere of collaboration
and affection among the youths, besides being more available towards the
school and studies in general.
His method consists of starting from a literary work studied at school,
not of a theatrical nature, re-examined according to an unedited
prospective, referred to the youths’ needs, less and less taken into
consideration in a society that ages visibly.
From the work studied, they draw out the theme that seems to be the
closest to the basic thematic of the adolescence diversity. Represented by
eternal characters such as Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Ofelia, Apuleio’s
Lucio, Michele and Carla of the Indifferent moraviani, just to mention a
few of the characters they have worked on. Added to these names is Dante
Alighieri’s, whose Comedy has become for them the opportunity of a journey
to the inside of the young people’s need to find the dimension that is
different from the present. Once the theme has been extracted, together
they try to identify the theatrical situation that best represents it and
emphasise it. This is done with the awareness that in order for this
situation to be valid in drama, it has to be characterised by a clear
conflict between two opposites. And then the situation itself, advising
and almost imposing the characters that live it and make it up, making it
real and credible.
The next step is to establish a precise system of love-hate relationships,
of complicity-rivalry, affinity-differences, attraction-antipathy, etc.
between the characters. This system of the characters is created without
any preconceived schemes, based on the real characteristics of the youths
involved in the studio. At this point, comes the drafting of the actual
text that, for each actor, becomes the starting point for the expressive
work on his or her own character. That character created and built day by
day, making no difference between rehearsal and performance, in the
indispensable continuity of being artistic.
He has published Bacoli muta (February 2001), Sogno di un Teatro (November
2001) and Il Mistero di Colorata (November 2002). All edited by Il Punto
di Partenza.
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