Ciro Gallorano wins the Biennale College Teatro call for Directors Under 35

The final act of the 51st International Theatre Festival (15 June > 1 July) is the selection of the winner of the Biennale College Teatro call for Directors Under 35. Ciro Gallorano, born in 1988 in Torre del Greco, is the winner of the 2023/2024 edition with the project Crisalidi.
Selected from the short list of six finalist projects by the directors of the Biennale Teatro Stefano Ricci and Gianni Forte (ricci/forte), Crisalidi by Ciro Gallorano will premiere in its definitive form on the stages of the 52nd International Theatre Festival.

“His is a metaphorical journey – write Stefano Ricci and Gianni Forte in the motivation that selected Crisalidi, an intimate investigation into the great evocative questions in the works of Virginia Woolf and Francesca Woodman, which resonate with the concerns of Today. Reversing the fabric of time, revealing the tensions between memory, recollection from the past and imagination, delving into the nooks and crannies of mystery to shed light on its darkest reaches, the young director/playwright Ciro Gallorano germinates an unexpected poetic gaze into the laceration of the soul”. They continue: “Imprisoned in the silence of a Victorian-era elsewhere, donning the garb of a silent alphabet, enclosed in liturgical armour, two symbiotic female presences, sisters, lovers, or two halves held hostage by the same identity generate a combustion of their own imaginative acrobatics.
Closely detailing his atmospheres, with twin body fragments evoked in a dialogue with the objects and the space, Gallorano enacts a postulation of solidarity, without which there can be no freedom; a manifesto of identity through the sense of death celebrated by the impermanence of life experience; a dart of beauty thrown against the raw light of the new day”.

The short list of finalists in the call, in addition to Ciro Gallorano, included the directors Aldo Scarpitta, Andrea Piazza, Maria Luigia Gioffrè, Chiara Cingolani, Ornella Cardillo and Simone Carraro.

The section of the Biennale College Teatro dedicated to directors under the age of thirty-five, addressed to Italian directors, develops over the course of two years.

The winning director of the second edition 2023-2024, Ciro Gallorano, who will be awarded a production prize (up to a maximum of 110,000 euro), will produce his play over the course of the coming year, developing and perfecting its every aspect under the mentorship of the directors of the Theatre Department Stefano Ricci and Gianni Fort (ricci/forte). The play will premiere as part of the 52nd International Theatre Festival.

Biennale College is an innovative experience that integrates every Department of La Biennale di Venezia – Art, Architecture, Cinema, Dance, Music, Theatre ¬– to promote young talents offering them the opportunity to work in close contact with mentors to develop their creations.

Ciro Gallorano (Torre del Greco, 1988) – In 2012 he earned his diploma as an actor at the Training School of the Teatro Metastasio in Prato, where he studied with Marcello Bartoli, Paolo Magelli and Giancarlo Corbelli, among others. In 2015, he earned his Master’s Degree in the Disciplines of the Performing Arts with the highest marks from the Università degli Studi di Siena, with a thesis in Playwriting supervised by Stefano Massini (Le lingue del teatro contemporaneo: Tarantino, Chiti, Borrelli).
In 2019 he began his career as a director with research into the dramaturgy of the image, and the realisation of L’eco della falena, which would receive many acknowledgments: winner of the Opera Prima 2020 call, finalist in the Direction Under 30 2020, selected for In-Box 2020 and 2021, finalist in the CrashTest Teatro Festival 2021, selected for “Differenti Sensazioni 2021/2022” International Performing Art Season XXXIV Ed. and the 17th Black Box International Theatre and Dance Festival
In 2022 he staged Ceneri, his first site-specific performance. In 2023, he began to create Crisalidi, which he presented at the Biennale College Teatro.
He is responsible for the direction, dramaturgy, light, sounds, sets and costumes of all the productions of his company, Cantiere Artaud. His works all share the absence of words: the spectator is guided by the bodies in motion in relation to the elements on stage, there is no need to weave a fabula. His research seeks to capture the primordial essence of theatre, a place of ritual, magic and the rediscovery of archetypes.