Fondazione Lenz: Thirty Years of Avant-Garde Theatre in Parma

Founded thirty years ago by Francesco Pititto and Maria Federica Maestri, Fondazione Lenz operates in the outskirts of Parma, Italy, in a former industrial space. The foundation emerged from the cultural associations Lenz Rifrazioni and Natura dei Teatri, and was recognized last year by the Prefettura di Parma as an Ente Culturale. It produces monographic projects around classics, integrated workshops with intellectually disabled individuals, and experimental dramaturgical rewritings, installations, and 'dramaturgies' of space and matter. The foundation coins the term 'imagoturgia' to involve space in its plastic and dynamic dimension. A notable production is 'Kinder,' about Jewish children from Parma who were victims of Nazi extermination. The performance uses black and white colors, plastic veils, and a space divided into three luminous corridors representing memory, present, and past. Music by Andrea Azzali sets anti-rhetorical tempos. The piece avoids narrative, presenting a single tableau animated by ghosts and larval presences. The season continues on May 17 and 18 with 'Hamlet Solo,' text by Pititto and direction by Maestri.