Fabrizio Crisafulli, What is the Theatre of Places?

The author, a director and visual artist, analyses the concept of what he defines as the «Theatre of places», in the light of his personal hands-on ex­perience. This type of research starts from the premise that the location is not the place where works that have been prepared elsewhere are «staged», but is rather a fundamental, structural element of theatrical creativity itself, not only in its visual and spatial aspects, but also as far as texts, actions, rhythms and sounds are concerned.
In this context the site is also under­stood to be the «text». At present, when physical spaces, and the relations that take place within them have been weakened by the advent of new forms of communication such as virtual reality or the Internet, the urgent need for a «Theatre of places» is evident. These new methods of communi­cation are extremely pertinent elements of transformation, and the activities taking place in these sites lead to a new balance between the local and the global.

(«Teatro e Storia», anno XV (2000), n. 22, Bulzoni, Roma, 2001, p. 497).