1996 – 1997 Chiaravalle AN

A theatre of dreams
Murals for the Moscow State Jewish Chamber Theatre painted by Marc Chagall

Collective writing on a theme inspired by Twentieth Century Painting

The project “a theatre of dreams” develops from the idea of researching and experimenting “new languages” on stage. The different technical steps in this work are determined in connection with the collective writing of a scenario and of the scenic space through improvisation.
The project was accomplished thanks to a three-years theoretical and practical workshop on theatre propaedeutic, held with a group of teachers and students aged 11-45.
The chosen subject relates to the Murals for the Moscow State Jewish Chamber Theatre, painted by Chagall in 1920. These paintings “represent one of Chagall’s greatest works. On the one hand they express his idea on Jewish theatre, on the other they’re fully pervaded with his passion, his feelings of love and hate, his joyful participation in the Jewish culture renaissance after Russian revolution, and also with his feelings of frustration about his own place within that culture and within Russia itself. A portrayal of his own experiences, these paintings express Chagall’s response to the encounter with Yiddish theatre, and they’re a sort of manifesto of his personal future development¹”.

²ZIVA AMISHAI – MAISELS, Marc Chagall, Il teatro dei sogni, Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta, 1995, p. 57.

CET Theatre Educational Center
Academic Year 1996 – 1997, Art Director: Mario Gallo

Theatre Educational Center – Paintings – Flyer