Associazione Teatro Giovani Teatro Pirata

ATGTP was formally established in 2014 thanks to the fusion of the association “Teatro Giovani” with the acting company “Teatro Pirata”. They have been successfully cooperating from more than 30 years in the field of educational and social theatre, young audience development, drama pedagogy and the implementation of other non-formal education methodologies and approaches.

ATGTP has a very solid experience in organizing sizeable educational theatre events, managing and coordinating the active participation of young people. The most important ATGTP activity consists in the annual organisation of the “Italian Schools Theatre Festival”. Since 1983 more than 1.250 national schools have been participated in the 3 weeks educational theatre laboratory. Professional theatre educators (i.e. youth workers trained by ATGTP) use to guide young students through participative reflection paths made of role-plays, icebreakers exercises, simulations and final drama performances. Specific societal topics are yearly approached to further stimulate debates and reflections among young people. This unique learn-by-doing laboratory is growing at international level by involving European schools to foster mutual understanding, integration and solidarity among young people coming from different countries and cultures.
ATGTP also develops and distributes several theatrical performances at local, national and international level (i.e. 18 performances produced in 20 years and more than 3.000 encores reacted in Italy and EU). Furthermore, ATGTP organises in its local territory (i.e. 100.000 inhabitants) the “Youth Theatre Season” involving 12.000 people audience target each year. Theatrical performances are targeted to families with children and to the students attending primary/secondary/high schools.

ATGTP also operates in the field of social theatre by working with disadvantaged target groups: disable people, people with mental health problems, refugees, victims of violence, etc. ATGTP involves these people in laboratories and workshops to build personal development processes and/or rehabilitation and social reintroduction paths. Drama activities are used to build solid relationships among people and to approach the social context made up of social relationships. Theatrical laboratories always lead to final public performances in which target groups are involved as actors presenting their plays to a public audience. In this context ATGTP has recently organised “TESPI Festival” the first edition of a multidisciplinary and socially engaged theatre festival. TESPI is a modular and itinerant festival, combing drama performances with public debates and other public events. Four are the module/topics: mental health; civic engagement; disability and human rights. The objective is to create real synergies between artistic and educational experiences in order to promote networks of professionals and citizens.

Thanks to its expertise ATGTP built solid relationships with local authorities, territorial stakeholders and other local youth organisations/NGOs. ATGTP counts with a reliable cooperation with the “Association of Theatrical Activities in Marche” (AMAT), namely the official institution composed by public authorities for the promotion of theatre and live performances activities in the regional territory. Furthermore, ATGTP is one of the official training providers appointed by the Marche Regional Authority and it is also recognised by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Ministry of Education. In effect, ATGTP has been a real pioneer in developing training courses and curricula for professional profiles able to operate in the framework of educational theatre ad drama pedagogy approaches. Each year ATGTP organises a summer school (targeted to educators, cultural mediators, social operators, youth workers, etc.) to implement peer-to-peer capacity building activities, to share innovative educational approaches and to enrich pedagogical competences.