Presentation
The theatre company
Quelli di Grock has been founded in 1976 by some students of the Piccolo Teatro School of Milan. One of its founders was Maurizio Nichetti who coordinated it in the beginning directing the very first productions until he decided to follow his movie career. Since then, thanks to a strong ability to propose and produce always new shows, the Company has achieved a clear and important position within the Italian theatre scene.
During the first years
Quelli di Grock dedicated its work to the production of shows for children and youth, which have been introduced to theatre programs as well as to school theatre schedules (from kindergarden to secondary school). Besides this genre, the Company started to produce shows “tout-court” and not only for youngsters, an activity that has been strongly developed during the management of an own theatre house: from 1990 to 1997 the Teatro Greco di Milano and since 1999 the Teatro Leonardo da Vinci di Milano. The group, starting from the heritage of the homonymous theatre school founded in 1974, paid constantly attention to its pedagogic function becoming in this way one of the most prestigious centres of artistic preparation in Italy.
The strong points of
Quelli di Grock can be summarized as follows: the effort of facing a new and different kind of theatre; the will of finding new and always original solutions to cope with difficulties; the promoting of dramaturgies away from the traditional schemes; the attempt to catch the audience’s interest with alternative expressive forms. The aim is to encourage the birth of a different spectator, who pays attention since his youngest age to innovation, who is ready to become a mature observer and prepared to understand a dynamic change of languages and patterns.
Therefore the pedagogic function within the shows and within the “art” of teaching is something necessary. The theatre school, in fact, has become an important melting pot for all kind of people (from directors to the audience) interested in the performing arts, where to face theatre in a vivid, stimulating, active and participating way.
The company
Quelli di Grock can be considered one of the historical Italian theatre companies. It is recognized by the Department of Performing Arts of the Ministry of Arts and Cultural Heritage as a primary company of experimental theatre and theatre for children and youth. Since several years it receives also the acknowledgment and the support of the Lombardia Region and the City of Milan.
Quelli di Grock have taken part to various national and international events, festivals and presentations and achieved several acknowledgments: in 1995/96 they have been awarded by the
ETI - Ente Teatrale Italiano (Italian Theatre Agency) along with an international jury with the price
Premio Stregagatto for the show
Cinema Cinema, with the following motivation: “the Jury has detected the actuality of the subject: the relationship between cinema and theatre, treated with unhindered and involving irony in an ambience full of joyful comedy and sustained by the preciseness of these furious, but extremely controlled rhythms of the actors, which is directed to recommend to the audience to privilege live shows instead of the more and more present and pressing reproduced ones.”
