Afroeuropean performances on stage : the actions of playwrights Marco Martinelli e Mandiaye N'Diaye

AFROEUROPE@NS IV: BLACK CULTURES AND IDENTITIES IN EUROPE. Continental Shifts, Shifts in Perception London, UK 1-4 October 2013 Claudia Gualtieri (University of Milan, Italy) PROVISIONAL TITLE Afroeuropean youth performing on stage: The actions of Senegalese-Italian director Mandiaye N’Diaye This communication will use the definition of “Afroeuropeans” not with reference to identities but to actions, drawing on the interdisciplinary approaches of Cultural Studies, Postcolonial Theory and Sociology. Afroeuropean actions will therefore be a key notion here applied to theatre performances, the creation and interpretation of texts enacted by young actors (children, teenagers, adolescents). The theoretical support will be provided by Jean and John Comaroff’s Theories from the South and by Elsa Morante’s poetical suggestion in Il mondo salvato dai ragazzini (The World Saved by Children). The subject of this paper will cut across two of the general topics suggested for this conference --namely, “Tomorrow’s Generations” and “Embracing ‘Others’”-- as it will look at the redemptive function of art for youth-formation and at the active participation of youth in the creation of words and experiences on the stage. As a case study, this paper will explore the work of Afroeuropean Senegalese-Italian (from Romagna) Mandiaye N’Diaye and marginally of (Afroeuropean, Italian, at times Nairobi-based) Marco Baliani. N’Diaye --formerly actor and playwright in the Italian Ravenna-based Company Teatro delle Albe-- is now working in the non-scuola (not-a-school) programme to acquaint youth with drama, is the founder of Senegalese Dakar-based Company Takku Ligey Téâtre, and has recently started the European sponsored project Network for African Talents (N.A.T.). N’Diaye’s artistic actions are addressed to young people, using the magic and healing function of drama to bring youth on the world stage of life with their energy, voice, and imagination. His recent collaboration with Marco Baliani in the Dagoretti area of Nairobi --to fight against the vulnerability and abandonment of street children-- is yet another example. In 2004 in Rome, a group of 20 street children from Nairobi performed Pinocchio nero (Black Pinocchio) –inspired to Carlo Collodi’s story-- and in June 2013 young actors from the township of Dakar will perform in loco Ubu Roi --inspired to Alfred Jarry’s play. The texts belong to the Italian and French literary canonical tradition and were written either for young people (Pinocchio) or by a teenager (Ubu Roi). In different ways they are adaptable, open to the re-working, interpretation and transformation that African youth may impose on them. The texts supply the canvas on which young actors depict their scenes, their selves, their lives, and their visions of the future. These new dramatic actions will be performed on the stages of Africa and Europe.