An Always Open Theater

Open five days a week, Tuesday to Saturday

11.00 to 18.00, May 13 – to the end of June.

Starting from 13 May the doors of the Teatro del Giglio – the city’s public cultural institution – will open thanks to the new project “An always open theater”, which aims to be both a schedule of events and an inclusive and also refreshment space dedicated to citizens Lucchese and tourists. Exhibitions, presentations, readings, short theatrical and musical performances, guided tours of the theater are at the heart of this innovative and in some ways revolutionary idea which will allow you to access the theater freely, without the need to book and without having to pay for a ticket, being able to enjoy what happens “here and now” and being able to repeat the visit at will.

The project “An always open theater” refers to the idea of a door that opens to welcome and reveal: this door is initially the one that gives access to the city to get to the theater – Porta San Pietro -, which in turn turns into that of the Teatro del Giglio and reaches the stage. An opening and unveiling path designed to lead anyone who wishes to approach Giglio and also, vice versa, a path that from the curtain itself expands to the doors of the theater and the city, ever more outwards, in a progressive series of openings. Thanks to this new project, the Teatro del Giglio shows itself to be a beautiful architectural space and a place that is always new and special, in continuous evolution, capable of existing for hundreds of years and at the same time renewing itself every day.

The five opening days scheduled each week – from Tuesday to Saturday, from 11.00 to 18.00, until the end of June – will allow Lucca residents and tourists to appreciate the many activities that will take place within this extraordinary place, exploring the foyer, the foyer and the cafeteria which will be known under a new and unprecedented guise. The show in its most “traditional” form, known and loved by our audience, which finds life and expression on stage, is thus accompanied by a different way of managing space, to make way for innovative ways that the Teatro del Giglio wishes to experiment and make known.

Every day a series of interesting performative activities will be carried out, making the Teatro del Giglio a real place available to artists, actors, poets, performers who will be able to perform in a conventional and unconventional way. To cite just a few of the protagonists of the project, we recall Stefano Giannotti, Francesco Zavattari, I sacchi di sabbia, Federico De Robertis, Nicola Fanucchi, Stefano Teani, Simona Generali, to which many others are added. The students of the Luigi Boccherini Conservatory will present some of the year-end essays in the theater foyer. Finally, there will be initiatives for the little ones with the presence of the puppeteers of the Pupi di Stac, to which moments of in-depth study, book presentations and performative readings will be added.

In the cafeteria of the theatre, once again open to the public, it will be possible to consult some of the volumes conserved in the Library of the Teatro del Giglio while listening in the background to the famous operas that have been staged in this historic place of Lucca culture. From the cafeteria it will then be possible to access the foyer and the foyer of the theater to visit the exhibition of costumes and scenic elements created for the opera productions of our theater: a real journey through the history of the theatrical productions of Giglio, created by the set designer Rosanna Monti. A path of great interest especially for tour guides, who will be able to accompany their groups within a place that is not only a venue for entertainment but which with this project becomes, in fact, a multidisciplinary environment to all intents and purposes.

Social media, especially Facebook and Instagram, will be the main tools for communication and involvement in the project’s initiatives. Live social media, reels, stories, which will allow the public to be constantly updated on the events, initiatives and guests who will intervene during the various occasions.

Thanks to the “An always open theater” project, a moment of communication, dialogue and participation is created with the structure, with the theater staff and with its collaborators, and the last but not least objective will be to spread more and more in Lucca, but also outside and in the world, the image and the active and vital idea of the Theater of Giacomo Puccini’s birthplace.