Playwright: Roberto Scarpetti
Partner: PAV
Twinned playwright: Elise Wilk
Duration: 6 days
Participants: 6 young playwrights from Italy and Romania
Location: Teatro India – Teatro di Roma
Time: 28th October – 2nd November
In 1991, the Romanian community in Italy numbered around 10,000 people. Today, it has grown to over one million, making it the largest foreign community in the country. The majority of its members are women who have come to Italy to work as caretakers, often leaving their families behind in Romania.
At the same time, there is a small Italian minority living in Romania, consisting of around 3,000 people, alongside another 20,000 Italians who have moved there for business, many of whom reside permanently in the country.
A-Broad is a workshop for young playwrights designed to develop a collective play that explores the lives of Romanian women working in Italy and Italians working in Romania—their sacrifices, their families, and their lives divided between the two countries. Led by Elise Wilk and Roberto Scarpetti, the workshop invites three young Romanian playwrights and three Italians to participate. It will take place in Rome from October 28th to November 1st and in Târgu Mureș from November 25th to 29th.
During the first week, participants will analyze, discuss, and study the workshop’s themes. From there, each participant will develop ideas for a short play, focusing on different perceptions of a plot or story to incorporate multiple perspectives. Between the two sessions, participants will have three weeks to work on their six short plays, which will be presented in a public reading in both Rome and Târgu Mureș in 2025.