"Con gli Occhi Aperti" School Theatre Festival

School theatre in Monte Sant-Angelo

The "Con gli Occhi Aperti" School Theatre Festival is the project through which Bottega degli Apocrifi brings theatre into the communities of the southern Gargano. Established in 2008, the festival involves four municipalities in the Manfredonia district every spring: Manfredonia, Mattinata, Monte Sant-Angelo, and Zapponeta, in the province of Foggia, in the heart of the Gargano area of Puglia. In Monte Sant-Angelo, a Lombard village recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site and a pilgrimage destination for the Sanctuary of Saint Michael the Archangel, the festival is more than just a showcase of performances: it is primarily a workshop practice, a space for listening where young people share a theatrical experience alongside professional artists.

Spread-out Theatre in the historic center

The heart of the Monte Sant-Angelo leg is the Spread-out Theatre (Teatro Diffuso), a free urban workshop for teenagers aged 11 to 19, which transforms the Tancredi Museum and the streets of the historic center into an open-air stage for several days. The journey concludes with a theatrical sit-in in Piazza De' Galganis, a public presentation of the work conducted with the city's youth. This is complemented by the Class Assembly, a co-design day that brings teachers, school principals, and administrators together around a table to reimagine the relationship between school and theatre.

Companies from all over Italy and the world's smallest theatre

Alongside the students' work, the program hosts professional companies from across the peninsula. The world's smallest Italian-style theatre by Kuziba Teatro (Ruvo di Puglia) arrives in the Villa Comunale, while Circolo Bergman creates an immersive headphone itinerary that starts at the entrance of the Swabian-Angevin-Aragonese Castle, guiding small groups of spectators to discover the village. It is a way to combine theatre with the urban and monumental landscape of Monte Sant-Angelo, among squares, alleys, and walls.

Music and the social orchestra

The musical dimension is entrusted to the Orchestra Sociale dei Felici Pochi, a group that brings together young musicians in a concert-lecture open to the city in Piazza De' Galganis. It is one of the signature events of the project, which combines the training of the youngest with public performance, in the spirit of a theatre-education model that engages the entire community in Monte Sant-Angelo.

An educational community project

"Con gli Occhi Aperti" is conceived and directed by Cosimo Severo and produced by Bottega degli Apocrifi with the support of the Territorial Social District (Manfredonia, Monte Sant-Angelo, Mattinata, Zapponeta), the Ministry of Culture, and the Puglia Region. It is one of the longest-running theatre-school projects in the Capitanata area: a lasting pact between the stage and the educational community.