Marameo Festival — Tutti giù dal Palco

A festival growing tomorrow's audience

Tutti giù dal Palco is the children's theatre festival that has been bringing summer to life in Minturno, in the province of Latina, southern Lazio, since 2013. The venue is the Arena Mallozzi, an open-air space overlooking the promenade of the seaside district of Scauri: a simple auditorium, just a stone's throw from the sea, which fills with children, parents, and grandparents every Thursday evening. This is not just a side event, but a structured cultural project that has grown edition after edition to become one of the most recognizable fixtures of the Minturno summer season.

The Marameo Festival network

The festival does not exist in isolation: it is the Lazio stop of the Marameo Festival, an interregional and international circuit for youth theatre that spans several Italian regions—Lazio, Abruzzo, Marche, Campania, Puglia, and Calabria—thanks to a network of recognized theatre organizations, including Teatro Bertolt Brecht, Fantacadabra, I Guardiani dell'Oca, Proscenio Teatro, Molino d'Arte, Arterie Teatro, and Teatrop. It is this network that allows a town of a few tens of thousands of inhabitants to host companies that are typically found on the playbills of major established theatres. In Minturno, the organization is handled by the Municipality of Minturno together with the Teatro Bertolt Brecht of Formia, a historic youth theatre institution in the Gulf.

What to expect on stage

The repertoire is that of classic children's theatre, treated with adult craftsmanship. Past editions have featured Puss in Boots, Hansel and Gretel, Don Quixote, Bluebeard, The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, The Seagull and the Cat, and One Thousand and One Nights. The styles change from night to night:

• Actor's theatre with reworkings of traditional European fairy tales;
• Puppet and object theatre, featuring historical masks like Fagiolino, a heritage of Emilian popular theatre;
• Storytelling and narrative theatre, where the spoken word guides the imagination;
• Shadow plays, puppets, and animated objects, particularly suitable for the youngest ones.

Shows start at 9:00 PM and last about an hour on average: a format designed so that even children on holiday can stay until the end without getting tired.

Scauri, Minturno, and the Gulf of Gaeta

Going to the theatre here also means discovering the local area. Minturno preserves its medieval village perched on a hill with its baronial castle and, not far away, the Minturnae archaeological site with its Roman theatre, aqueduct, and the Real Ferdinando Bridge over the Garigliano river. Scauri, by the sea, offers award-winning beaches and the Monte d'Oro that frames the landscape. The typical evening is simple: an afternoon at the beach, a walk along the promenade, an ice cream, and then the show at the Arena. This is also what makes the festival popular among tourists who choose southern Lazio in July and August.

A community project

The ticket price, intentionally kept low, and free entry for the little ones reflect the festival's approach: to make theatre a family habit rather than an exception. Over the years, Tutti giù dal Palco has built a loyal audience, made up of families who return every Thursday and young people who, having grown up in the chairs of the Arena, continue to attend. For southern Lazio, it is one of the few summer festivals entirely dedicated to the new generations.