Quante Storie Festival

School theatre in the heart of the Marsica region

Quante Storie is a festival entirely dedicated to school theatre, held at the Castello Orsini-Colonna in Avezzano, in the province of L'Aquila. The event is organized by the Fantacadabra Theatre Cooperative, a historic name in children's theatre in Abruzzo, and places primary school children at the centre, making them the absolute stars on stage.

This is not just a simple theatrical event: Quante Storie is primarily an educational and cultural project that values theatre as a place for meeting, relationship-building, creativity, and inclusion. Each performance is the result of a workshop process carried out during the school year, where students learn to understand the language of the stage, work in groups, and tell stories that speak about themselves and the world around them.

The setting of the Castello Orsini-Colonna

The festival is held at the Castello Orsini-Colonna, a 15th-century fortress that dominates the centre of Avezzano and serves as one of the city's main cultural hubs today. Hosting children's theatre in a place so steeped in history adds extra value to the performances, bringing young people closer to the historical heritage of the Marsica region and transforming the monument into a vibrant, participatory stage.

A recognized educational project

Quante Storie is part of a broader educational path, also supported by the Ministerial Directive of 16 March 2016, which recognizes theatrical activity as having full curricular value within the school's educational offering. The festival's goals go beyond the performance: promoting theatrical language, fostering the inclusion of students with disabilities, combating school dropout rates, and developing social skills through stage practice.

The performances involve comprehensive institutes from Avezzano and nearby towns in the Marsica region, such as Capistrello and Castellafiume, in a network that unites schools, teachers, and families around a common project. The audience is mainly composed of parents, grandparents, classmates, and citizens who fill the castle halls to applaud the young performers.