Theatre practices, documentary research and collective creation

claudio casazza

 

In recent years, my artistic research has increasingly moved towards theatre practices, with a particular focus on collective creation as a form of artistic and social research. I have led workshops in schools, prisons, festivals and non-theatrical contexts, working with students, incarcerated people and vulnerable groups. Through documentary research, storytelling, physical practices and collective dramaturgy, I develop processes in which participants’ experiences become material for artistic creation. My work begins with listening: collecting stories, observing contexts, and making space for what usually remains at the margins. I am interested in a theatre that enters into dialogue with communities and transforms field research into a shared creative process.

A Method in Development

I am developing a methodology that brings together documentary listening, the body and collective creation. I approach the body as a political archive: a place where gestures, habits, trauma, forms of labour and care, as well as possibilities for resistance, are stored and transmitted. The research often begins with real materials - testimonies, memories and everyday experiences - which become the starting point for a collectively developed dramaturgy. My work focuses in particular on invisible labour, practices of care, masculinity and forms of collective resistance. I aim to create spaces in which participants are not simply involved in an artistic process, but actively contribute to its form, its content and the questions that shape it. Theatre thus becomes a tool for listening, creating shared knowledge and generating new narratives.

 

Training & Research

My theatrical training began with an ongoing study of dramaturgy and physical theatre, through courses and workshops at different theatres and theatre organisations in Milan (2020–present).

In recent years, I have expanded this training through experiences focused on performance practices, embodied research, collective creation and participatory methodologies, exploring different ways of understanding theatre as a space for encounter, research and transformation.

In 2026, I took part in The Language of Silence, a workshop led by Marah Haj Hussein as part of the FOG Festival at Triennale Milano. The workshop explored the relationship between movement, voice and text through dance, physical composition and improvisation, allowing words and vocal expression to emerge from embodied experience. This approach challenged the separation between gesture and language and reinforced my interest in the body as a space of both personal and collective expression.

I also took part in Theatre in Nature, led by Ginevra Scaglia and Thuline Andreoni, where i worked about mitology exploring theatrical practices connected to landscape, the body and spatial relationships.

In the same year, I attended a Theatre of the Oppressed workshop at TDO Festival, working with techniques including Agit-Prop and Legislative Rainbow, and participated in Il canto che danza, a residential immersion in a multidisciplinary artistic practice rooted in wild nature between San Benedetto in Alpe and the Acquacheta waterfall. Through deep listening, embodied exploration and storytelling, participants investigate rhythm in its many forms. 

In 2026 I also attended Eudemonie, a workshop led by Armando Punzo, genial founder of Compagnia della Fortezza, inside Volterra Prison. These experiences have contributed to shaping my understanding of theatre not simply as a form of representation, but as a process of listening, relationship and collective creation.

 

Dramaturgy & Projects

I am the author of several texts for Le storie che non raccontiamo (The Stories We Don't Tell), a collective project exploring memory, care and marginalised narratives, developed at Teatri Possibili (2025–present).

Since 2026, I have collaborated with Stratagemmi – Prospettive Teatrali, a publication dedicated to contemporary theatre and performing arts.

In 2026, I was part of the staff of Il Giardino delle Esperidi, a theatre festival hosted by Campsirago Residenza.

I have also developed and led workshops within festivals and educational contexts, bringing documentary research and collective creation practices into dialogue with communities and spaces beyond conventional theatre venues.

 

 

Themes & Tools

  • The body as a political archive: gestures, memory, labour, identity and relationships become materials for research.
  • Invisible labour & practices of care: investigating what sustains everyday life but often remains outside public narratives.
  • Collective creation: moving the author away from the centre of the process and developing dramaturgy through the experiences and contributions of participants.
  • Documentary listening & field research: collecting testimonies, materials and memories and transforming them into theatrical material.
  • Communities & non-theatrical spaces: bringing artistic processes beyond conventional performance spaces and working within the contexts where stories originate.
  • Between cinema, theatre & social practices: exploring hybrid forms in which documentary, performance, research and participation meet.