History of the Teatro degli Affetti

The first, which began in 1985, is linked to leading a group of patients at the former psychiatric hospital in Bergamo. It was a genuine theater group, named the “Compagnia Instabile” (Unstable Company), composed of about a dozen men and women. This was Bergamo’s first true experience of theater in a psychiatric context, which produced several performances presented both inside the hospital and in official theaters and public festivals. This experience, which concluded in 1990, represented the peak crisis point around which the problem concentrated: how to guide—using theatrical tools—individuals with relational and emotional needs to which the art of theater alone could not respond. This marked the beginning of the construction of a method that would interweave theatrical art, the pedagogy of action, and group psychology, in pursuit of a rigorous balance that is respectful of both the theater and the individuals involved.

The second experience, started in 1990, came to life through leading training workshops at the Catholic University of Milan and conducting the first cycle of the Anabasi three-year school—a research workshop for theatrical operators in the psycho-pedagogical field, promoted by C.R.T. (Center for Theater Research), E.T.I. (Italian Theater Body), and the Catholic University of Milan. The collaboration with the University and C.R.T. ended after about ten years, at the end of the 1990s. It provided the opportunity to meet numerous students—some of whom later became collaborators and researchers for the Teatro degli Affetti—and to deepen, using criteria typical of university research combined with external experimental action, the entire theoretical, methodological, and technical structure. Between 1990 and 1998, in fact, the major developments took place: the concepts of Micro-indications, Action Composition, Collective Construction, Compressed Body, Evolutionary-Creative Phases of the method, Creative Process, Processual Direction, and the entire framework of analysis and evaluation. During this period, in 1992, after a long gestation and discussion, the term “Teatro degli Affetti” was coined, later transformed into the acronym “TdA” by the most diligent participants in the research. In 1998, the first book was published titled “Teatro degli Affetti. Azione, costruzione, progetto dell’arte teatrale” (Theater of Affections: Action, Construction, and Project of Theatrical Art), published by Sugarco, Milan.

The third experience, undertaken in the late 1990s and concluding after about 15 years, concerned research-training-action work carried out at the primary school in Zanica, which allowed for the application of what had been developed up to that point in the university setting. In this context, with the dedicated collaboration of a group of teachers, it was possible to understand and overcome many obstacles, increasingly conceptualizing the methodological framework and advancing further in understanding its potential application in school and educational settings. The invention of interventions concerning communicative and socio-relational issues, as well as the conception of didactic and playful tools, are the fruit of this continuous applied research.

The fourth experience is represented by the birth, at the beginning of 2000, of the TdA Research Group. The group consisted of individuals who had most assiduously followed Giulio Nava’s training and research pathways, developing their own thinking and increasingly in-depth forms of collaborative participation. Without this group, the TdA would not have achieved its current development. It is thanks to these people and their total availability that it has been possible to actively experiment with every hypothesis, even the boldest one, in the spirit of true research and the desire for knowledge. The new elaborations surrounding the methodology of the Teatro degli Affetti, presented in the volume “L’arte del non-attore. Conduzione teatrale e costruzione collettiva. Metodo Teatro degli Affetti” (The Art of the Non-Actor: Theatrical Direction and Collective Construction. Teatro degli Affetti Method) published in 2025 by Ledizioni, are the result of this fundamental and indispensable contribution.