Written by Jaden Parker
You may or may not have noticed, but your dear editor was away for a little while—10 days to be exact. I was away on a Playwright Retreat in Spoleto in Umbria, Italy. Of course, I couldn’t go without taking some notes and beautiful photos to share with you all! I’ll be uploading these in three separate parts, so stay tuned for the rest of my story! You can find part one here and part two here.
We got to see a lot of different theaters from our tours, one of which being a Roman Theater with the stones it was originally built with!
As I mentioned before, we learned a lot about Gian Carlo Menotti on our tour through Spoleto. He was the creator of the international arts festival, Festival Dei Due Monde (Festival of 2Worlds) or the Spoleto Festival. We got to see his theater, Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti, on our tour. It was renamed that in 2010, but I can’t for the life of me find the original name. Either way, the inside was stunning.
The theater was built in 1864 and only restored once in its lifetime. The stage is rigged from the sidelines for sound, and there aren’t any balconies. The entire upper section is made up exclusively of box seats with locked doors. Fun fact: the center box above the exit door is where the VIPs are seated.
The owner mentioned that there was a tribute to Jerome Robbins, the famous dancer and choreographer, above the theater by their waiting hall. Now, I don’t know if it’s because I have bad cardio and we went up a lot of steps or this view was just so miraculous and surprising, but I lost my breath walking into the waiting hall. Only a video can capture the beauty and expansiveness of that space. Even now, as I write this, my heart races remembering its elegant extravagance.
We all got a picture near the statue of Jerome Robbins located outside on the second floor of the building. The tribute was quite beautiful, too. It had a plaque depicting some of the shows he’d done!
We also had the honor to watch a performance by a traditional Korean dancer. It was incredible. She felt the presence of spirits there and began her performance by dancing with an article of Ellen’s. I got goosebumps watching her because I noticed something unexplainable. There was no wind that I could feel. The trees were still, looming over us as we watched her dance. Yet, the bottom of her skirt fluttered like there was a breeze. This gave the impression that she was floating like a ghost. It was breathtaking.
One of our playwrights did a call-and-response with a Native song, which was a lot of fun! This leads me to the best part of the retreat. Sure, the gelato was phenomenal and the sights were unlike any I’d ever seen. But nothing compares to all the people I got to spend time with. The director of the program David along with his partner Frank were such a joy to be around. They, along with the entire staff of helpers, did everything in their power to make sure we were as comfortable as possible. Chay Yew, our artist in residence, was such a blast to work with, too. He empowered me to rediscover my voice. He urged me to keep writing, keep sharing my story.
I will say that the United States has much to learn from the ways of Italians. Like, why can’t we adopt siestas? Mid-day naps were incredible to experience! But all jokes aside, I am grateful to those who made it possible for me to go on this amazing journey and to those who made it possible for me to love writing again when I was there. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
