Soiree Renato Simoni

In the splendid setting of the Bastione delle Maddalene, a tribute to Renato Simoni, a prominent figure in Veronese theater, will take place for two special evenings on July 15 and 16, celebrating the 150th anniversary of his birth this year.

The Florentine writer, essayist, and storyteller Luca Scarlini, in collaboration with students from the Accademia del Teatro Stabile del Veneto Silvia Luise and Mattia Vodopivec, narrates, with an anthology of excerpts, one of the most interesting profiles of the repertoire of 20th-century Italian theater, whose work has been forgotten in recent years and contains numerous surprises, to give voice and face to a protagonist of our theater who is still surprisingly current.

Acute critic, refined playwright, and renowned librettist: Renato Simoni (1875–1952), from Verona, was a central figure in the Italian theater scene of the 20th century. Highly attentive to the changes of his time, he engaged in dialogue with protagonists like D’Annunzio and Pirandello, accompanying the birth of modern direction and always advocating for a lively and renewed idea of theater. In 1948, he founded the Estate Teatrale Veronese, inaugurating the first edition with Romeo and Juliet, staged alongside a young Giorgio Strehler, who had just arrived with Paolo Grassi at the helm of the newly established Piccolo Teatro di Milano.