Troupe

Gabriele Vacis was born in Settimo Torinese, province of Turin, the 18^th October of 1955.

He is a successful Italian director, playwright and television writer. Graduated in Architecture, since 1982 he is in the world of Theatre. He gave courses at the Academy of dramatic art Paolo Grassi in Milan; today he teaches “reading and oral narration” at Holden School in Turin. With a group of friends, in ‘70s he realizes projects about theatrical entertainment, performances and urban staging. With these same friends, in 1982 he founded the Laboratorio Teatro Settimo. The first plays, “Citrosodina” and “Kanner puro” become little classics of the theatre for young people. The first play for adults, “Signorine”, is a twine of stories about immigration. In 1984 “Signorine” makes Gabriele Vacis well-known to the audience and the national and international critics. In 1985 “Elementi di stuttura del sentimento” wins important prizes, indicating the return to narration in the theatre. In the same period, Vacis works on the relations between theatre and city planning by writing the Plan for the Cultural Environment for the town of Settimo Torinese, that plans the transformation of the historical centre into a pedestrian area and the use of old factories as spaces for culture.

In the 80’s he promotes and directs theatre festival as Assedio and Viaggio in Italia. In 1989 he signs his first lyrical direction: “L’alfiere”, a contemporary work by Siegfried Matthus. In the first years of the 90’s he works on the reinterpretation of two classics: “La Storia di Romeo e Giulietta” by Shakespeare (1991) and “Villeggiatura” by Goldoni (1993), they reveal a style based on the narration of great texts more than on their staging. In the 90’s, with the story “Il racconto del Vajont” and the plays about Olivetti, Vacis becomes one of the author of the theatre of narration. The narrator without frills, in the empty space, becomes a phenomenon that influences deeply the communication, from theatre to television, from journalism to politics.

After have written and acted in “Totem”, Vacis, in 1999 conducts 42° parallelo, a series of TV programs dedicated to twentieth-century literature. In 1996 he received the Prize for Direction from Associazione Nazionale Critici di Teatro (National Association of Theatre Critique). In 2000 “Fenicie” by Euripides is the result of a long pedagogic path to a “compositional” theatre, in which the same actors improvise the play. The work reveals also the Schiera, a training technique based on the listening and invented and used by Vacis. In 2002, after twenty years, the Teatro Settimo is acquired by the Teatro Stabile di Torino.

Vacis undertakes the role of permanent director. The first production “Domande a Dio” becomes “Torino Spiritualità”, annual festival of the town of Turin that attracts personalities and audience from all over the world. From 2006 and 2007 he directs big events like the Inaugural Ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Turin. From 2008 he works on the foundation of the Teatro Regionale Alessandrino whose artistic director Vacis is. At the end of 2000’s Vacis points his interest to cinema. The docu-film “Uno scampolo di paradiso” wins the Jury Prize at the Annecy Festival. Since 2008 he directs the project “La paura Sicura” that combines theatre, cinema and new media.