Alongside its core business activities, Exedra, together with the Exedra Associazione Culturale, has always had a special place for cultural events, especially those aimed at or performed by young people. Since 2018, we have frequently hosted concerts and plays, and arranged masterclasses and workshops with guest tutors, such as Brett Douglas Deubner, American viola player, and Hilary Thomson, lecturer in drama from the UK.
Highlights of the past three years include a performance of Verdi’s Traviata with a chamber orchestra of local musicians and a cast of international students, directed by Maestro Francesco Attardi, frequent concerts by La Giga String Ensemble, conducted by Maestro Marco Terlizzi, and original plays inspired by local history, such as “Il Manifesto Infame” performed with a high school in Floridia, and “Federico e [il suo] Secondo”, a historicomedy based on the life of the great Medieval emperor Frederick II of Swabia.
One of our main aims is to take the arts out into the streets and squares, to historical sites and monuments and more unexpected and informal settings, and through theatre, words and music, add an extra dimension to one’s previous experience of a place. This year’s new productions were specifically designed to be performed in the open air, on a street corner or in a courtyard, both to respect Covid-imposed restrictions and to reach an audience who might not otherwise encounter theatre.
U Cuntu di lu Manifestu – a flash mob in Sicilian dialect