Mario Bianchi

Mario Bianchi was born in Varese in 1948 and graduated in Modern Literature from the Catholic University of Milan in 1975, with a dissertation on Kitsch in Literature.
Author, director, theatre animator and critic, he has been working in the field of theatre for many years.

In the early 1970s, he founded Teatro Gioco-Evento, with which he created a form of theatrical performance that was almost intimate and informal, aimed at breaking down the conventions and myths of spoken theatre. Works from this period include Prometeo Incatenato and La città di Formaldeide. He attended workshops with Carlo Formigoni and Marco Baliani.
From 1975 to 1979, he worked as an editor for “Radio Como”, contributing to the conception of a number of highly experimental programmes. In 1977, together with Dario Tognocchi, he founded Teatro Città Murata, of which he served as Artistic Director until 2012.

During the 1970s and 1980s, he was particularly interested in total theatrical performance as a potential space for dreams, working primarily in the field of performance understood as a theatrical act and an unrepeatable event.

Prometeo Incantato I, II (1972) – Prometeo Incantato III (1973) – Formaldeide (1974) – Senso Vietato (radio programme, 1976) – Aspettando Godot (radio programme, 1977) – Spettacolazione di paese (Parè, Autunno Musicale 1978) – Omaggio a Pasolini (1979) – Perepè Perepè, ovvero il mio regno non è di questo mondo (Teatro Città Murata, 1980) – Le pornofantasie di Josephine (film, 1980) – Occidente (performance to music by Carlo Ferrario, Galleria Casalino, 1981) – Spettacolazione di paese (Castelnuovo Bozzente, 1981) – Ascesa e caduta, splendori e miserie di Creso Imperatore di Lidia (1982) – Pur nel sonno il mio cor ti vedrà (I sentieri del tempo, Foscolo Middle School, 1982).

He also continued to develop his personal approach to total theatrical performance through interventions conceived for specific environments: Il posto del cannibale (Galleria Pantha Arte, 1984) – Elogio della normalità (Circolo Culturale Il Magazzino, 1985) – Il ripostiglio degli oggetti incantati (Abaco shop, 1986).

At the same time, he conceived and developed theatrical and spectacular events of great popular appeal and inventiveness, animating not only the city of Como but also creating performance pathways within traditional theatres: I luoghi (1980) – I sentieri del tempo (1982) – Le notti di San Lorenzo (1983) – Futura (1985) – Il paese dei raccontatori (1989) – Tutti i colori del buio (1990) – La riva delle meraviglie (1994) – La buona sera (1995) – Il battello delle fiabe (1996) – Il Natale di Pinocchio (1998) – Nell’antro del teatro (1999) – Il Sentiero delle anime spente (2000) – Verranno a te sull’aure, nell’antro dell’opera (2002) – Il Sentiero dei racconti incrociati (2003) – Le Mille e un'Italia (2004) – Alla corte del Prof. Propp (2005) – Rashomon (2007).

Founder and creator of the “Lunedì del Cinema”, Como’s most innovative film programme, he curated a number of highly acclaimed series, including: La nascita del cinema – Buster Keaton – Il cinema Peplum – Un sogno lungo un giorno – Il cinema delle Avanguardie – Il posto delle fragole.

He has also created, using his film archive of four thousand videocassettes and two thousand DVDs, a series of thematic video montages, including: Sguardi leggeri (children in cinema, 1996) – Essere o non essere (a tribute to the art of acting, 1996), presented at the TTV Festival in Riccione, at Teatro Franco Parenti and in two squares in Lugano during the 2013 International Theatre Festival – Gli anni di corsa (children and emotions, 2002) – La biblioteca dei Lumiere (the book in cinema, 2002) – Cinema in forma di poesia (2003) – Topoi in fabula, i luoghi dell’immaginario del teatroragazzi nel cinema (2003) – Vogliamo vivere, cinema e pena di morte (2004) – Gigli bianchi e gigli neri (2004) – Cinema in forma di mito, dedicated to Pasolini (2005) – Tutto sopra la madre (2006) – Occhi sbarrati, l'infanzia violata nel cinema (2007) – La dolce legge del desiderio, cibo e cinema (2008) – La fonte meravigliosa, bellezza cultura e teatro nella scuola (2009) – Cinema e pittura (2010) – Cinema, la morte al lavoro (dedicated to Bette Davis) – I giardini nel cinema (2012) – and two tributes to the works of Shakespeare: Romeo e Giulietta (2012) and Otello (2013).

In recent years, he has devoted much of his work to theatre for young audiences and storytelling, through critical contributions, the creation of festivals and productions: Frollo (1992, for Marco Baliani) – Splendido Diurno (1994) – Il primo miracolo di Gesù (1996) – Lo Spaventapasseri (1997) – La storia di Leggera (1998) – Dall’alto (2000) – I vestiti dell’imperatore (2003) – La quinta stagione (2006) – Il racconto di Prometeo (2007) – Tutti i colori del Buio (2009) – La Lavapaure (2009) – Otello e le nuvole, a puppet theatre production dedicated to Otello Sarzi (2010) – Binge Drinking (2011) – Il volo dell'Ippogrifo (2013) – Con me in Paradiso (2015).

He served as a consultant for theatre for young audiences for the Provincial Administration of Como, for which he created Il Sipario Incantato in 1984, the provincial theatre-for-young-audiences festival. He is co-Artistic Director of the Vimercate Festival, one of Italy’s leading festivals dedicated to theatre for young audiences. He is also a consultant for AS.LI.CO. at Teatro Sociale di Como, advising on its seasons of experimental theatre and theatre for young audiences, and directed the Teatro Sociale di Como theatre school for 15 years. He is a consultant for theatre for young audiences at Teatro San Teodoro in Cantù.
He has directed, and now co-directs, the National Storytelling Festival of Mariano Comense, the most important festival of its kind in Italy.
He is the director of the online journal Eolo, the official Italian theatre-for-young-audiences website, which presents the sector’s leading awards. He is also an editor for the KLP website and collaborates with Hystrio magazine. He has served on the critical panel of the Premio Scenario, Italy’s most important award for emerging theatre, and is a voting member of the Premio UBU, Italy’s most prestigious theatre award.

From 1994 to 2003, he created the “Amado Mio” Cultural Centre in Como, with a 90-seat theatre where he organised a rich programme of cultural events and performances for many years. In 2004, a university dissertation on Teatro Città Murata and, in particular, on his work was proposed and defended at the Catholic University of Milan.

In 1998, he curated the entries on theatre for young audiences for the Dizionario dello spettacolo published by Baldini&Castoldi. In 2009, L'atlante del teatro-ragazzi italiano was published by Titivillus, the first publication in Italy devoted to the recent history of theatre for new generations.
In 2013, he handed over the direction of Teatro Città Murata to a younger generation and founded Amadomio creazioni.