The hall in Piazzetta San Vincenzo, which illuminated one of the darkest alleys of the Sanità district with the light of art and the glow of culture, after nine years of theatrical work, will no longer perform public entertainment activities.
“On November 7th, our theatre's season was suspended due to renovation work, which the authorities indicated was necessary to continue the activity. – explains the artistic collective ntS' – and we immediately took action.
Despite the attempts already made in recent years to adapt the hall according to the legislation for public entertainment, the particularity of the 700th century structure, the fact that the property was owned by the Municipality of Naples but in the availability of the Curia and the consequent bureaucratic difficulties derived from this situation, did not allow us to achieve the result.
We have always kept the institutions informed of our situation, repeatedly seeking help and a meeting table, which unfortunately did not happen. In recent years we have worked with maximum transparency, without shirking any possible resolution of the issue.
But after four months of suspension of activities, the lack of concrete actions by the institutions, forces us to announce the definitive closure. Our stage that has been the home of many artists and that has given the opportunity to many young people who want to do this job to train and find a space that welcomes them, will no longer be able to light up. It is a silence that causes darkness to fall. Unfortunately, we must lucidly note that this is a decision to be considered definitive”.
The association Nuovo Teatro Sanità, in collaboration with the Parish of Santa Maria Della Sanità, for the time being, will continue its action in the neighborhood through laboratory activities, trying to increase their scope, offering free courses also for adolescents, that is, for that age group that has remained uncovered until now.
“We created a cultural centre in an area where there was nothing and where there was often no lighting: where the only light on, most of the time, was that of the theatre. – continues the artistic collective ntS'. We have helped raise a new generation of actors and playwrights who win important awards throughout Italy, we have obtained ministerial recognition for our activity in the neighborhood in just a few years. As an artistic collective, we have managed to achieve unexpected results. This makes us believe that we have worked well. Yet now we feel invisible. We are at a heavy setback and we live the frustration of not being able to resolve the situation ourselves. We would like not to have to turn off the lights, but to do so we need immediate and concrete institutional intervention. They have often called us "the theater of Legality": we believe a lot in institutions and it is to them that we ask for a hand. Now only the institutions can decide whether the New Theater Sanità will still exist".
The artistic collective ntS' thanks all those who in these months have tried to help with concrete gestures and actions to avoid the closure of the theater: “Good stories don’t always have a happy ending. We as artists and an organizational group will always exist, we will always offer an innovative cultural proposal that looks to young people; we will continue to provide free training for kids and their mothers in the Church of the Immaculate Conception and San Vincenzo. We will continue to create aggregation and we will try to reinvent our identity. We will perform elsewhere, in other places, in other “homes”. Unfortunately, today we have to announce that our seats will remain empty. In the Church of the Immaculate Conception and San Vincenzo, where the Nuovo Teatro Sanità has been operating for ten years, the magic of the meeting between people in the sacred and professional form of theater should never have been there and will no longer be there”.
Article published on March 13, 2023 - 11pm
