The Accademia Teatro alla Scala has become more and more dedicated to increasing and developing a number of international projects. These activities consist of innovative research projects and joint-efforts promoted by the European Community, and they are carried out in collaboration with prestigious institutions in Italy and abroad.
Many of these fall under the Leonardo da Vinci program, which was established in 1994 by the Council of Ministers of the European Union in order to favor the growth of innovation in education and training. Recently, the projects which export the Scala educational model have been receiving a great deal of attention. Requests from theatre schools in Europe and beyond continue to arrive, as more and more of these institutions seek to transfer the Accademia teaching model to their nations, adapting the Scala institution’s methods to their specific cultural context. The intensification of contacts and agreements aimed at creating curricula, cultural exchange and dance and concert activities has increased greatly, with agreements having been made with Romania, South Korea, Mongolia and China.
In 2009, for instance, thanks to European Social Funds for Romania, two three-year projects (Scenart and StudiOpera) were begun in collaboration with Bucharest’s Opera House and Operetta House; the goal of the projects is to realize a top quality training system for theatre professionals in Romania.
Scenart, which not only interests the Operetta Theater but other theaters as well - the Opera Theater of Brasov, the Teatrul Metropolis, the TNO, and the Teatrul National Targu-Mures - intends to implement a continuous training system divided into different phases for technical, technical-artistic and managerial professions in the Romanian territory.
In a first phase (October 2009 – March 2010) existing skills were identified and needs were pointed out, through research gathered in a questionnaire aimed at professionals in the theaters involved. A second phase followed (April 2010 – January 2011) in which, based on the needed professional profiles, pilot training courses were planned, conducted by professionals of the Teatro alla Scala and the Academy, and delegated to the personnel of the Operetta Theater in order to complete the preparations. In a third phase (February 2011 – February 2012)actually in progress, new technical trainees become themselves trainers for the other theaters involved in the project. Scenart will close with a second type of experimental research (March – October 2012) that, thanks to detailed analysis of the complex professional opportunity in the performing arts field, will examine current topics dealing with the professional reconversion and requalification.
StudiOpera foresaw, in a first phase (November 2009 – July 2010), the accomplishment of a broader questionnaire that included all of the Romanian formative and educational system, from university to conservatories to the social system, in the end emphasizing the gaps and individualizing training needs. Therefore, in a second phase (August 2010 – June 2011), six didactic courses were planned that deal with other professional areas, with the creation of a training team inside the National Opera Theater in Bucharest thanks to a program of mobility between Romania and Italy. In a third phase (July 2011 – June 2012) competitions aimed at participation in pilot courses will be distributed that are directed not only to professionals, but also to people that want to undertake training in the area of performing arts. The last phase foresees, not only the monitoring and the publicizing of the project by means of a web communication plan, but the birth of an orientation center for performing arts careers.
