Corso di persuasione

author 
Francesca Sangalli

direction 
Tindaro Granata

film direction and video editing
Olmo Cerri, REC

with
Marleen Scholten

technical coordination
Sarah Chiarcos, LAC

stagehand
Andrea Borzatta, LAC

production delegate
Vanessa Di Levrano, LAC

video production delegate
Adriano Schrade, REC

picture
Mike Toebbe, LAC

images
Silena Madonna, REC
Ricardo Torres, REC

color correction
Giacomo Jaeggli, REC

makeup
Sofia Buop
Romina Kalsi

focus puller 
Mariangela Marletta, REC

production
Associazione REC

technical material
Associazione REC

thanks to
Luca Pascoletti, LAC Shop
Roberto Bonanomi, psychologist
Caterina Viganò, psychiatrist
Laura Iacovone, neuromarketing teacher
Luca Fiocca, philosopher
Aglaia Vignoli, neurologist

production
LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura

Course of Persuasion takes the form of a real course; the main idea is to seduce the audience by offering a training in all the skills needed to condition others, deploying the innocent tactic of effective communication. A little ironically and taking a paradoxical view of some revelations, we slip into techniques borrowed from hypnosis and from naked manipulation. Whoever sets out on this journey will be fully informed about profiling techniques as proposed by the social sciences but they will also find they are up against something much more formidable. These pills of Neuro Linguistic Programming (currently widely prevalent also on the internet) are based on the methods of Bandler and Grinder and draw on the obscure mechanism of advertising persuasion. In the real world many of the techniques taken from these studies can sway the outcome of elections, our economic and political choices. They promise keys to influencing the unconscious and offer an easy recipe for acquiring power. But are we sure that along the tortuous pathway to becoming butchers we won’t discover a more disconcerting reality? What if we are the victims ourselves?

Francesca Sangalli
She was very young when she debuted as a playwright, winning awards and recognition in the theatre and cinema worlds. From there she moved on to fiction and has been published by DeA Planeta (De Agostini group), Fausto Lupetti Editore, she works with Salani and Mondadori. A versatile many-sided writer, her work ranges from political and historic themes to poignant fiction with dreamlike, poetic and even comic qualities. For years she has been working in cinema and television, especially with Fulvio Lucisano (IIF), for ITV Movie in the programme Crozza nel paese delle Meraviglie, and she has written screenplays for shorts and animated series. She lives and works in Milan where she teaches writing at the Bauer school.

Tindaro Granata
From Tindari in Sicily, at the age of twenty Granata embarked on the navy ship Spica as an artillery mechanic; two years later, driven by the desire to become an actor, he resigned and moved to Rome where he worked as a sales clerk in several shoe shops and as a waiter in trattorias and restaurants. Without formal academic artistic training he took his first steps in the theatre thanks to Massimo Ranieri. In 2006 he began a successful relationship with Carmelo Rifici who directed him in numerous performances including Ifigenia, liberata and Macbeth, le cose nascoste. Serena Sinigaglia directed him in Il libro del buio and in 32”.16 Trentadue e sedici secondi; he worked with Andrea Chiodi in numerous theatre projects including La Locandiera and The Taming of the Shrew; Leonardo Lidi directed him in The Glass Menagerie; as an author he made his debut in 2011 with Antropolaroid, a performance about the story of his family which was staged making an original use of the ancient form of the Sicilian folk tale. Granata is also author and interpreter of Invidiatemi come io ho invidiato voi, a story about a case of pedophilia based on a real news story. He wrote, directed and interpreted Geppetto e Geppetto,  a work in which he deals with the question of step-child adoption and which won him the Premio Ubu for best new play (2016). He wrote Farsi Silenzio, a secular pilgrimage in search of the sacred in the modern world and Dedalo e Icaro, the story of a father seeking to come to terms with his child’s autism. Granata is Artistic Director of Situazione Drammatica, a platform to disseminate contemporary dramaturgy and also of Proxima Res, an association for theatre production.

Marleen Scholten
Having obtained her diploma as an actress, in 2001 Scholten was one of the founders in Rotterdam of the Dutch collective Wunderbaum. Since then she has created over 50 performances in the Netherlands and abroad that tour all over the world. Members of the collective write their own texts, direct and act. They deal with current political and topics and try to create a community with every performance involving people from various walks of life: architects, homeless people, choir members, judges, innovators and writers. The collective Wunderbaum is based in Rotterdam and since 2018 it has been the collective artistic director of the Theaterhaus Jena in Germany. Its recent performances are La codista, Chi è il vero italiano? La storia della mia rigidità and La canzone nazionale. These works were presented in Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany. In addition to these works, in Italy the company was guest of the Festival Tramedautore at the Piccolo Teatro in 2018 with Looking for Paul, a performance about the American visual artist Paul McCarthy and with the film Stop Acting Now. At the Santarcangelo festival in 2010 they presented Magna Plaza, a site specific project in a shopping centre. In 2006 at the CSS in Udine they created a performance with eleven migrants, Welcome in my backyard. In 2021 Marleen will debut at the FOG festival di Triennale Milano Teatro with La codista, a monologue about a woman paid to stand in queues for others. Wunderbaum won the Award Proscenium for most impressive theatre (Amsterdam), Mary Dresselhuys Award for the best performance of the year (Rotterdam), and the Total Theatre Award (Edinburgh), they were also nominated for most outstanding international piece (Toronto). Marleen won the Premio Nazionale Drammaturgico Antonio Conti (Italy) for La codista.