The company
Founded in 1976, La Baracca has been producing and programming Theatre shows for Young Audiences for over 45 years.
Since the early ‘80s, the company has administered and run a city theatre for children and young audiences, presenting, hosting, and organizing shows, workshops, cultural and artistic activities for boys and girls, parents, and teachers.

Production and programming
The company produces shows exclusively for children and young people: from very small children attending crèches to teenagers attending secondary school. The productions are centred on actors theatre and have an original theatrical style and dimension, aimed at generating amazement, pursuing simplicity and essentiality, always paying special attention to the relationship with the audience. Far from the concept of entertainment, it is a kind of theatre that supports the idea of competent and sensitive children, who can fully enjoy a high-quality artistic experience at any age.

To date, the company has produced nearly 200 different shows for children and young people for all age groups, totalling over 14,000 performances.

Workshops and training activities
Along with the production of shows, La Baracca – Testoni Ragazzi organizes workshops for boys and girls. The theatrical workshops are conceived for being carried out at school or with the children’s family, and they represent a place of free expression.

Moreover, the company offers training activities for teachers and educators, organizing workshops, conferences, and meetings where they can explore artistic languages and the relationship between art and education.

Projects
These are some of the projects La Baracca has been involved in over the years, in collaboration with other bodies or institutions:

Progetto Ambasciatore (Ambassador Project) brings theatre shows and workshops to children in Countries affected by social and economic hardship. Over the years, we have brought our shows to Guatemala, Mexican Chiapas, Argentina, the Brazilian favelas, the Romanian orphanages, the primary reception centres in Mozambique and Zambia, schools in Nicaragua.

Teatro Arcobaleno is a project that involves children, teenagers, families, and teachers and aims at finding a shared way to overcome gender discrimination, stereotypes, and clichés, with theatre and dance shows presenting the topic of diversity under a poetic light.

The Charter of Children’s Rights to Art and Culture
The Charter collects 18 principles supporting the right of boys and girls all around the world to access art and culture. The principles of the Charter were illustrated by 22 artists and translated from Italian into 26 languages. The Charter became an illustrated book, supported and awarded by the highest Italian and European institutions.

European projects
From 2005 to 2018, La Baracca was project leader of the projects organized by Small size, the European network for the diffusion of performing arts for early years, recognized and financed by the European Commission through its various programmes for culture, over 4 consecutive cooperation projects.

In 2018, the new project coordinated by La Baracca, Mapping – A Map on the aesthetics of performing arts for early years, was selected in the framework of the Creative Europe programme.

Ending in 2023, the project involves 18 partners from 17 Countries, and is developing artistic research work on the sensory-based relationship between small children and artists.

Theatre for very young audiences
With the theatrical research work for children aged 0 to 3 that starts in 1987, the company develops its own poetic language for this age group. This was the starting point for the creation, in 2004, of the Festival Visioni di futuro, visioni di teatro… The international festival of performing arts for early years, an event that has taken place every year ever since, with shows for children from 0 to 6, presented by Italian and foreign companies, along with conferences, meetings, round tables, seminars, and workshops for teachers and educators on the relationship between art and education.

Tours
Since its foundation, the company has presented its shows not only across Italy, but also in many international festivals in:
Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, China, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Montenegro, Mozambique, Nicaragua, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Zambia.

Many of the scripts written by La Baracca – Testoni Ragazzi’s authors have been translated and staged by other companies in Austria, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland.