The encounter in 1983 between the director Maria Grazia Cipriani and set designer Graziano Gregori gave birth to the Teatro Del Carretto.
In Lucca, within the Teatro del Giglio where the Company is resident, the Teatro Del Carretto continues its research activity, and is recognized by the Ministry of Culture as one excelling in innovative theatre.
The visionary research into the interior voyage, the dream, and the concrete work in the theatre continued over the years, exploring the works of world-class playwrights such as Shakespeare, and also the wonders of myth and fable. A repertoire that includes, amongst others, Snow White, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Iliad, Odyssey, Beauty and the Beast, The Trojan Women, Metamorphoses, Pinocchio, Hamlet, Joan at the stake and Stories from the Thousand and One Nights and Last Quixote. In 2020 debuted the new production: Caligola. Underdog/Upset.
As a highly regarded presence in international theatrical research, the Company has travelled not only within Italy, but also throughout Europe and even further afield; demonstrating its capacity to overcome linguistic and cultural barriers. It is for this reason that the company has been invited to several international theatre festivals. Here the most prestigious ones: Festival d'Automne in Paris, 1°Italian Theatre Festival in Moscow, Festival Orient-Occident in Lille, Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato, International Festival for Mooving Theatre in Prague/Budapest, International Italian Festival in London, Festival for Experimental Theatre in Cairo, Baltic House- International Theatre Festival in St.Petersburg and International Theatre Festival Sirenos in Vilnius. The Teatro Del Carretto was also invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to represent Italy in the context of important international cultural events in Russia and in China and successfully presented his plays also in Lisbon, Berlin, Madrid, Tel Aviv, Mexico City, Tokyo, New York, Ankara ...
In 2017 the Company was selected to be part of the Biennale Theatre in Venice with three plays and a workshop on Amy Winehouse hold by the director Maria Grazia Cipriani.
Since 2018 the Teatro Del Carretto has decided to welcome new entries inside the Company and engaged new productions like The Tempest under the direction of Giacomo Vezzani and Caligola. Underdog/Upset under the direction of Jonathan Bertolai.
Parallel to the production, the Company has always invested its resources in the organization of multidisciplinary training workshops, considering the promotion of Theater Culture a priority in our society; over the years the Company was able to involve a vast and heterogeneous audience distributed throughout the national territory.
Over the years the theatre has won the following national and international awards:
- UBU award for dramaturgic and visual innovation
- ALDO TRIONFO award for the evolutionary parabola of its work
- HYSTRIO award 'Altre Muse'
- nomination as the best performance in innovative theatre for The Odyssey at the E.T.I. award "Gli Olimpici del Teatro"
- E.T.I. Award "Gli Olimpici del Teatro" to the set designer Graziano Gregori for the sets of Pinocchio
- Award of the Audience to Pinocchio as best show at the XIX Baltic House International Theatre Festival in St. Petersburg
- Finalist as Best Show of the Year for Hamlet at UBU award.
- Nomination at the E.T.I. award "Gli Olimpici del Teatro" to the set designer Graziano Gregori for the sets of Hamlet