Davide Iodice: “A Conservatoire of the Arts for Naples’ most vulnerable”

Perseverance pays off: it may not always be true, but for the Neapolitan director and playwright Davide Iodice, that’s exactly how it turned out. Thirteen years after its foundation, his Scuola Elementare del Teatro has finally secured a permanent home; it is a model of social pedagogy unique in Europe, prioritising people with physical or intellectual disabilities and those from disadvantaged backgrounds. An emancipation project that has taken shape as the ‘People’s Conservatoire for the Performing Arts’, featuring a series of workshops and artistic productions involving an ever-growing community. A protégé of Andrea Camilleri at the National Academy of Dramatic Art and director of Roberto De Simone’s latest play, ‘Trianon Opera’, Iodice has, in recent weeks, secured permission from the Campania Regional Council’s Department of Culture to use the Colosimo Theatre at the Neapolitan institute of the same name for the blind and visually impaired, where all workshop, training and artistic production activities will be held.

There are more than two hundred of us, with steady growth driven by volunteers. We began with an initial group of around twenty people in 2013, operating entirely on a voluntary basis. It hasn’t been easy; we’ve often been on the verge of giving up, but the strength of a community that sees art as a tool for empowerment and a means of self-expression for people living with disabilities has prevailed. There are still far too few projects and solutions available worldwide, and if we are an exception, I say this not to boast, but to express my regret.

We have received no public funding, only contributions from volunteers and donations, which have even enabled us to award scholarships. For our activities, we have benefited from the hospitality of the Trianon and Mercadante theatres, as we had to leave our original premises in the former Filangieri Nursery due to space constraints; however, the constant relocations were not helping the young people, who require special care and stable points of reference: it is clear that a pupil with autism finds any disruption to their routine particularly difficult, especially in a city where chaos already puts their routine to the test.

There are theatre, music and dance workshops set to resume in October and which will continue to be free of charge, even at the permanent venue, as well as courses covering not only the artistic side but also the various technical professions associated with the performing arts. Among the initiatives is a series of sensory theatre performances entitled "Invisibile", aimed primarily at blind and partially sighted people; another workshop, "Tutto il mondo è paese", is aimed at young people of different languages and nationalities to promote intercultural dialogue.

“Alice o il mondo alla rovescia”, which will open at the Colosimo Institute theatre in November and was previewed on 30 December 2025 as part of the “Napoli 2500” celebrations. Meanwhile, I am working with Ert, the Emilia Romagna Theatre Foundation, on an advanced training course entitled “The Magic of the Human”, for which I will be developing the project “The Seven Works of Mercy”, inspired by Caravaggio’s famous painting housed in Naples. We will set up an artistic and educational team that will run workshops and creative residencies at social organisations in the five cities where the Foundation operates. The subject of our exploration is the concept of compassion as sharing, participation, reciprocity and vital connection. For me, that painting by Caravaggio represents a fundamental poetic direction and a defining reference point. I will never utter Eduardo’s famous words “flee from Naples”, even though it is a difficult city. I myself commute because I had to move to Modena, where there are services and university facilities that enable my visually impaired son to continue his studies in the best possible way.

Camilleri was like a second father to me; through him I realised that meticulous study must not stifle freedom; de Berardinis taught me that the only solution is to keep improving and that when an opportunity arises for you, you must also open it up to others; Bene was the divine child, a sensational genius; De Simone saw theatre as a magical act, where the high and the low can be combined and the most diverse conventions explored.

A different relationship with space and time, and a focus on non-codified means of communication. Neurodivergent young people are extraordinary teachers, even in the workshops at my Conservatoire when neurotypical actors work alongside them. They clear your gaze; they make it deeper. Disability holds infinite possibilities that we must discover.