Origin Story

PadovArts Center was born from a shared vision conceived between The School for Theatre Creators and Barabao Teatro. The School for Theater Creators, (now PadovArts Academy), an international theater school that was founded by Paola Coletto in the US, had regular coursework based between Chicago and Los Angeles, with workshops and seminars around the world. Barabao Teatro is a professional theatre company based in Padua, Italy. Both of these organizations have their roots in the school of Jacques Lecoq and the tradition of physical theater. Throughout the years, each one of them developed their own unique identities and their current collaboration is yet a new way of advancing their work and the field of movement-based theatre.

In March 2020 the destiny of these two organizations were united by some devastating circumstances. The school was in the middle of creating its Italian branch in Padua, while the company was in the midst of a fully booked season when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out and everything came to a halt.This forced us to let go of all we had planned and stranded us in our homes, wondering what the future might hold. At this point we also made the important decision not to take our work online, fearing that we could not guarantee the same quality of education when offered in that medium. In doing so we voluntarily entered a time of silence and stillness. But while the daily work may have stopped, it certainly did not stop the need to dream and imagine what it is that we wanted to create and be part of when we emerged from the enforced pandemic hibernation.

This period of silence and stillness has made the importance of art and what art can do for a community even clearer, provoking the desire to expand and transform our work to be at the service of a wider swath of people: from professional art-makers to people that simply love art and are hungry for a chance to participate, regardless of age or experience.

We dream of repositioning art and culture as a central pillar of the community by highlighting what the arts can bring to the table and changing the conversation around art and art-making from something sophisticated and formal to something available to everyone.

It has become vital for us to create a new meeting place for artists, for theater, for the community and for the future.

This dream finds its form in PadovArts Center, a space for art and social interaction open to all: a training and performance space dedicated to both supporting professionals in the arts, and to nurturing those who are simply inspired to follow a creative impulse. With PadovArts Center we create an environment where we devise, build, connect and share, inside and outside the center’s physical space. We create a place where creativity is cherished and practiced, a place to come together for a common goal, broader than ourselves and our own art, where it is possible to create magical, transformative and unforgettable experiences for everyone, a place for beauty and wonder…