The Piccolo Teatro di Milano opened on 14 May 1947 as Italy's first public theatre with a permanent company, a teatro stabile. Its founders were the director Giorgio Strehler, Paolo Grassi and Nina Vinchi; the name refers to the small auditorium of about 500 seats in Palazzo Carmagnola on Via Rovello. It opened with Gorky's The Lower Depths; the first season also brought Goldoni's The Servant of Two Masters, which as Arlecchino servitore di due padroni was revived again and again. Strehler shaped the theatre with productions of Goldoni, Pirandello, Shakespeare and Brecht, including Life of Galileo in 1963. Since 1991 the Piccolo has held the title Teatro d'Europa. Today it plays in three venues: the historic Sala Grassi, the Teatro Studio Melato and the Teatro Strehler, opened in 1998 as its main stage.
Strehler later also founded the "Piccolo dei Piccoli" for children here — his belief that public theatre belongs to everyone shaped the Italian municipal theatre system to this day.
At a glance
- Type
- Theatre
- Location
- Milan, Italy
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- Teatro alla Scala · Opera house, Milan
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