For a scholar of Machiavelli, there is no greater joy than being able to share their passion with future generations. When the Comune di San Casciano asked me to give a lecture for Machiavellerie, the possibility of instead organizing a show for the children of the primary school named after Machiavelli immediately excited me. Being able to portray Machiavelli in his own home is an experience that will stay with them forever, and thanks to the opportunity offered by the Municipality, we are able to make it happen.
As a professor at Yale University, I have taught many courses on Machiavelli, but I must admit that I have never been as excited as when my students organized the first performance of Machiavelli’s Andria in English. Of course, comedies were dear to Machiavelli and perhaps the reason why he was able to regain fame at the time: what better way to honor him during the Machiavellerie Festival than by using the words he wrote in this place to create a show?
From here, the idea of a traveling play was born, which touches on the places where Machiavelli lived and where he wrote many of his texts. This project had the immediate benefit of teaching these seven to nine year-olds something about Machiavelli, giving them the opportunity to get to know the famous thinker and their compatriot. There is no better way to get to know Machiavelli at this age than by impersonating him: through games, theater and disguises, they begin to know their distinguished fellow countryman. This approach emphasizes in turn an important aspect of Machiavelli’s philosophy favored by Gramsci: the idea of teaching as poiesis, as praxis.
On the other hand, for the public, being able to listen to Machiavelli’s words while breathing the air of the place where he wrote those words has something magical about it. The place itself is sacred in a sense, leading us to a different dimension of knowledge. It operates a process similar to the defamiliarization of art, like Van Gogh’s shoes in a Heideggerian memory, highlighting the ability of art to reveal the truth of existence.
In this journey, not by chance, we will be guided by young scouts. A scout is an explorer, a person who is sent out on reconnaissance, a guide who is tasked with showing others the way to go. Engaged responsibly in the life of their country and predisposed to be future citizens of the world, scouts are the perfect guides to lead us through the spatial and imaginary places that Machiavelli inhabits. No one better than scouts can interpret the role of a “glocal guide” that is based on the unique specificity of being here and now to communicate with the global world. Scouting also offers many opportunities for boys to develop and implement their various skills and intelligence outdoors, following the indications that Machiavelli gives us in the letter. Often history points the way to the future, and Machiavelli’s letter can provide us with a guide to a new humanism in the era of artificial intelligence.
Machiavelli in Villa will be performed at Casa Machiavelli, in Sant’Andrea in Percussina, on November 9 at 10am. Free entrance. For more information, email AngelaM.Capodivacca@icloud.com or scout@sancasciano1.it
