
A project engaging youth in the world of theatre and culture – By D. Porter
Theater just a click away
Last October, our collaboration with TeatroTV officially began, starting with the inclusion in its schedule of reruns of the episodes of Cooking with Mamma Elvia: tasty video recipes from the Ionian Calabrian tradition, on air every afternoon.
TeatroTV is one of the first Italian web TVs, with which we share a goal: to spread culture. To learn more about this project, we spoke with the founder and technical director Gianni Armonia and with the director of the channel and president of the association from which the initiative started, Luciano Calì.
Gianni Armonia is Neapolitan and lives in Grosseto, Tuscany. He has always worked in the television field and is a pioneer in the field of video technology. He started with photography, dealing with film, and has embraced the digital world with openness and preparation. Gianni has a passion for theater, which he cultivates as a hobby by participating in amateur performances. Theater must be seen in the theater and there is no doubt about it. However, many young people, sometimes for financial reasons, other times because they are “distracted” by smartphones, do not go to the theater. They often associate this noble art with the superficial performances of pseudo cabaret and/or talent shows broadcast on TV.
So Gianni thought of using technology to bring the new generations closer to this artistic expression and, on September 21, 2014, he founded TeatroTV, a web TV that makes theater accessible to everyone. Gianni, technical director, avails himself of the collaboration of the Sicilian journalist Luciano Calì, also director of the channel, of the Neapolitan presenter Giovanna Casolaro, and of the technician from Grosseto Samuele Contini.
Initially, TeatroTV dealt exclusively with local content. Subsequently, together with the number of viewers, the territorial radius expanded with a consequent extension of the type of content. Teatro TV is a large container of wide-ranging culture, from theater to music, from history to current events, up to culinary art and sports.
It broadcasts its own productions and cultural contents produced by others. Most are from southern Italy but there are also some from northern Italy and abroad.
Teatro TV: Culture on the web. Who watches it.
TeatroTV is free and is watched all over the world, not only by emigrants. Thanks also to the collaboration with other platforms, its contents are viewed as far away as China. Although the most assiduous viewers are those between 45 and 55 years of age, the number of young people who follow it is becoming increasingly consistent. According to the founder of the channel, this is primarily due to the fact that Teatro TV is not limited exclusively to the transmission of contents related to the theatre but extends to culture in general. In fact, it offers news, sports, concerts, cuisine, customs and much more. The name TeatroTV has not been changed, partly out of superstition and also because if you search on the internet it always appears first. Furthermore, as far as Italy is concerned, the growing participation of young people in amateur theatre activities certainly encourages their interest in searching for and watching theatre on the web.
A bivalent project
TeatroTV is a non-profit project of the Working class hero association. The association was founded in 2008, although it had already been active informally for a few years before. It is an innovative volunteer organization because it deals with conveying art, culture and science to all generations, trying to involve adults; children, through the spring of curiosity; and the elderly. In this period of strong information technology push, the association organizes workshops aimed at people who are older, giving them the basic elements to understand the subject and to be able to access a world that otherwise would have been, for them, difficult to understand. Working class hero offers informative-scientific, information technology, artistic and literary workshops. It is a non-profit association, therefore of little interest compared to the large information channels which live through advertising. So it gave a different orientation to communication through the foundation of a press agency, accredited by the ROC (Register of Communication Operators), so as to make itself the protagonist of information that otherwise would have been difficult to convey. Community dissemination formats were then created, including TeatroTV and other broadcasters such as TeleTirreno, Radio Tirreno, Maremma TV, Italy Channel, which deals with 360 degrees of culture linked to Italy, starting from a tourist and landscape proposal, up to the culinary axis so appreciated in the world. The entire project was imagined and conceived not as a commercial activity but as a service to the community, trying to include many young people and giving them basic training that over the years has allowed them to work in the sector as directors, operators, journalists…
Working class hero has been collaborating for years with the universities of Pisa, Siena and Florence and with the university of Viterbo. The association, based in Grosseto, operates today throughout the Italian area.
TeatroTV is therefore a bivalent project dedicated to the diffusion of culture that operates on two channels: one on the web, the other “in person”, through volunteering and the association’s initiatives.
How and where to watch Teatro TV
Watching TeatroTV is easy and free.
To watch TeatroTV in the world on a mobile phone or tablet Android or iOS through the TVDREAM app downloadable for free from Playstore or Aptoide.
To watch on computers and smart TVs, on iostream – from the https://www.teatrotv.it/, on TVdream and on MioTVonline
Watch TeatroTV on TV, on smartTV or Android Linux Box, Roku Amazon FireTV
By downloading the INTV ITALIA app and
and local TV app
Download LocalTV and search for TeatroTV
Local-Tv app is available on Platforms and Televisions (like Netflix or others)
• Amazon Prime Fire Stick 4 million devices in Italy millions more in Europe
• Roku with 55 million devices in the world (North and South America GB Fr Benelux South East Asia
• Android and compatible TVs
• All mobiles
• LG and Samsung TVs
• HUAWAI worldwide
The LocalTv App downloadable from Google Play and iOS.
It is recommended to update the software of both the TV and the app.
For info or questions contact TeatroTV by visiting https://www.teatrotv.it/
Teatro TV is also available on CiaoUsa TV and CoolstreamingTV