From Palermo to War Zones: The Theatrical Proposal of the Raizes Method
by Giulia Ortaggio — 22 February 2026
In 2019, Alessandro Ienzi (Palermo, 1987) founded Raizes Teatro in Palermo. It is not just another social theatre project — it doesn’t offer the reassuring cliché of “theatre that saves” struggling young people. Instead, it proposes a radical method that in just a few years has reached from Palermo to northeastern Nigeria, in collaboration with Juvenile Courts and UN offices in Geneva.
This lawyer, playwright, and director is demonstrating that there exists a space — Raizes Theatre — that teaches individuals to work with their trauma and transform it into strength instead of experiencing it passively.
Going Beyond “Assistance” with Theatre
“The system of help has created a relationship of dependency: there are those who need to assist and those who need to be assisted,” Ienzi explains. What once seemed like a local social experiment has rapidly grown into an international network active in northeastern Nigeria, UN offices in Geneva, Egypt, the West Bank, Afghanistan, and more.
The centre of Raizes’ method isn’t merely theatrical aesthetics, but a political approach: the world tends to manage vulnerability rather than resolve it — because managing is easier, less risky, more reassuring for helpers, but far less effective.
The Raizes Method: From Passivity to Responsibility
Raizes proposes a shift from “need” to “desire.” Participants are no longer passive recipients of assistance but are encouraged to forge their own paths. In just a few months of disciplined practice and engagement, young people who were previously dependent transform into individuals who can open pathways for others too. “The expression I use is precise: to manipulate and reinvent traumatic experiences through performance. It’s not the director manipulating them — it’s the young person learning how to manipulate their own trauma, taking control of it.”
Pain becomes not a cage, but a tool for knowledge. “Creativity opens margins and alternative realities that allow us to live in a more secure space,” Ienzi says. This is not an escape from reality but an instrument for living life better and healing trauma: the focus becomes how strong I have been in overcoming something, rather than seeing myself as just a victim.
The Performance “Open!”
The performance Open! arises from this philosophy. Deaf Senegalese minor Amadou Diouf and blind Italian‑Chinese musician Yong Di Wang build a physical and rhythmic score together. Two bodies that society views as “limited” become the centre of a performance that dismantles ableist assumptions piece by piece.
Raizes Moving Towards Europe and Beyond
One young person who collaborated with Raizes stopped attending school. After his work with the company, he returned to school and eventually helped launch the Fundamental Rights Forum of the European Union. According to Ienzi, theatre doesn’t “save” — it gives responsibility and presence.
In Palermo — the place where the method finds its reason — human contact remains stronger than bureaucratic structures. “Life happens on the street,” Ienzi says, “and allows us to notice others. That’s the starting point for any reconstruction.” Raizes produces free performances such as I ragazzi di Ballarò and Il caso Siciliano, the latter dedicated to Lisa Siciliano. For Raizes, giving back to the territory is essential: it’s not enough to tell stories — the community needs restitution too.
Raizes Theatre and International Collaboration
In Palermo, Raizes conducts training ateliers where young participants use writing and physical expression to give voice to real, contemporary stories. This method has been adopted as a model of cultural diplomacy by institutions like the Global Campus of Human Rights in Venice and UNITAR, leading Raizes Theatre to present projects in institutional settings such as the European Parliament and the Fundamental Rights Forum in Vienna. Their work frequently takes place in crisis regions.
In Nigeria, on behalf of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Ienzi reopened the theatre in Maiduguri to stage a piece about child soldiers and Boko Haram’s sex slaves. Similar projects have been conducted in Egypt with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), focused on integrating refugees from Gaza and Sudan, as well as in Nepal, Lebanon, and the West Bank, with special attention to women and children’s protection.
Raizes’ Ongoing Projects and Future
Alongside field work, the company also engages in advocacy and protection operations, such as assisting the Afghan athlete Manizha Talash’s family in attending the Paris 2024 Olympics. In Italy, Raizes maintains collaborations with organisations like Teatro Biondo, Teatro Massimo in Palermo, and Teatro di Roma.
For this commitment, Ienzi received the UNETCHAT Award at the Italian Chamber of Deputies in 2025, as well as the Mediterranean Prize. Current projects include an international tour of La caja de concreto with activist Lorent Saleh and the production Junior, set to debut at the Geneva Summit on Child Soldiers in October 2026.
“Every workshop, performance, and gesture on stage is a declaration of trust in young people’s ability to change reality — to create community, awareness, and hope,” Ienzi concludes. Under this perspective, theatre ceases to be therapy for “victims” and becomes the political space in which individuals reclaim their voice.
From this perspective, theatre ceases to be therapy for “victims” to be assisted, becoming instead the political space in which individuals reclaim their voice. “What I have experienced,” Ienzi concludes, “is that the moment a person feels useful even to others, they gain a reason to live. Otherwise, excluded they are, and excluded they remain. The real challenge is to restore to each person the right to be necessary.” From Ballarò to Maiduguri, the principle remains the same: creativity liberates spaces of autonomy that mere assistance alone cannot reach.
BY GIULIA ORTAGGIO
ARTRIBUNE
