A Little Before ISTA. Letter to Renzo Vescovi

Abstract

Our director, Renzo Vescovi, died suddenly on a Sunday, (in the space of a few hours. What has happened before that there was a space of a few hours). At his death, we all felt that we were at the edge of a precipice. The only thing that saved us was our work: we had to give a performance near Trieste a few days later. As well we had a festival to prepare for twenty days from then. When a performance has to be given, it has to be given. Nothing can upset those plans. We had to deal with the banks, the marketing, the artistic aspect. But most of all, we had to deal with a much bigger problem: what was the point for a group, built around a leader-director, to continue to exist after his death? We pushed on day by day, without seeking a reply to this terrible question. More than ten years have passed, and we are still alive. We survived, without him. Thanks to him, and to all he had taught us. Thanks to what we had given back to him, over the years. Thanks to what he gave back to us in return, over the years. And to what we discovered we had when he died, as though he had left us an inheritance which was buried deeply within each of us.