Winning blindness with theater

My name is Elisabetta and I have a retinitis pigmentosa mixed with cataracts that led me to blindness many years ago.
Nevertheless I did not lose heart and I continued, in spite of everything, to cultivate my artistic interests: dance and above all theatrical acting.
Since I was a child, I had a passion for theater.
When my mother took me to the Piccolo Teatro in Milan to see the shows, I enjoyed it very much and daydreamed I could, one day, play the theater scenes.
Three years ago, despite being no longer young, I started a theatrical amateur experience at Unione dei Cechi di Milano.
Thanks to the interest of our president, Erica Monteneri, the theatrical company Bellezza was born, the first experiment of integrated theater in Lombardy.
Our company is made up of blind, visually impaired and also sighted actors.
In three years we have represented two musicals by Garinei and Giovannini and, this year, “the coffee shop” by Carlo Goldoni.
The tests take place every week for about two hours where under the guidance of a good director we perform exercises to set the voice, learn to move in the surrounding space with a certain ease, learn the expressiveness of the face and gestures.
In this way we are really taught how to enter the character assigned to us, once the parts have been assigned.
Acting for me is a wonderful adventure, even if it requires a lot of study and dedication.
When I have to prepare a show, I spend hours and hours at the computer to listen to the script that our director kindly sends us.
Also I listen to my part so many times, which I record on the digital recorder, to be able to memorize it.
In our shows, when we go on stage, there is no prompter and therefore we have to know our part perfectly.
I must say that acting is not easy, it is hard, but when there is a great passion everything seems simple and accessible even to those who do not see, like me.
Acting helps me very much to overcome my psychological difficulties caused by blindness, even though now I have accepted it almost completely. .
I am very emotional but when I recite all fears disappear, I almost forget myself and within perfectly in my character.
I finish this writing with a poem composed after a show.

Acting can also not be seen.
On stage
I dream,
I dream of being on a stage,
the stage of my life
to play a comedy,
a comedy full of sadness,
bitter tears
but also smiles,
tenderness and a lot of sweetness
full of pain
but also of love
The curtain opens
and I’m here,
here on this stage
ready to go
towards joy,
towards love.
I want to dance,
dance on tiptoes,
with small, rapid steps.
I am fragile, weak
but full of light
and in silence
I want to sing,
sing a hymn of praise.
I feel like a blooming rose
in the autumn of my life.
I want to shout hard
and infinite joy
Yes to Life
Elisabetta Vianello.