Piccolo Teatro di Milano

The Piccolo Teatro della Città di Milano (translation: "Little Theatre of the City of Milan") is a theatre in Milan, Italy. Founded in 1947, it is Italy's first permanent theatre, and a national "teatro stabile", or permanent repertory company, and is considered a theatre of major national and European importance. The theatre has three venues: Teatro Grassi, in Via Rovello, between Sforza Castle and the Piazza del Duomo; Teatro Studio, which was originally intended to be the theater's rehearsal hall; and Teatro Strehler, which opened in 1998 with a seating capacity of 974. Its annual programme consists of approximately thirty performances. In addition, the venue hosts cultural events, from festivals and films, to concerts, conferences, and conventions, as well as supporting the Paolo Grassi Drama School.

Piccolo Teatro was founded by theatre impresario Paolo Grassi and actor and director Giorgio Strehler, along with Mario Apollonio, Virgilio Tosi and Nina Vinchi. According to Grassi, the founders were theatrical and political idealists that sought to "put forward theoretical principles and practical standards of conduct radically different from those which up until then had governed activity in Italy". The Milan city council approved the transformation of Cinema Broletto into Piccolo Teatro, to be managed directly by the City of Milan on 26 January 1947. The first performance, described as minimalist, took place four months later, on May 14, 1947, with L'albergo dei poveri ("Lower Depths") by Maxim Gorky. Offering affordable tickets and productions fraught with risk, Piccolo Teatro became renewed for "revitalizing popular interest in the classics of the Italian stage". Its company became well known for its productions of Carlo Goldoni and Luigi Pirandello in particular, and of Bertold Brecht, Eugene O' Neill, T. S. Eliot, Henrik Ibsen, Molière, Georg Büchner and Peter Weiss.

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