by Rob Scott and Mark Enslin
Rob:
Today we are returning from our first Italian/English session of the School for Designing a Society in Pruno, Italy. We have learned a lot about the elements of Italian society, what issues are construed as social problems, and thus, where the function of a School for Designing a Society is needed. For those of us who are in Italy for the first time, it was difficult to clarify the issues calling for permutation, given that our Italian friends are themselves permutations.
One participant in the school was Mario, an unusual Catholic priest who was assigned to the quiet town of Pruno 35 years ago, and who took it upon himself to make a project of revitalizing the town. He was very interested in our discoursing about undermining the stability of hierarchies, and we noticed that in church he orients the pews in three directions so that the congregation sits in a circle — or as close to a circle as is possible with pews. He once told a story that as a priest he had invited tango dancers to perform in church because he thought it was beautiful. He defied stereotypes and cliches. At the service on Sunday, he asked Mark and Susan if they had any comments they’d like to add to the service, which they did. There was a running line of jokes between him and co-organizer Annachetto during our meetings, in the idiom of “the priest and the communist”. Note in the picture that there is a hat made out of balloons resting on the right hand corner of his table during service.
We made two trips to nearby towns where we performed works of theater and music, which also gave us a chance to interact with the public and connect with local organizations interested in the arts and social change. In Stazzemi, Tuscany, near Pruno, we performed at a venue organized by “Asino Che Vola” (literally, “the donkey that flies”) a left-wing organization that works with the mentally handicapped. Our set consisted of 5 pieces, interspersed with invitations to the audience to make short pieces using constraints based on social structures. The adults who organize the Asino Che Vola were good sports in trying to make choir of common language and instant pivot pieces — they were more willing to try our little experiments than their young anarchist volunteers! After the show, we drank fresh local Chianti, and danced to ad hoc waltzes and Italian songs playend on accordion and guitar. We then retreated back to school-mode for a few days before heading to another nearby town for a formal night of performance.
Mark:
Kansar is a Ghandi-inspired cultural association in the Tuscan city of Pietrasanta run by a friend of the organizers of the workshop. After a dinner for the workshop participants, Jeff, Danielle, Rob, Susan and I performed a program for them and members of the association, beginning with Jeff’s performance of Lisa Fay’s solo with small mic and lights called ‘napse. 
Then Rob, Danielle and I did Susan’s “I’m an individual” from Women’s Jazz Band Theater. Susan performed her Steppin’ Out with Italian lipsynching provided by Michaela Loli. We offered two movements from John Cage’s Living Room Music for speaking voices and the room as percussion instrument—in this case bright red walls, book shelf, cups, paper. Jeff reprised Lisa’s short movement-object piece Eulogy. I did a version of the song “World War III” from Rick Burkhardt’s play The Missiles, with verses translated by Federica Merlini. Jeff ended the program with his collaboration with Lisa Fay and Michael Holloway, The Alarmist, which acquired some local topical references (particularly the smoke alarm) and showed how far the ideas of counter-intuitive behavior that Jeff had been presenting can be taken.
On Monday afternoon while some of the workshop participants had gone to present to a peace school in a nearby town on educating to desire, the rest of us in Pruno tried an experiment with puppets and problems. If one decides to describe a situation as a problem–one doesn’t have to–one can ask several questions of the probem (taking off from Brün): For whom is it a problem? In whose interest is it that the problem be solved? In whose interest is it that the problem remain unsolved? Is the problem part of a pattern, part of another, larger problem? Would a reformulation of the problem make it easier to solve?
The assignment was to animate any of the objects in the room as puppets and make a play in three scenes. Scene one: exposition of the problem; scene two: a chaotic development treating questions of For whom? and In whose interest?; interlude: a song showing the problem to be part of a larger pattern; scene three: arrival at a new formulation of the problem.
Andrea and Federica used an apple core, a leaf, and a cardboard circular cake support to represent the populace, polluting factories and the Ozone Hole, respectively. Paola and Valeria staged a live traffic jam of decorated cups to take several looks at the problem of high gas prices. In Rob’s solo play, a turning point in mother pitcher’s lessons to child medlar (a local fruit) about “bad people” followed a silent pouring into a cup of a single sip of juice. 
Martina and Sandro, who happened to have showed up with their hair in top knots that day, made those their puppets, as well as the hair of some audience members, for a complaint about the assignment that expanded to a commentary on the Italian education system.
The spirit of play and performance spread into everyday life in the hostel. One morning a clothing sculpture appeared in the stairwell. There was a spoken jam on English words of the week in the dining hall, and after one dinner Andrea suddenly appeared at the window to remind everyone that Rubén was about to show a documentary on the peace village in Colombia he was involved in.
