Playing Memories is a residency project for the creation and production of multidisciplinary performances in an international setting. Unique in its kind, Playing Memories will foster intercultural, artistic, and human exchange, as well as the sharing of ideas, skills, and inspiration among young artists from different parts of the world.

Eight different artistic residencies will be produced, each lasting 15 days. Each residency will host 15 performers, including dancers, musicians, visual artists, photographers, set designers, and other artistic figures, selected from across Italy, for a total of 140 artists and performers.

During the two weeks of the residency, the team, hosted within one of the partner institutions, will engage in an intense creative process to design, set up, and stage their own original, multidisciplinary, and unreleased artistic performance. Each residency will have its own leader/creator, but the final performance will be the result of a team effort, with constant interaction and dialogue in a process of collective creation.

All the residencies and their related performances will be filmed by a television crew for the production of a docuseries – 2 seasons with a total of 24 episodes – which will be released on a prestigious international streaming platform.

The Playing Memories project is part of the PNRR – MISSION 4 COMPONENT 1 – Investment 3.4 ‘University Education and Advanced Skills’ – CUP Code B93B24000010001 and will take place from May 2025 to March 2026.

The residencies, unless changes are made following the publication of this Call for Artists, will be held at Saint Louis di Roma e Milano, Conservatorio di L’Aquila, Fondazione Accademia d’Arti e Mestieri dello spettacolo Teatro alla Scala, Scuola di arti di Cuba, Academy of Performing Arts Prague, Staffordshire University, Kazakh National Academy of Arts.

Playing Memories is not a talent show, but rather an individual and collective experience that, through the television docuseries, offers a unique insight into the world of artistic creation. It showcases the innovative visions of new generations as they revisit their cultural heritage (memories), filtering it through their own perspective, and then bringing it to life (playing) in their own way and style. The goal is to create an original synthesis across various artistic expressions—music, dance, visual arts, sculpture, performing arts, painting, and photography—allowing each to resonate with the audience in new and unexpected ways.

Open Call Playing Memories

EXTENSION OF THE SECOND CALL FOR PERFORMERS. Application deadline: 5 June.

In September/October 2024, the first selection round was launched for artists and performers who will take part in the project Playing Memories, dedicated to the creation of multidisciplinary artistic performances in various international cities.

The Playing Memories project aims to highlight and promote Italy’s cultural and artistic heritage through the reinterpretation and contemporary adaptation of various Italian musical repertoires. The artistic residencies and performances will be documented by a television crew to produce a two-season docuseries, consisting of 24 episodes in total, to be distributed on a prestigious international streaming platform.

Applications can be submitted either as a lead artist (by responding to the Call for Artists) or as a performer (by responding to the Call for Performers). It is also possible to be selected for both categories.

In April 2025, new selections are opening for performers who will take part in the final 4 artistic residencies of Playing Memories, which will be featured in the second season of the TV docuseries.

The second Call for Performers, with a deadline for applications set for June 5, 2025, aims to select a variety of profiles in the fields of performing and visual arts, including: musicians (winds, strings, piano arranger, double bass), pop and/or Renaissance singers, opera singers, contemporary dancers, actors/actresses, dance-theatre performers, sound designers, sculptors, set designers, costume designers, visual artists, and light designers.

OPEN CALL

EXTENSION SECON CALL

Docuseries

All the project’s activities, from casting to artistic residencies and performances, were followed step by step by a film production team that documented the various stages of the residency.

The collected footage was used to produce a two-season docu-series with a total of 24 episodes, telling the full making-of story of each artistic performance: from casting and daily life during the 15-day residency, to the backstage moments just before the show, and finally, the performance itself.

Don’t miss the first season, streaming from 5 November on RAI Play

The docu-series, presented at the Prix Italia on 21 October 2025, will serve as a powerful vehicle for the promotion of Italian cultural heritage and the artists involved.