Founded in 1947 by Paolo Grassi and Giorgio Strehler, Italy’s first “teatro stabile”, referred to as Teatro d’Europa in a ministerial decree in 1991, today the Piccolo Teatro has three different performance spaces: the original theater on Via Rovello, now named after Paolo Grassi, the experimental Teatro Studio, and the new Teatro Strehler located in Largo Greppi. The Piccolo Teatro is directed by Sergio Escobar, with Luca Ronconi as artistic director.
Teatro Studio opened in 1987 as an “experimental” venue of the Piccolo Teatro. It is also home to the Scuola di Teatro. The building originally housed Cinema Fossati, which closed in 1976, and was restructured by architect Marco Zanuso. It retains the original facade and stage, which may also be used for more “traditional” theater purposes. The space’s elliptical shape features a series of galleries laid out in a semi-circle facing the central area, which recall courtyard apartment balconies and may be used for audience seating or performance space.