POLIS Teatro Festival was born in 2018. Since then it has been able to become known by the community of Ravenna and the international theater scene, becoming a consolidated appointment, but in constant evolution, with the great merit of being one of the few theater festivals on the national territory that investigate fundamental and present issues such as civil rights, climate change, the role of art in society.
Since the choice of its name, POLIS wants to bring the theater closer to society, programming and producing performances engaged in the themes and courageous in the languages, promoting active citizenship through innovative educational and participatory projects, involving different layers of the city, starting from young people and the most disadvantaged people, fighting social marginality.
In May, every year, POLIS fills the main cultural places of Ravenna, promoting innovative projects and productions, favouring the interaction with spectators of different ages, social and cultural backgrounds, pursuing the idea that art theater, in order to be popular, must not lower its language but, on the contrary, must bring poetry among people. POLIS will continue to give space in primis to the artists, to the independent companies and to their research on the different languages of the contemporary, but also to artists from different generations who have in common a theatrical research that never stops testing and asking questions about the present. From 2022 the festival opens to the European scene with a special focus on contemporary French dramaturgy, raising the festival to the attention of the national critics and the audience.
POLIS Teatro Festival is supported by Italian Ministry of Culture (FUS 2022-2024), Emilia-Romagna Region (L.13 2022-2024), Municipality of Ravenna (Cultural Grants 2018-2022). Each year it receives contributions from Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna (since 2019), Otto per Mille della Chiesa Valdese (since 2021), Fondazione Nuovi Mecenati – Fondazione franco-italiana di sostegno alla creazione contemporanea and Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna (since 2022).