The methodological program consisted of a theatrical narrative process with the active participation of the involved communities and the involvement of a mixed group of actors from the Ticino area and Italy.

The work of dramaturgical construction and community narration involved the use of both interviews with local witnesses and the use of traditional objects, children’s drawings, ancient and modern nursery rhymes, songs, oral legends, interviews conducted by children with older people, photographs, industrial artifacts, advertising signs and much more. The work was aimed at the encounter of historical memory made of traditions and customs with the contemporaneity of the gaze of today’s community. The work, in this sense, combined tradition, memories and innovation.

The project included:

• the setting up of an old Swiss postal minibus into a traveling stage and small exhibition hall
• the realization of 5 Community Theatre workshops in the schools of Ambrì, Cugnasco-Gerra Verzasca, Olivone, Sessa, Stabio
• the realization of a theatrical narrative show linked to local traditions, modifiable in content depending on the community encountered
• the realization of community theatrical animation actions such as parades and local intervention formats for the convocation of the local community

The project’s postal bus was transformed by the set designer Maurizio Agostinetto into a kind of traveling “theatrical eco-museum”. Thanks to special modular platforms, the Postal bus transforms into a commedia dell’arte stage, collects, catalogs and exhibits in display cases a quantity of objects and various artifacts linked to the stories and traditions encountered and to the show itself: puppets, crowns, costumes, musical instruments, work and everyday objects.

The work of recovering the memories, objects and customs of the local tradition took place through the activation of workshops in elementary schools in Ticino. Five different elementary and nursery schools worked from September 2007 to research local popular culture, collecting interviews, nursery rhymes, songs, objects, photographs, stories.

The material, delivered to the artists during a first meeting-barter between January and February 2008, was the basis for the script of the show Il Postale del Tempo and for the realization of the scenographic set-up.

The show, enhancing the theme of travel and traveling entertainment, staged the stories of tradition through the story of 5 “wandering gutti actors” in a tableau show with a sustained rhythm and a strong component of visual action and acting composition.

Between May 28 and June 4, 2008, Il Postale del Tempo, set up as an itinerant stage, returned to the workshop sites to meet with the show and its set-ups the schools involved in the path and the entire local community. Il Postale del Tempo made a tour in the towns of Ambrì, Cugnasco-Gerra Verzasca, Olivone, Sessa, Stabio.

The postal tour concluded with two special stops: in Arzo, at the International Storytelling Festival and in St. Gallen at the “echos” Festival of Pro Helvetia.

Following the realization of the program and the replicas of the show, the project created a DVD for educational use, aimed at elementary schools in Ticino. The DVD contains the recording of the entire show and special in-depth content collected during the journey of the Postale del Tempo.