VIRGINIA
For me, Consorzio Balsamico begins like this: it was me and Alessandra Stefanini, traveling by train, returning from Piacenza on the day of the auditions for the "Animateria" course.
After that busy day ... which I remember with joy ... on the train we make ourselves this promise: we would bring, together, a work on the land and in the garden, to France. 
After a year, this desire, this promise, somehow became almost a prediction, because a year later it really happened. 
When we worked with Alessandra on the first study of Few centimeters of Earth  in Piacenza, at some point we had to decide on the name of the group that would conduct this first study.
At that moment with us there were also Roberta Bonora and Giada Borgatti.
We really shared all day, and one day outside a supermarket we find a flyer with the words "Consorzio Balsamico" on it.
We look at each other and jump on the wagon of these words that we think would have represented us.
Later together with us Eva Miskovicova and Silvia Cristofori will join and we take the form we have today.
In the Balsamic Consortium I am in charge of directing. 
 
JADE
Consorzio Balsamico has arrived in a personal and historical moment that is certainly unprecedented.
It has filled 2020 with all that this year has meant on a social level and it has been a great watershed of awareness, new and deeper.
The company was set up by me together with Virginia and Alessandra at first, and shortly afterwards Silvia and Eva also arrived. 
Day after day it is increasingly evident that our five voices are able to mix together creating a single voice, a single voice that tells and creates an experience.
The Consortium is increasingly becoming a place to experience something.
The Consortium is the union of people united by the same fate, the five of us are undoubtedly united by the same fate, because we are united by the same vision.
I deal with dramaturgy, writing in a broad sense: fiction, writing picture books. Within the Consortium all this finds its materialization.
 
ALESSANDRA
The adventure with the balsamic consortium for me started on the train, with an exchange of books and aspirations.
A group of women with whom to share creative processes, a common desire to give themselves space, each one different with its own identity.
On the plate I put what I am and what I carry inside.
I build puppets, theatrical machines, I create images with the most varied tools from drawing to photography, I animate and dress the scene together with the others.
The research process and the interaction between languages is the most nourishing aspect for me that I try to bring to everyday life as well.
We are a group of women and we have chosen for our peculiarities, five realities so different and ambitious that they engage in dialogue looking for a common territory and a form that respects the identities of all.
This is the challenge and the tension that leads us to continually create opportunities to work together, despite the geographical, economic and social difficulties of the time we are experiencing.
We look for a collective response to individual needs through the theater and the art that distinguishes us.
 

SILVIA

I joined the Consortium later, after it was born and when it had already begun to give wings, in short.

I remember that during the course of Animateria I was not only struck by the creation, that is, what came out of the Consortium's work, but also the ways of meeting.

So I was attentive to their steps, I also followed them because both with them and with the rest of the Animateria group, born in 2020, a very strong bond had been created.

I remember that Giada, Virginia and Alessandra sent me this email, addressed to me and to Eva, I remember this sense of surprise.

It was an email, it was unexpected and I didn't understand at all where it was going, because then in this email there was a text, there was a script.

And without thinking absolutely about the reason for this sharing, I remember that I lay down on the bed, which was the only thing that was at that time in the house where I had just moved, and I began to read very excited.

And so in this new house there was nothing but I had spent days and days repainting the walls and in front of the bed there was just the blue wall.

The text was H2Ops! That spoke of blue, of water.
 
EVA
I joined the Balsamic Consortium together with Silvia in 2020, therefore in full pandemic. We were called to collaborate in this show that was about to be born, at that moment there was only the text.
Now the show is there and it's called H2O Ops and it has a great story behind it.
Consortium gave us the opportunity to grow despite everything else was still in the world, at least it seemed.
We met once a week, sometimes even more, via zoom.
In this mode the show was born.
Then, as soon as it was possible, we met to continue.
But these months of emptiness were fundamental  which instead resounded with all colors for us.
Being in a group is like a family, with all the good part and all the hard part. It is difficult for me to find the right space within this group, to be neither too much nor too little, not to have the feeling of not being able to express myself fully.
Instead the beautiful part is that since we are many and all different, when the group has a problem there is always some of us who are clearheaded and manage to guide the situation so that in the end it goes for the best.
It is a precious, rare thing. 
In the Balsamic Consortium I play the role of set designer together with Ale, illustrator, graphic designer and actress.