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An opinion piece argues that Silicon Valley, notorious for its power and authoritarianism, stems from a tradition of elitist thinking, where tech bros like Musk and Bezos want to shape the world without democratic oversight, and that this system is rooted in the racist and authoritarian history of pioneers like Leland Stanford and William Shockley. #SiliconValley #Technologie #Techbro (translated)

FOGGIA REPORTER: "THE NEWSSTAND IS NOT DEAD, IT HAS ONLY CHANGED ITS FACE: SAN SEVERO SHEDS LIGHT ON AN ENTIRE SECTOR IN CRISIS" by CRISTIANA LENOCI SOURCE: https://www.foggiareporter.it/ledicola-non-e-morta-ha-solo-cambiato-volto-da-san-severo-si-accendono-i-riflettori-su-un-intero-settore-in-crisi.html SAN SEVERO (FG) — From 35,000 to 20,000 in twenty years, 5,000 Italian municipalities are without a newsstand. In San Severo, an old newsstand on via Matteo Tondi becomes the smallest theater in the world: 4 square meters, 6 chairs, and a revolution. For sixty years, it was the place to pick up the newspaper, ask about the results of the game, leave keys with a neighbor. Then the shutter went down, the glass became opaque, the sign faded. This is how newsstands are ending in Italy today. But sometimes, this is how they are reborn. In San Severo, on via Matteo Tondi, an abandoned newsstand for six years became on March 27, 2026, World Theater Day, the Teatro Edicola Foyer ’97. Four square meters, six chairs, fifteen-minute shows. An idea by director and artistic director Francesco Gravino and his company Foyer ’97. They have called it “the smallest theater in the world,” and the news has circulated among international agencies, becoming a case study for the Stanford Social Innovation Review with the report “The Six-Seat Revolution.” An old newsstand that returns to being what it has always been: a place of knowledge, culture, and work. Only now it distributes stories instead of newspapers. A sector at risk of disappearing The story of San Severo sheds light on a silent hemorrhage. We had 35,000 newsstands in 2005, and we have about 20,000 in 2024: -43%. According to FENAGI data released in 2026, the points of sale in 2025 were about 19,500, but only 6,000 were exclusive traditional newsstands. The most painful statistic is geographic: nearly 5,000 Italian municipalities no longer have a newsstand. In two out of three municipalities, there is no longer a point of sale for newspapers and magazines. Other tallies, those from Sinagi, report a collapse from 38,000 exclusive newsstands to about 11,000 still active. In the last four years, from 2019 to 2023, almost 2,700 newsstands have disappeared, of which 2,327 were individual businesses. Rome lost 303, Turin 138, Milan 129. Isernia lost more than a third of its newsstands in four years. Why? Decline in paper sales, digital subscriptions, rising management costs, reduced profitability. In economics, it's called a "falling demand sector." On the street, it is simply called the end of a habit. Not just newspapers Yet the newsstand has never been only about newspapers. In the past, it was an information outpost, a reference point, the guardian of a neighborhood. It was self-employment, often familial, involving early mornings at 4 a.m. to be ready when the city wakes up. Today, those who resist reinvent themselves: local bookstore, service point, package pickup, ticket sales, coffee corner. Those who can't make it, close. The example of Foyer 97 in San Severo tells us one simple and uncomfortable truth: we cannot save all newsstands as newsstands. But we can save their essence. A 4-square-meter kiosk in Puglia becoming a theater reminds us that those few square meters are worth more than the rent they no longer pay. They are valuable because they are already where people pass by. They are already recognized as a public place. They are already culture, even when they no longer sell culture on paper. If newsstands stop selling newspapers, they do not necessarily have to stop selling knowledge. (translated)

FOGGIA REPORTER: “THE NEWSSTAND IS NOT DEAD, IT HAS ONLY CHANGED ITS FACE: FROM SAN SEVERO, THE SPOTLIGHT IS TURNED ON AN ENTIRE SECTOR IN CRISIS” by CRISTIANA LENOCI SOURCE: https://www.foggiareporter.it/ledicola-non-e-morta-ha-solo-cambiato-volto-da-san-severo-si-accendono-i-riflettori-su-un-intero-settore-in-crisi.html SAN SEVERO (FG) — From 35,000 to 20,000 in twenty years, 5,000 Italian municipalities are without a kiosk. In San Severo an old newsstand in Via Matteo Tondi is becoming the smallest theatre in the world: 4 square metres, 6 chairs and a revolution. For sixty years it was the place where you went to collect the newspaper, to ask for the football score, to leave your keys with a neighbour. Then the shutter down, the opaque glass, the faded sign. That is how newsstands in Italy end today. But that, sometimes, is how they are reborn. In San Severo, in Via Matteo Tondi, a newsstand abandoned for six years became, on 27 March 2026, World Theatre Day, the Teatro Edicola Foyer ’97. Four square metres, six chairs, fifteen-minute performances. An idea by director and artistic director Francesco Gravino and his company Foyer ‘97. They have called it “the smallest theatre in the world” and the news has gone round the international agencies, until it became a case study for the Stanford Social Innovation Review with the report “The Six-Seat Revolution”. An old newsstand that is returning to being what it has always been: a place of knowledge, culture and work. Only instead of newspapers, it distributes stories. A sector at risk of disappearing The story of San Severo sheds light on a silent haemorrhage. There were 35,000 newsstands in 2005, there are about 20,000 in 2024: -43%. According to FENAGI data released in 2026, there were about 19,500 sales points in 2025, but only 6,000 were exclusive traditional newsstands. The most painful figure is geographical: almost 5,000 Italian municipalities no longer have a newsstand. In two out of three municipalities there is no longer a sales point for newspapers and magazines. Other counts, those of Sinagi, speak of a collapse from 38,000 exclusive newsstands to about 11,000 still active. In the last four years, from 2019 to 2023, almost 2,700 newsstands have disappeared, of which 2,327 were sole traders. Rome has lost 303, Turin 138, Milan 129. Isernia has lost over a third of its newsstands in four years. Why? Falling paper sales, digital subscriptions, rising operating costs, reduced margins. In economics it is called a “sector in demand decline”. On the street it is simply called the end of a habit. Not just newspapers And yet the newsstand has never been just newspapers. In the past it was an information outpost, a point of reference, the guardian of a neighbourhood. It was self-employment, often family-run, made of early starts at 4 a.m. to be ready when the city wakes up. Today those who hold out reinvent themselves: neighbourhood bookshop, service point, parcel collection, ticket office, coffee corner. Those who cannot manage it, close. The example of Foyer 97 in San Severo tells us a simple and uncomfortable truth: we cannot save all newsstands as newsstands. But we can save their purpose. A 4-square-metre kiosk in Puglia that becomes a theatre reminds us that those few square metres are worth more than the rent they no longer pay. They matter because they are already where people pass. They are already recognized as a public place. They are already culture, even when they no longer sell culture on paper. If newsstands stop selling newspapers, they do not necessarily have to stop selling knowledge.

“STANFORD SOCIAL INNOVATION REVIEW (INSTAGRAM)” — “LA RIVOLUZIONE A SEI POSTI: UN REGISTA TEATRALE (FRANCESCO GRAVINO) HA TRASFORMATO UN’EDICOLA ABBANDONATA IN UN’ESPERIENZA TEATRALE RADICALMENTE NUOVA” by LUCIANO MAGALDI SARDELLA https://ssir.org/bios/luciano-magaldi-sardella SOURCE: https://www.instagram.com/p/Deor7xKlwNH/ Nella città di San Severo, nel sud Italia, un’edicola arrugginita è stata trasformata nel teatro più piccolo del mondo e in un modello replicabile di rigenerazione urbana creativa. Nel numero autunnale di SSIR, Luciano Magaldi Sardella descrive come questo teatro da sei posti sia una risposta alle forze digitali e demografiche che stanno svuotando intere parti di città ovunque. Il “Teatro-Edicola” è “non tanto una dichiarazione sulla piccolezza fine a sé stessa, quanto un’ipotesi sulla prossimità, l’intimità e l’accesso come motori della partecipazione culturale. … L’esperienza è, per sua stessa struttura, relazionale piuttosto che transazionale. (Francesco Gravino)”.

“STANFORD SOCIAL INNOVATION REVIEW (INSTAGRAM)” — “THE SIX-SEAT REVOLUTION: A THEATRE DIRECTOR (FRANCESCO GRAVINO) TRANSFORMED AN ABANDONED NEWSSTAND INTO A RADICALLY NEW THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE” by LUCIANO MAGALDI SARDELLA https://ssir.org/bios/luciano-magaldi-sardella SOURCE: https://www.instagram.com/p/Deor7xKlwNH/ In the southern Italian town of San Severo, a rusted iron newsstand has been transformed into the world’s smallest theater and a replicable model of creative urban regeneration.⁠ ⁠In SSIR’s fall issue, Luciano Magaldi Sardella describes how the six-seat theater is a countermeasure to the digital and demographic forces hollowing out parts of cities everywhere. ⁠ ⁠The Teatro Edicola (“Newsstand Theater”) is “not primarily a statement about smallness for its own sake, but a hypothesis about proximity, intimacy, and access as drivers of cultural participation. … The experience is, by its very structure, relational rather than transactional (Francesco Gravino).”

RADIO ARC 101:“EDICOLE, “RAZZE IN ESTINZIONE” COME I BAR: SOLDI PERSI E SPERANZE DA STANFORD” by NANDO SILVESTRI SOURCE: https://radioarc.it/edicole-razze-in-estinzione-come-i-bar-soldi-persi-e-speranze-da-stanford/ Le edicole sono un altro scrigno di umanità e conoscenza per molti versi simili ai bar, almeno per quanto concerne l’infausto epilogo che riguarda molte di esse. L’odore di carta stampata, di cartoncini colorati, copertine variopinte, buste a sorpresa e cellophane, era una melassa olfattiva che un tempo inebriava grandi e piccini e rappresentava, al contempo un’ ambita meta di passeggiate e pause giornaliere. Passare per l’edicola significava attingere alla conoscenza, allo svago, alla cultura, alla fantasia e alla creatività. Tutte prerogative perse a causa dei surrogati informi e amorfi diffusi dal web. E’ questo il motivo principale della chiusura cunulata e ricorrente di moltissime edicole italiane: in economia si parla di comparto a caduta della domanda. Ma non chiude solo un’edicola, chiude un pezzo di economia locale e nazionale. Da 35000 edicole nel 2005 a circa 20000 nel 2024: -43%. Con loro se ne va un fatturato diretto di oltre 400 milioni l’anno, ma il vero buco è l’indotto che non si calcola mai. Ogni edicola media in un paese generava distribuzione per 15000€/anno di margini per distributori locali, corrieri, tipografie. Inoltre, il cliente che comprava il giornale prendeva il caffè, il biglietto del pullman, la schedina. Write on Medium Si deve pensare che senza edicola, il cinema di paese perde il suo unico punto promo fisico, senza parlare delle perdite in materia di pubblicità. Quando chiude, non perde solo l’edicolante. Perde il bar, perde l’autista, perde il tipografo. In Irpinia negli ultimi 5 anni Avellino ha perso 6 edicole, Ariano Irpino 3, Sant’Angelo dei Lombardi 2. La perdita totale in Irpinia ammonta a circa il 22% di punti vendita. Tutto ciò significa che molte delle chiusure succitate hanno sottratto ai bar irpini diverse decine di clienti danneggiando lavoratori, distributori e fornitori. Sono posti di lavoro che non fanno notizia, ma esistono. Un altro duro colpo inferto all’economia locale e nazionale in nome di un finto progresso che favorisce quasi sempre gli affari dei faccendieri e dei soliti noti. Tuttavia, ciò che accade in Puglia, a pochi chilometri dall’Irpinia, apre scenari di rinnovamento basati proprio sulla riconversione delle edicole dismesse. Si tratta di prospettive talmente uniche ed innovative da aver suscitato l’interesse di tutto il mondo, in special modo dell’Università di Stanford. Si tratta di notizie di enorme portata che pochi notiziari hanno divulgato in nome di una perenne prelazione delle tecnologie sprezzanti di buonsenso, tradizioni e arte. A San Severo (Foggia), a 40 km dall’Alta Irpinia un’edicola abbandonata da 6 anni in via Matteo Tondi è diventata il 27 marzo 2026 il Teatro-Edicola Foyer’97: 6 sedie, 4mq, idea di Francesco Gavino. Gli apprezzati spettacoli di 10/15 minuti hanno incuriosito l’università di Stanford. La sua rivista accademica Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR), ha scelto il Teatro Edicola di San Severo come caso di studio internazionale con il reportage “The Six-Seat Revolution”. Perché Stanford ci guarda? Perché ha capito che quei 4 mq possono tornare a generare indotto. Difatti, 60 spettatori in un pomeriggio possono diventare 60 caffè al bar vicino. Con un biglietto simbolico di 5€ si parla di micro economia culturale. Senza contare l’indotto di turisti e giornalisti che arrivano e frequentano B&B e ristoranti. È il modello che serve all’Irpinia: non lasciare il buco, ma riconvertirlo virtuosamente. Ogni edicola chiusa può diventare info-point, micro-cine, box servizi. Altrimenti continuiamo a contare solo le saracinesche abbassate, senza contare i soldi che non girano più.

RADIO ARC 101:“NEWSSTANDS, ‘ENDANGERED SPECIES’ LIKE CAFÉS: MONEY LOST AND HOPES FROM STANFORD” by NANDO SILVESTRI SOURCE: https://radioarc.it/edicole-razze-in-estinzione-come-i-bar-soldi-persi-e-speranze-da-stanford/ Newsstands are another repository of humanity and knowledge, in many respects similar to cafés, at least as far as the unfortunate fate that has befallen many of them is concerned. The smell of printed paper, coloured card, variegated covers, surprise packets and cellophane was an olfactory molasses that once intoxicated young and old alike and represented, at the same time, a sought-after destination for daily walks and pauses. Stopping by the newsstand meant drawing upon knowledge, entertainment, culture, imagination and creativity. All prerogatives lost on account of the shapeless and amorphous surrogates disseminated by the web. This is the principal reason for the cumulative and recurring closure of a great many Italian newsstands: in economics, one speaks of a sector in demand collapse. But it is not merely a newsstand that closes; a piece of the local and national economy closes with it. From 35,000 newsstands in 2005 to about 20,000 in 2024: -43%. With them goes direct turnover of over €400 million per year, but the real hole is the indirect economy that is never calculated. Each average newsstand in a small town generated distribution worth €15,000 per year in margins for local distributors, couriers, and printers. Moreover, the customer who bought the newspaper would have a coffee, buy a bus ticket, place a bet. Download the Medium App One must consider that without a newsstand, the village cinema loses its only physical promotional outlet, not to mention the losses in terms of advertising. When it closes, it is not only the newsagent who loses. The café loses, the driver loses, the printer loses. In Irpinia, over the last five years, Avellino has lost six newsstands, Ariano Irpino three, Sant’Angelo dei Lombardi two. The total loss in Irpinia amounts to about 22% of outlets. All this means that many of the closures mentioned above have deprived Irpinian cafés of several dozen customers, harming workers, distributors and suppliers. These are jobs that do not make the news, but they exist. Another hard blow inflicted upon the local and national economy in the name of a false progress that almost always favours the business of fixers and the usual suspects. However, what is happening in Puglia, a few kilometres from Irpinia, opens up scenarios of renewal based precisely upon the reconversion of disused newsstands. These are prospects so unique and innovative as to have aroused interest worldwide, especially at Stanford University. This is news of enormous significance that few news programmes have disseminated, in the name of a perennial pre-emption by technologies contemptuous of common sense, tradition and art. In San Severo, 40 km from Upper Irpinia, a newsstand abandoned for six years in Via Matteo Tondi became, on 27 March 2026, the Teatro-Edicola Foyer’97: six chairs, four square metres, an idea by Francesco Gavino. The well-received 10- to 15-minute shows have piqued the curiosity of Stanford University. Its academic journal, the Stanford Social Innovation Review [SSIR], has chosen the Teatro Edicola in San Severo as an international case study with the reportage “The Six-Seat Revolution”. Why is Stanford watching us? Because it has realised that those four square metres can once again generate indirect economic activity. Indeed, 60 spectators in an afternoon can become 60 coffees at the neighbouring café. With a symbolic ticket price of €5, we are talking about a cultural micro-economy. Not to mention the indirect income from tourists and journalists who arrive and frequent B&Bs and restaurants. It is the model Irpinia needs: not to leave the void, but to reconvert it virtuously. Every closed newsstand can become an information point, a micro-cinema, a service hub. Otherwise we shall continue to count only the lowered shutters, without counting the money that no longer circulates.

Jefimova and Salu are participating in swimming competitions taking place in Walnut, USA, where the competition includes teams from Indiana and Stanford universities, and both Estonian women have achieved remarkable results at the beginning of the season. #ujumine #ülikoolid #spordivõistlus (translated)

Researchers from Stanford University have discovered that bleached coral can recover in record time by leaning against a healthy piece of coral, although this method currently only works in a laboratory and is not applicable to natural coral reefs. #Koraalherstel #Klimaatverandering #Wetenschap (translated)

Five professors of the Open University of Cyprus (OUC) are ranked in the top 2% of scientists worldwide according to the Stanford/Elsevier ranking, confirming their scientific influence and the University’s contribution to the dissemination of scientific knowledge. #ΑΠΚΥ #επιστήμη #αριστεία (translated)

LETTERE MERIDIANE — “TEATRO-EDICOLA” OF SAN SEVERO CONQUERS THE WORLD SOURCE: https://www.letteremeridiane.org/2026/10/il-teatro-edicola-di-san-severo-conquista-il-mondo/?fbclid=IwY2xjawU4oqFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBwZG9mAXNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR5rVEwYs6UUXg7v-P0SyIQ_DRb_F6ZiY58OcseYoV4J7atcTiERnhWaqKM2pw_aem_Njle1jq1XLzHr93KLBUcVA After “Broadway World”, the “Los Angeles Journal”, “The Psychologist (British Psychological Association)” and Hollywood Beat Magazine, its “academic consecration” has now arrived courtesy of Stanford University. As I have already emphasised in my article on the revival of the GIO Festival in Foggia, celebrated by BroadwayWorld for the world stage premiere of the Giordano’s opera Marina (1888), the province of Foggia has long ceased to be peripheral. It happens when it finds an idea that shifts the coordinates: well, in San Severo, 40 kilometres from Foggia, it has happened again. Only this time an orchestra was not needed; six chairs were enough. The celebrated Teatro-Edicola of San Severo artistic director Francesco Gravino of the theatre company Foyer ’97 has been featured in the academic journal “Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR)” as an academic case study. The news, relayed on 19 September 2026 by ANSA Nazionale, looked like a misprint. Then it became clear that it was not. SSIR, an award-winning publication covering multisectoral solutions to global problems, included the project in its Dispatches section with the reportage “The Six-Seat Revolution”. It is the inverse trajectory to that of the GIO Festival: not a forgotten opera returning to a grand historic Italian horseshoe theatre, but an entire theatre reborn inside a disused place, forgotten by man. There are moments when past and future intertwine to create something visionary, innovative, artistically “revolutionary”: San Severo experienced one of those moments on the morning of 27 March 2026, during World Theatre Day, when the shutter of a newsstand closed for six years in Via Matteo Tondi was reopened “not to sell newspapers, but to offer stirring stories”, to quote Gravino’s motto. The idea of the visionary Francesco Gravino, artistic director, stage director and actor of the San Severo company Foyer ’97, active for at least 30 years in Capitanata, centred on the kiosk, hexagonal in metal and glass, granted free of charge by its owner Pino Frau, by now an urban relic created by the publishing crisis of the early 2000s: today in Italy active newsstands have fallen from about 35,000 in 2005 to about 20,000 in 2024, a decline of 42.8%. Gravino and eleven other actors restructured it in two weeks of work, without institutional funding, and transformed it into what is now under examination by the London commission of Guinness World Records as the “world’s smallest theatre”. The formula is deliberately austere: six spectators at a time outside, actors inside at less than a metre’s distance, 15-minute performances, continuous rotation from 11:00 to 20:45, texts ranging from Goldoni to Chekhov, from Ibsen to Dacia Maraini. On the door a QR code with an original theatrical warning: “Warning! This QR code transforms passers-by into actors. Scan only if ready.” The numbers immediately showed that it was no boutade: more than 60 people in a single afternoon, three inaugural days that sold out. But above all a positive echo that went beyond the borders of San Severo. “Broadway World” (just as in the previous case of the GIO Festival), the world’s most influential theatre criticism outlet with over 5.5 million monthly views, devoted exclusive coverage to it on 27 April 2026: “An Abandoned Italian Newsstand Just Became the World’s Smallest Theatre”. Not a mere listing, but an analysis: “There is no foyer, there is no balcony, there is no grid. There is barely a wing. What there is is something almost unrecognisable as an evening at the theatre, and for that very reason it is all the more powerful.” “Broadway World” captured Gravino’s manifesto idea: “This is a theatre of proximity. In an era of digital distance, we are putting human contact back at the centre,” framing it as “More than a clever exercise in site-specific theatre. It is a reappropriation.” All of this, in a Mezzogiorno of Italy often narrated only in terms of organised crime and marginalisation. To that seal of approval was added another, even more disorienting for a newsstand in San Severo: the “Los Angeles Journal”, one of the most influential publications on the West Coast for the performing arts. On 12 May 2026, it headlined thus: “San Severo’s Teatro-Edicola as an Innovative Model for Los Angeles Theaters?” opening as follows: “In a city in southern Italy that Hollywood has never heard of, a theatre director has just built the smallest stage in the world: six seats, fifteen minutes, zero distance. Los Angeles should pay attention.” The “Los Angeles Journal” does not indulge in folklore, but places the kiosk in Via Matteo Tondi alongside the prestigious 1,600-seat Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, the Pantages of Broadway in Hollywood, the 99-seat plan of Rogue Machine, the Odyssey, the Victory Theatre and the Hollywood Fringe. It even recalls Ethan Marks’s Electrical Box Theatre, a veritable electrical box lined with red velvet in downtown Los Angeles, to argue that Gravino has taken to the extreme the question Los Angeles has been asking itself for decades: How small can a stage become before it ceases to be a stage? And it recognizes the San Severo urban model: almost zero cost, two weeks of work and six chairs, in return for immediate provincial, regional and national media coverage, recognition by the San Severo’s Municipal Administration, and a format exportable anywhere. Then, the third American piece came from “Hollywood Beat Magazine” on 20 April 2026: Six seats. Fifteen minutes. One actor. No stage. The magazine recounts the kiosk in Via Tondi left disused for almost six years, the contemporary six-seat cultural outpost, placing Francesco Gravino in a distinguished genealogy: Richard Schechner and environmental theatre, Jerzy Grotowski and poor theatre, Nicolas Bourriaud and relational aesthetics. But it closes with pragmatism: it is not a thesis, it is fixing a street corner, that is, repairing an urban street corner by asking not how large a theatre can become, but how small it must become again to recover its original power. And finally, the celebrated London-based “The Psychologist”, the journal of the “British Psychological Society (BPS)”, the oldest psychological society in the world, transformed the Teatro-Edicola into a scientific case study: on 30 July 2026 it published “The world’s smallest theatre — and Psychologists’ next act”, starting from the same detail, the morning of 27 March when the metal shutter of the hexagonal kiosk in Via Tondi reopened after six years, six people inside, an actor at less than a metre’s distance beginning Chekhov. It describes the formula: six spectators, 15 minutes, 11 actors over 10 hours, from Goldoni to Euripides, inside a kiosk where the fourth wall does not break because architecturally it never existed. But the BPS goes a step further: it cites the 2025 studies by Damien Gabriel in IBRO Neuroscience Reports, that live performance generates measurably stronger emotional and physiological activation than video, and introduces Edward Hall’s proxemics: below one metre is intimate space, reserved for doctors, close friends, lovers. In that one-square-metre space, the actor’s breath is audible, micro-expressions legible, the self-other boundary becomes permeable. The Teatro-Edicola “does not make theatre better, it makes it inevitable”. And it is here that one understands why Stanford is studying it as an academic case study in social innovation, not as a case of artistic originality. In Italy, meanwhile, the national media circuit had already picked up the phenomenon: RaiNews — TG2 Storie brought it to RaiDue at midnight on 19 April. RTL 102.5 devoted space to the format conceived by Gravino and developed by Foyer ’97 in the heart of San Severo in Via Tondi, defining it as a permanent micro-stage capable of bringing theatre into public space. ANSA.it, Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, La Repubblica, TG2000, Radio Capital, Swiss RSI, ANSA Brazil and many others followed. And for the record: Fiorello praised it in La Pennicanza as an artistic case inspired by his Edicola Fiore, and Biagio Antonacci, on his tour in the Augustan amphitheatre of Lucera, made a “fact-finding” stop at the Teatro-Edicola singing the celebrated and nostalgic Iris in front of an audience certainly larger than the “six seats”. Francesco Gravino’s theatre company Foyer ’97 was not born yesterday: behind it lie the Teatro-Cantina of 2016, the underground theatre, and in 2011 a performance on the bell tower of a church in the centre of San Severo at 45 metres high. The Teatro-Edicola completes, in Gravino’s words, “the entire vertical extension of theatre: underground, street level, rooftop”. And it is preparing for its thirtieth anniversary in 2027 aiming to purchase the kiosk to make it permanent, exporting the “San Severo Model” to Rome, Lucca, and to the festivals of Santarcangelo and Todi. As with the GIO Festival, someone might dare to claim that it is merely a stunt, but when BroadwayWorld places you alongside the Los Angeles Opera House, the “Los Angeles Journa”l proposes you as a model for Hollywood, “Hollywood Beat Magazine” reads you through Grotowski and the “British Psychological Society” uses you to explain mirror neurones, it is no longer a stunt but an excellent artistic and academic positioning. To those who still whisper that Foggia and Capitanata are provincial, the answer is now written on two opposite and complementary fronts: on 5 June in Foggia a 138-year-old opera found the stage again at the Giordano ending up on BroadwayWorld; on 27 March in San Severo a 4-square-metre kiosk invented a stage that did not exist, ending up at Stanford, in Los Angeles, in Hollywood and in London. The periphery, when it has a precise idea, becomes the centre. Even with six chairs. Luciano Magaldi Sardella

LETTERE MERIDIANE — IL TEATRO-EDICOLA DI SAN SEVERO CONQUISTA IL MONDO SOURCE: SOURCE: https://www.letteremeridiane.org/2026/10/il-teatro-edicola-di-san-severo-conquista-il-mondo/?fbclid=IwY2xjawU4oqFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBwZG9mAXNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR5rVEwYs6UUXg7v-P0SyIQ_DRb_F6ZiY58OcseYoV4J7atcTiERnhWaqKM2pw_aem_Njle1jq1XLzHr93KLBUcVA Dopo Broadway World, Los Angeles Journal, The Psychologist (British Psychological Association) ed Hollywood Beat Magazine, ora è arrivata la sua “consacrazione accademica” a cura della Stanford University. Come ho già sottolineato nel mio articolo sulla rivincita del GIO Festival a Foggia, celebrata dal BroadwayWorld per la prima mondiale scenica della giordaniana Marina (1888), la provincia di Foggia ha smesso ormai di essere periferia. Accade quando trova un’idea che sposta le coordinate: ebbene, a San Severo, a 40 chilometri da Foggia, è successo di nuovo. Solo che questa volta non serviva un’orchestra, ma sono bastate sei sedie. Il celebre Teatro-Edicola del sanseverese direttore artistico Francesco Gravino della Compagnia Teatrale Foyer’97 è finito sulla rivista accademica Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) in qualità di caso di studio accademico. La notizia, rilanciata il 19 settembre 2026 da ANSA Nazionale, sembrava un refuso. Poi si è capito che non lo era. La SSIR, pubblicazione pluripremiata che copre soluzioni multisettoriali ai problemi globali, ha inserito il progetto nella sezione Dispatches con il reportage The Six-Seat Revolution. È il percorso inverso rispetto a quello del GIO Festival: non un’opera dimenticata che torna in un grande teatro storico italiano a ferro di cavallo, ma un teatro intero che rinasce dentro un luogo dismesso, dimenticato dall’uomo. Ci sono momenti in cui il passato e il futuro si intrecciano per creare qualcosa di visionario, innovativo, artisticamente “rivoluzionario”: San Severo ha vissuto uno di questi momenti la mattina del 27 marzo 2026, durante la Giornata Mondiale del Teatro, quando la saracinesca di un’edicola chiusa da sei anni in Via Matteo Tondi è stata riaperta “non per vendere giornali, ma per offrire emozionanti storie”, citando il motto graviniano. L’idea del visionario Francesco Gravino (nella foto sopra), direttore artistico, regista e attore della compagnia sanseverese Foyer ’97, attiva da almeno 30 anni in Capitanata si è basata sull’edicola, esagonale in metallo e vetro, concessa a titolo gratuito dal proprietario Pino Frau, ormai un relitto urbano creato dalla crisi dell’editoria degli inizi anni 2000: oggi in Italia le edicole attive sono scese da circa 35.000 nel 2005 a circa 20.000 nel 2024, con un calo del 42,8%. Gravino e altri undici attori l’hanno ristrutturata in due settimane di lavoro, senza fondi istituzionali, e l’hanno trasformata in quello che oggi è sotto esame della commissione londinese del Guinness World Record come “teatro più piccolo del mondo”. La formula è volutamente austera: sei spettatori alla volta fuori, attori dentro a meno di un metro, spettacoli di 15 minuti, rotazione continua dalle 11 alle 20.45, testi da Goldoni a Čechov, da Ibsen a Dacia Maraini. Sulla porta un QR code con un originale avvertimento teatrale: “Attenzione! Questo codice QR trasforma i passanti in attori. Scansionate solo se pronti.” I numeri hanno sùbito detto che non era una boutade: più di 60 persone in un solo pomeriggio, tre giornate inaugurali che hanno registrato il tutto esaurito. Ma soprattutto un’eco positiva che è andata oltre i confini sanseveresi. BroadwayWorld (proprio come il previo caso del GIO Festival) la più influente testata mondiale di critica teatrale con oltre 5,5 milioni di visualizzazioni mensili, il 27 aprile 2026 gli ha dedicato una copertura esclusiva: An Abandoned Italian Newsstand Just Became the World’s Smallest Theatre. Non una segnalazione, ma un’analisi: “Non c’è foyer, non c’è balconata, non c’è graticcia. C’è a malapena una quinta. Quello che c’è è qualcosa di quasi irriconoscibile come serata a teatro, e proprio per questo è ancora più potente.” BroadwayWorld ha colto l’idea manifesto di Gravino: “Questo è un teatro di prossimità. In un’epoca di distanza digitale, stiamo rimettendo il contatto umano al centro,” incorniciandolo come “Più che un abile esercizio di teatro site-specific. È una riappropriazione.”. Il tutto, in un Mezzogiorno d’Italia spesso raccontato solo per criminalità organizzata e marginalizzazione. A quel sigillo se ne è aggiunto un altro, ancora più spiazzante per un’edicola di San Severo: il Los Angeles Journal, una delle testate più influenti della West Coast per le arti performative. Il 12 maggio 2026, titola in questo modo: San Severo’s Teatro Edicola as an Innovative Model for Los Angeles Theaters? aprendo così: “In una città del Sud Italia di cui Hollywood non ha mai sentito parlare, un regista teatrale ha appena costruito il palcoscenico più piccolo del mondo: sei posti, quindici minuti, zero distanza. Los Angeles dovrebbe prestare attenzione.” Il Los Angeles Journal non fa folklore, ma mette il chiosco di via Matteo Tondi accanto al presigioso teatro losangelino Ahmanson da 1600 posti, al Pantages di Broadway in Hollywood, ai 99-seat plan di Rogue Machine, all’ Odyssey, al Victory Theatre e all’ Hollywood Fringe. Rievoca persino l’Electrical Box Theatre di Ethan Marks, una vera e propria scatola elettrica foderata di velluto rosso in downtown Los Angeles, per dire che Gravino ha portato all’estremo la domanda che Los Angeles si fa da decenni: Quanto piccolo può diventare un palco prima di smettere di essere un palco? E riconosce il modello urbano sanseverese: costo quasi zero, due settimane di lavoro e una sestina di sedie, a fronte di una immediata copertura mediatica provinciale, regionale e nazionale, riconoscimento dell’ Amministrazione Comunale sanseverese, e un format esportabile (quasi) ovunque. Dopodiché, il terzo tassello americano è arrivato dall’ Hollywood Beat Magazine il 20 aprile 2026: Six seats. Fifteen minutes. One actor. No stage. Il magazine racconta il chiosco di Via Tondi rimasto dismesso per quasi sei anni, il presidio culturale contemporaneo da sei posti, inserendo Francesco Gravino nella genealogia alta: Richard Schechner e l’environmental theatre, Jerzy Grotowski e il teatro povero, Nicolas Bourriaud e l’estetica relazionale. Ma chiude con concretezza: non è una tesi, è fixing a street corner, ovvero aggiustare un angolo di strada urbana chiedendosi non quanto grande può diventare un teatro, ma quanto piccolo deve tornare per recuperare il suo potere originario. E infine, il celebre londinese The Psychologist, la rivista della British Psychological Society (BPS), la più antica società di psicologia al mondo, ha trasformato il Teatro-Edicola in caso di studio scientifico: il 30 luglio 2026 pubblica The world’s smallest theatre — and Psychologists’ next act, partendo dallo stesso dettaglio, la mattina del 27 marzo in cui la saracinesca metallica del chiosco esagonale di Via Tondi si riapre dopo sei anni, sei persone dentro, un attore a meno di un metro che inizia Chekhov. Descrive la formula: sei spettatori, 15 minuti, 11 attori su 10 ore, da Goldoni a Euripide, dentro un chiosco dove la quarta parete non si rompe perché architettonicamente non è mai esistita. Ma la BPS fa un passo oltre: cita gli studi del 2025 di Damien Gabriel su IBRO Neuroscience Reports, la performance live genera attivazione emotiva e fisiologica misurabilmente più forte del video e introduce la prossemica di Edward Hall: sotto il metro è spazio intimo, riservato a medici, amici stretti, amanti. In quello spazio da un metro quadrato, il respiro dell’attore è udibile, le microespressioni leggibili, il confine sé-altro diventa permeabile. Il Teatro-Edicola “non rende il teatro migliore, lo rende inevitabile”. Ed è qui che si capisce perché Stanford lo studia come caso di studio accademico di innovazione sociale, non come caso di originalità artistica. In Italia, nel frattempo, il circuito mediatico nazionale aveva già intercettato il fenomeno: RaiNews — TG2 Storie lo porta su RaiDue alla mezzanotte del 19 aprile. RTL 102.5 dedica spazio al format ideato da Gravino e sviluppato da Foyer’97 nel cuore di San Severo in Via Tondi, definendolo micro-palcoscenico permanente capace di portare teatro nello spazio pubblico. ANSA.it, Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, La Repubblica, TG2000, Radio Capital, RSI svizzera, ANSA Brasile e tanti altri seguono. E per diritto di cronaca: Fiorello lo ha elogiato in La Pennicanzacome caso artistico ispirato al suo Edicola Fiore, nonché Biagio Antonacci, nel suo tour nell’anfiteatro augusteo di Lucera, ha fatto tappa “conoscitiva” nel Teatro-Edicola cantando la celebre e nostalgica Iris davanti ad un pubblico sicuramente maggiore dei “sei posti”. La Compagnia Teatrale Foyer ’97 di Francesco Gravino non è nata ieri: ha alle spalle il Teatro-Cantina del 2016, il teatro sottoterra, e nel 2011 una performance sulla torre campanaria di una chiesa del centro di San Severo a 45 metri d’altezza. Il Teatro Edicola completa, nelle parole di Gravino, “l’intera estensione verticale del teatro: sottoterra, piano strada, tetto”. E si prepara al trentennale del 2027 puntando ad acquistare l’edicola per renderla permanente esportando il “Modello San Severo” a Roma, Lucca, nei festival di Santarcangelo e Todi. Come per il GIO Festival, qualcuno potrebbe osare di affermare che si tratta solo di un exploit ma, quando BroadwayWorld ti mette accanto alla Los Angeles Opera House, il Los Angeles Journal ti propone come modello per Hollywood, Hollywood Beat Magazine ti legge con Grotowski e la British Psychological Society ti usa per spiegare i neuroni specchio, non è più un exploit ma un eccellente posizionamento artistico ed accademico. A chi ancora sussurra che Foggia e la Capitanata siano provincia, la risposta ora è scritta su due fronti opposti e complementari: il 5 giugno a Foggia un’opera di 138 anni ha ritrovato la scena al Giordano finendo su BroadwayWorld; il 27 marzo a San Severo un’edicola di 4 metri quadrati ha inventato una scena che non esisteva, finendo a Stanford, a Los Angeles, a Hollywood e a Londra. La periferia, quando ha un’idea precisa, diventa centro. Anche con sei sedie. Luciano Magaldi Sardella

MSN ITALIA - ANSA ITALIA: "THE TEATRO-EDICOLA FEATURED IN STANFORD UNIVERSITY'S REVIEW" SOURCE: https://www.msn.com/.../il-teatro-edicola-del.../ar-AA2cyMWR (ANSA) - FOGGIA, 19 SEPT - The idea of the newspaper-kiosk theatre in San Severo, in the province of Foggia, renamed the smallest theatre in the world, has become a case study for Stanford University. The article "The Six-Seat Revolution" by the Foggian researcher Luciano Magaldi, supervised by editor David V. Johnson, has been published in Ssir (an award-winning publication covering multi-sectoral solutions to global problems). The article is in the "Dispatches" section of the "Stanford Social Innovation Review". "It is a result that rewards our work - emphasises Francesco Gravino, artistic director of the theatre company Foyer 97 - . Requests to replicate the model have come from other areas of Italy, such as Lucca and Rome. We thought of creating a cultural activity from a place that was disused and in a state of abandonment. There ought to be a regional law that allows for the reconversion of these disused places in which numerous activities could be created. Veritable cultural outposts". Gravino and the actors of the company are preparing the new programme. "Next year our company will be 30 years old - he said - , an important milestone which we shall celebrate with some new developments". Six chairs, less than two square metres, performances every 15 minutes and a sold-out audience of young people and adults. An experiment that has aroused curiosity and interest in the world of entertainment as well. Between the end of July and the beginning of August, during the tour in Lucera (Foggia), Biagio Antonacci made a surprise stop at the newspaper-kiosk theatre and sang his Iris. "It was truly a wonderful encounter which captured the attention of passers-by," concludes Gravino. (ANSA). (translated)

MSN ITALIA - ANSA ITALIA: THE THEATER-NEWSSTAND OF FOGGIA ENDS UP IN THE STANFORD UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE SOURCE: https://www.msn.com/.../the-theater-newsstand-of.../ar-AA2cyMWR (ANSA) - FOGGIA, SEPTEMBER 19 - The idea of the newsstand theater in San Severo, in the province of Foggia, nicknamed the smallest theater in the world, becomes a case study for Stanford University. An article titled "The Six-Seat Revolution," authored by Foggian researcher Luciano Magaldi and supervised by editor David V. Johnson, has been published in the Ssir journal (an award-winning publication covering multisectoral solutions to global problems). The article can be found in the "Dispatches" section of the "Stanford Social Innovation Review." "This is a result that rewards our hard work," emphasizes Francesco Gravino, artistic director of the Foyer 97 theater company. Requests to replicate the model have come from other areas of Italy, such as Lucca and Rome. We wanted to create a cultural activity in a place that has been disused and abandoned. There should be a regional law that allows the conversion of these abandoned places into venues for numerous activities. Real cultural outposts." Gravino and the company’s actors are preparing the new program lineup. "Next year our company will turn 30," he said, "an important milestone that we will celebrate with some new features." Six chairs, less than two square meters, reenactments of shows every 15 minutes, and sold-out attendance from both young and adults. An experiment that has sparked curiosity and interest even in the entertainment world. Between the end of July and the beginning of August, during the tour in Lucera (Foggia), Biagio Antonacci made a surprise stop at the newsstand theater and sang his song "Iris." "It was truly a wonderful encounter that drew the attention of passersby," concludes Gravino. (ANSA). (translated)

Repubblica reported that Karl Deisseroth received the news of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Medicine shortly after midnight, awarded to him along with Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel, and waited until morning to share it with his five children. The video of the family scene was published by Stanford University in California, where Deisseroth trained and worked as a professor of bioengineering, psychiatry, and behavioral sciences. According to Repubblica, the three scientists laid the foundations of optogenetics, which combines genetics and optics to study cell behavior and control nerve signals with light. Their studies allowed for detailed observation of the brain, even intervening in the activity of single nerve cells in a living organism. The method was used in laboratories around the world to study how emotions and memories are organized. #Nobel #Medicina #Scienza (translated)

A study from Stanford reveals that the brain may have originated from two separate populations of embryonic cells, challenging the traditional model of neural development and suggesting an ancient evolutionary division between the anterior and posterior brain regions. #Cerebro #BiologíaDelDesarrollo #Neurociencia (translated)