Piccolo Teatro della Città di Milano

Piccolo Teatro della Città di Milano, the first teatro stabile, or permanent theatre company, to be set up in Italy. Founded in 1947 by Giorgio Strehler (1921–1997) and the actor-director Paolo Grassi (1919–81) with a municipal grant, it later received a state subsidy, and became the model for similar ventures in Rome, Turin, and elsewhere. It opened with Gorky's The Lower Depths, and Strehler's production of Goldoni's Il servitore di due padroni was staged in the same season. The company quickly achieved an excellent reputation, one of Strehler's achievements being the introduction to Italian audiences of the plays of Brecht. In 1967 the company was seen in London during the World Theatre Season, again in Goldoni's comedy. A year later Strehler resigned over the municipality's failure to provide a new theatre for the company, but he returned as sole director in 1972. The company has staged over 200 productions encompassing revivals of the classics (especially Shakespeare and Goldoni), contemporary foreign works, and new Italian plays. It tours extensively in Italy and has visited nearly 30 foreign countries.

From 1983 to 1990 Strehler was also Artistic Director of the Théâtre de l'Europe at the Odéon in Paris. In 1990 at the Piccolo Studio he staged the first part of a two-part adaptation of Goethe's Faust, also playing the title-role and supervising the Italian translation.