Kids play the same text of the adults without any cut or reduction of the script, with the soundtrack and setting of the main representation. They really care about acting the adults’ script because it is for them a source of pride; doing so they prove -in all their naturalness and spontaneity- how they can make their own Passion great. Full of enthusiasm, children have no downtimes and sometimes their acting needs to be curbed: the only difference with the adults’ play can therefore be the duration of the representation.
The Kids’ Passion involves children between 5 and 14 years old, free to choose the role they want to play (even though sometimes, by necessity, some girls have to embody a male character). Every five years, in conjunction with the main representation, are included in the official program two/three plays of the Kids’ Passion: a nighttime play, an afternoon play, a morning play scheduled at the beginning of the school year and dedicated to students. Rehearsals take place in July and August, and represent for children a sort of alternative “summer camp” during which they can show their interpretative abilities while having fun. Seamstresses and makeup artists are at their complete disposal: costumes and accessories worn by kids are made identically to the adults’ ones, and so does their makeup.
In Sordevolo the Kids’ Passion starts as a funny game, the “summer game” of the year of the Passion. It involves families where parents, uncles and grandparents have taken part, and still participate firsthand, to the representation. That’s how kids grow «on bread and Passion» getting used to it naturally, as demonstrated by the tradition which -in this case- dates back to more than 100 years ago. Since 1914, in fact, documented sources tell about plays of the Kids’ Passion lived as a game and acted in the courtyards of Sordevolo. Since 1980 it is instead proposed to the audience inside our amphitheatre. The children’s passion and enthusiasm for this representation constitute the guarantee of the Passion’s future. A further evidence of how strong is, in our village, the connection between past, present and future!
