Venice Is Still Alive: Sara Cattani on Theatre, Costumes & New Creative Energy

In this episode of Venice Talks, I speak with Sara Cattani, co-founder of Stagin’ Alive, a new Venetian project born with an ambitious and refreshing idea: to bring more live entertainment, more joy and more accessible cultural experiences to Venice.

Venice is often described as a city of the past. A place of masterpieces, palaces, museums, opera houses, ancient crafts and memories layered like gold leaf over water. But anyone who lives here knows that Venice is not only something to admire from a distance. Venice is also a city that works, imagines, experiments, struggles, laughs, starts again and creates.

This is the heart of my conversation with Sara: can Venice still be a place that produces culture, rather than only a place where culture is consumed?

Not culture as something heavy, distant or reserved for a small circle. Not entertainment reduced to a tourist product. But shows, performances and experiences capable of speaking to different audiences: Venetians, people from the mainland, visitors, art lovers, theatre lovers and anyone who simply wants to spend an evening smiling.

Because yes, culture can be intelligent and still be fun. It can have quality without becoming intimidating. It can make us think, but it can also let us leave the theatre with light in our eyes rather than, as Sara beautifully put it, “another 200-kilo backpack about the heaviness of life.”

A New Stage for Venice

Stagin’ Alive was founded about a year and a half ago with the desire to explore formats of performance that are already popular in other cities, but still underrepresented in Venice. One of the main directions is musical theatre, a form that combines acting, music, movement, storytelling and emotional immediacy.

In many places, musical theatre is part of the regular cultural diet. In Venice, however, the performing arts scene is often associated with opera, classical music, highly curated art events or cultural projects with a strong intellectual framework. These are all important parts of the city’s identity, of course. But Sara and her team felt there was space for something else too.

Something more open. More varied. More inclusive. Something that does not ask the audience to prove anything before entering the room.

This is particularly interesting in Venice, a city that is often divided into two simplified categories: experiences for tourists and experiences for locals. Stagin’ Alive challenges that division. Why should a cultural experience not speak to both? Why should a visitor not come to Venice for a contemporary show created here? Why should Venetians not have access to entertainment that is beautiful, professional and enjoyable without being impossibly expensive or socially exclusive?

It is a question worth asking. Venice has always been a city of movement, exchange and performance. It was never meant to be silent under glass.

Joy as a Cultural Act

One of the most compelling ideas in this Venice Talks episode is the role of joy. In certain cultural circles, joy can be treated almost with suspicion, as if pleasure were somehow less serious than difficulty. But Venice knows better. This is a city of theatre, masks, music, Carnival, festa, food, boats, processions and public life.

Joy here is not superficial. It is part of the city’s historical language.

Sara’s vision is not about lowering the quality of cultural production. It is about widening the door. A live show can be well made and still entertaining. A performance can be beautiful without becoming unreachable. A cultural evening can be meaningful without leaving the audience exhausted.

That idea feels particularly important today, when many people are looking not only for experiences, but for connection. Staging Alive wants to create formats that bring people together, that allow the audience to feel part of something alive.

And that word, alive, matters.

Inside Atelier Le Boudoir

Alongside Staging Alive, Sara is also developing Atelier Le Boudoir, a fascinating spin-off connected to the world of historical costume. The project began through a collaboration involving the costumes of the historic Atelier Pietro Longhi, a name deeply linked to Venice, Carnival and the art of period dress.

But Atelier Le Boudoir is not presented as a grand, anonymous costume warehouse. Sara describes it more as a hidden dressing room, a small and intimate place near Campo della Bragora, in a very Venetian area surrounded by artisans and local life.

That image is beautiful: a secret room of fabric, silhouettes, brocade, velvet, lace and possibility.

The atelier currently works with costumes from the Pietro Longhi collection and responds to requests for costume rental, private events and production services. But the idea goes beyond simply providing a dress. A costume can become the beginning of a story. It can open the door to an experience, a performance, a private event, a moment of theatre created around the person wearing it.

In this sense, Atelier Le Boudoir connects perfectly with Staging Alive. Both projects are about performance, identity and transformation. Both ask how Venice’s theatrical heritage can be used not as nostalgia, but as creative fuel.

Building Something New in Venice

Of course, creating something new in Venice is never simple. During our Venice Talks conversation, Sara speaks openly about the practical difficulties of the first year, including a change of location shortly after Carnival and the need to regroup, reorganise and start again.

Anyone who has tried to build a project in Venice will recognise this immediately. The city is magical, yes, but also demanding. Logistics are complicated. Spaces are fragile. Costs are high. Every practical problem has bridges, boats and bureaucracy attached to it.

And yet, this is also what makes projects like Stagin’ Alive and Atelier Le Boudoir so meaningful. They are not abstract ideas imported into Venice. They are being shaped by the reality of the city: its limits, its beauty, its history, its stubbornness and its extraordinary creative potential.

Sara’s work carries a powerful message: Venice is not only a place where people arrive, consume and leave. It is still a place where people live, produce, imagine and send ideas into the world.

That distinction matters deeply.

Venice as a Port of Departure

Perhaps the most poetic idea in this episode of Venice Talks is the image of Venice as a port of departure. Not just a destination, not just a postcard, not just a backdrop for other people’s dreams.

A starting point.

For centuries, Venice sent ships, goods, artists, music, books, glass, textiles and ideas across the world. Today, the challenge is different, but the question remains: what can Venice create now? What can begin here and travel elsewhere?

With Staging’ Alive and Atelier Le Boudoir, Sara Cattani is trying to answer that question through theatre, costume, entertainment and imagination.

This episode of Venice Talks is a conversation about courage, creativity and the importance of bringing lightness back into culture. It is also a reminder that Venice is not finished. It is not only a museum. It is a living city with a beating heart, a stage still waiting for new voices, and a curtain that can rise again.

Key Notes from This Episode

In this episode, we talk about:

• How Staging’ Alive was born and why Sara Cattani felt Venice needed new live entertainment formats.
• The desire to bring musical theatre and more varied performance experiences to Venice.
• Why culture can be intelligent, well-made and still joyful, accessible and fun.
• The gap between cultural events for tourists and cultural events for locals — and why Venice needs experiences that can speak to both.
• The importance of creating shows that make people leave the theatre with a smile.
• The idea of Venice not only as a place to visit, but as a city that still creates, produces and imagines.
• The story behind Atelier Le Boudoir, the spin-off project connected to historical costumes.
• The legacy of Atelier Pietro Longhi and its extraordinary world of period dress.
• How a costume can become more than an object: it can become the beginning of a performance, an event or a story.
• What it means to build a creative company in Venice today, with all the beauty and difficulty that this city brings.
• Why Sara sees Venice as a port of departure for new ideas, not only as a destination.
• The dream of bringing Venetian creativity beyond the lagoon and into the wider world.

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