CROSS Festival 2026 - Like leaves, like wind, likes Soft breads

CROSS Festival 2026: Contemplating the invisible 

dance shows| performances| workshops | gatherings

8:30 PM

Like leaves, like wind, likes Soft breads. Reimagines, in an imaginative form, the life of Saint Francis,

Antonio Catalano (IT)

theatre

60 min

Come foglie, come vento, come morbidi pani (Like leaves, like wind, likesSoft breads) reimagines, in an imaginative form, the life of Saint Francis, bringing back to the center the contemporary relevance of his message of poverty, simplicity, and wonder. The narrative takes the form of an initiatory journey, marked by real and imagined encounters—with his mother, with poverty, with nature, and above all with “blessed ignorance,” understood as the capacity to look at the world with astonishment. With each encounter, Francis becomes simpler, poorer, closer to the earth and to its creatures, until he discovers in the simplicity of the heart a possible happiness. On stage, Catalano constructs a poetic narrative made of words, sounds, images, and silences. The language, deliberately essential, at times childlike and onomatopoeic, restores an original way of looking at things. What emerges is the portrait of a Francis who is a storyteller and a dreamer, in love with the world, capable of turning stone into a feather and of recognizing the sacredness of life in every creature, inviting the audience to rediscover a simple, light, and wonder-filled gaze upon the world.

The show is accompanied by the installation La messa e i presepi di San Francesco (The Mass and the Nativity Scenes of St Francis), a “Franciscan” table set with bowls and natural elements, portable museums displaying some of nature’s small but great wonders.

Concept and creation: Antonio Catalano | Performer on stage: Antonio Catalano | Co-production: Casa degli Alfieri, Fondazione CROSS ETS, Comune di Calamandrana – Festival Teatro e Colline | Under the patronage of: the National Committee for the Celebration of the Eighth Centenary of the Death of Saint Francis of Assisi

Antonio Catalano is an artist, author and actor born in 1950, who has been active throughout his life in experimental theatre and the performing arts. After years on the Italian stage, he founded the theatre company Casa degli Alfieri with Maurizio Agostinetto, Luciano Nattino and Lorenza Zambon, a research organisation in the field of the arts, based in the house-theatre of the same name in the heart of Monferrato. Since 1999, he has been developing Universi Sensibili (Sensitive Universes), a wide-ranging series of installations and interactive environments that began with Armadi Sensibili (Sensitive Wardrobes) at the Venice Biennale. He has created shows, large-scale scenographic settings and exhibition projects presented in Italy and abroad, collaborating with important cultural institutions. At the same time, he continues to pursue the poetic-pedagogical project of Pedagogia Povera o della meraviglia (Poor Pedagogy or the Wonder), now included among INDIRE’s Educational Avant-Gardes and part of the PNRR Scuola Futura training courses. He writes and publishes short stories, poems and illustrated texts, combining his theatrical activities with constant narrative and educational research.

10 euro

Purchase of the tickets on the website

www.crossproject.it

It will be possible to book seats by telephone just on the same day

of the event after checking availability at the number

+39 351 8081786 and info@crossproject.it

Reduced ticket: under 25, community members IEEMI – Istituto

ecclesiastico Evangelico Metodista Intra, AUSER University of

Wellbeing, Il Sogno Cooperative

Free admission under 6 years of age

20% discount on training activities for those who subscribe to the

Kunpen Lama Gangchen / Albagnano Healing Meditation Centre

membership card

If you would like to attend but cannot afford the fee, please reach

out directly. No one will be excluded for financial reasons

Prenotazione workshop / Workshop bookings

+39 351 8081786 | info@crossproject.it

CROSS Festival 2026 programme 

For those who wish to have meals at the Center, reservations: online https://shimbu.ngalso.org