The ‘buddies’ are usually the overshadowed characters in Shakespeare’s plays; not the villains, but those with few lines in the script. For the theater company Anellodebole, the ‘buddies’ are the young girls and guys who struggle to relate to the educational environment, from the infamous bullies to the shy creatives grappling to stand out.

In “Quelli che non vogliono stare qui [The ones who don’t want to be here],” Giorgio Salimeni offers us a glimpse of an artistic project and pedagogical experiment organized by Anellodebole in eight middle schools around the outskirts of Parma, Italy. Throughout one academic year, 26 students skipped a school day to dedicate themselves to art practice in a neutral, non-scholastic environment.