Goethe’s *Faust* begins with a surprise for us theaterpeople. Two centuries later, the author paints a perfect portrait of us in the form of a parody: he writes a *Prologue on the Theater*. The theater manager, the playwright, and the actor discuss what the right ingredients are for a successful production. The result is a hilarious scene, but also a mercilessly revealing one.
“I’d really like to please everyone […] How can I make everything fresh, lively, and—while still profound—entertaining?” says the theater manager, for example, reminding us that the only real problem for a theater professional is how to get the audience into the theater.
Recognizing ourselves in this prologue, we chose to have the character of Faust join the discussion. Our Faust has a concrete and insurmountable problem: he wants to stage Goethe’s *Faust *. He wants to portray himself. But this is no longer possible: he knows too much about himself, he’s too intelligent, and he no longer believes in the devil.

Born in Rome in 1992, he graduated with a degree in acting from the Paolo Grassi Municipal Theater School in Milan in 2015. He made his debut as a director, performer, and writer with *It’s App to You – o del solipsismo*, which marked the beginning of his collaboration with actress Paola Giannini. The video-game-style performance, exploring the themes of virtual reality and our relationship with technology, won numerous awards and accolades, including InBox, Dominio pubblico, and Kilowatt-Italia dei visionari. In 2018, he emerged as one of the young talents at the Venice Theater Biennale, winning the production award for Directors Under 30 for *Cirano deve morire*, a reimagining of Rostand’s *Cyrano de Bergerac* in the form of a rap concert. Co-written with Rocco Placidi and featuring original music by Franco Visioli and Alessandro Levrero, the production premiered at the Venice Theater Biennale in 2019. “Leonardo Manzan,” reads the citation by Antonio Latella, who, as director, awarded him the prize, “had the courage to put himself out there and take risks. Despite his very young age, he has shown himself ready to cross that yellow line marking the safety zone to venture into areas that are even dangerous, never reassuring or obvious. To his courage, we wish to add our own bet.” 
Invited back to Venice in 2020, he presented *Glory Wall* (also written with Rocco Placidi and starring Paola Giannini), an irreverent play on the theme of censorship that was awarded Best Play at the Venice Theater Biennale. The international jury’s statement reads: “The way Manzan questions the role and meaning of theater today is provocative and relentless, yet at the same time dedicated and committed. In Italy, where ‘new writing and new playwrights’ have been ignored for far too long, neglected, and underfunded, it is a pleasure to award this brand-new prize to a new form of writing that not only addresses the theme of censorship set by the Biennale but also offers the audience a thought-provoking and highly entertaining production that reclaims the power of theater—and of its community.”