Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione (ERT), permanent Public Theatre of Emilia-Romagna Region, is active from 1977 and since May 1994 is directed by Pietro Valenti.
ERT’s mission is to keep a constant double look on theatrical world, aimed on one side to give art a place to grow freely, and on the other to  give audience the intellectual and emotional involvement that the artistic production can provide.
ERT is first of all a theatrical production centre. With more than 100 shows produced, ERT works in two basic directions: collaborations with directors, and search for shows and spaces that might be alternative to the traditional Italian theatre halls, meeting a new, complex and varied public.
Concerning the ‘traditional’ production, that is the production for the big theatre and for the Italian tour, we can mention, among many directors who have collaborated with ERT, the collaborations with Giancarlo Cobelli, Cesare Lievi, Massimo Castri, Federico Tiezzi, Andrea De Rosa.
We would also like to remember the only one collaboration between ERT and Robert Wilson, that for ERT has directed a version of Ibsen’s The Lady from the Sea, in that occasion rewritten by Susan Sontag.
Certainly Pippo Delbono is the most representative artist of the work that ERT runs by years in the circle of contemporary scenical creation. The collaboration with Delbono has beared to the realization of four coproductions and three new creations.
On 2006 the collaboration with the Lithuanian director Eimuntas Nekrošius for two important creations begins with two important creations: Faust (2006) and Anna Karenina (2008).
Among ERT’s collaborations concerning the contemporary creation, we would like to remember the one with Pietro Babina and Teatrino Clandestino, one of the most important Company of the last Italian theatrical generation, and also the past collaboration with the Columbian director Enrique Vargas, that has created incredible sensory labyrinths.
Furthermore, ERT collaborates since many  years with Bolivian Teatro de los Andes directed by Cesar Brie, and with Italian director Elio De Capitani.
Last but not least, it’s important to remember the close bond with Danio Manfredini, that for ERT has directed Cinema Cielo (2003) winner of the Ubu Prize 2004 for the  Best Direction, and Il sacro segno dei mostri (2007).
The productions realized in these last years, were coproduced with many Italian and international theatres, such as  Teatro di Roma - Biennale di Venezia – Fondazione Orestiadi di Gibellina - KunstenFESTIVALdesArts Bruxelles – Festival d’Avignon - Zuercher Theater Spektakel - Thèâtre national de Toulouse – Berliner Festspiele.
ERT manages Teatro Storchi and Teatro delle Passioni in Modena, Teatro Bonci in Cesena, and ten other theatres in the Region.
Since 1994 to 2004, an important moment of interchange with the international scene is given by Le vie dei festival, that became on October 2005 VIE Scena Contemporanea Festival, taking place every year in Modena, Carpi and Vignola. Among main international guests in past editions, we would like to quote at least Peter Brook,  Lev Dodin, Jan Fabre, Rodrigo Garcìa, Philip Glass,  Alain Platel, Meg Stuart, Josef Nadj, Forced Entertainment, Rimini Protokoll, Alvis Hermanis, Eimuntas Nekrošius, Abbas Kiarostami, William Kentridge, Alva Noto/Sakamoto.
Many important guest join Festival also from the Italian scene like Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, Teatro delle Albe, Fanny & Alexander, Motus, Teatrino Clandestino, Sosta Palmizi, Orthographe, Teatro Valdoca, Virgilio Sieni, Scimone Sframeli.

On 2000, Emilia-Romagna Region entrusted ERT with the reopening of Teatro Mijeni in Scutari (Albany) from a structural and organizational point of view.

After the reopening the project prosecuted with many works on which operated both Italian and Albanese technicians.
The activities enlarged then to Korcia, Butrinto and Elbasan where Emilia Romagna Teatro contributed to the reopening of the youth centre. Since 2004 the project interested also Serbia/Montenegro and Bosnia/Erzegovina with coproductions, and educational activities.
On 2008 ERT contributed to realize ‘Tutti I grandi sono stati bambini’ and educational project whose purpose  is the production of a theatrical work with children coming form orphanage of Scutari(Albania) and Tuzla (Bosnia).

Since 1995 ERT carry on educational projects for actors supported by financing of the European Commission and Emilia-Romagna region. Projects bring together without prejudices both traditional theatrical tradition with crossed languages of the contemporary scene.
During the years many projects have been directed by Giancarlo Cobelli, Giorgio Barberio Corsetti, Cesare Lievi, Marco Martinelli, Cesare Ronconi, Magda Siti and Stefano Vercelli, Massimo Castri, Chiara Guidi. Often these educational project prosecuted in works with many gigs all over Italy.