Entertainment workers occupy Globe Theatre in Rome

(ANSA) - ROME, APR 14 - A group of workers from the Italian entertainment industry on Wednesday occupied the Globe Theatre in Rome to protest against COVID closures and demand a swift reopening for the crisis-hit sector.
    "After more than a year of the ban on live shows we demand a structural reform of the sector," the protesters said on Facebook.
    "We don't want a reopening without safety, which might plunge us back into an even more uncertain working world, devoid of guarantees.
    "Let's reopen this space to all the precarious workers, to all the exploited ones, to reappropriate for ourselves a moment of exchange and self-training".
    Those staging the sit-in said it was taking place with rigorous respect for COVID health protocols.
    They said all the participants had passed a COVID test.
    Culture Minister Dario Franceschini appeared to back the protest by saying that if the government was willing to reopen soccer stadiums for the European Championships (at 25% capacity), then the entertainment sector should come next, starting with live concerts.
    The Globe in Villa Borghese, which reconstructs Shakespeare's storied arena in London, was recently renamed after late comic acting great Gigi Proietti. (ANSA).