Tatjana Motta studied Visual Arts and Theatre at IUAV University in Venice and Playwriting at the Civica Scuola di Teatro Paolo Grassi in Milan. She is a playwright and the author of several theatre texts, including Notte Bianca, winner of the 55th Premio Riccione; Nessuno ti darà del ladro; Justine, a podcast episode for Abbecedario per il mondo nuovo, a project by Piccolo Teatro di Milano; and Azzurra, published by the cultural magazine Snaporaz. Her play Notte Bianca has been translated and presented in the United States, Spain, France and Portugal. In Italy, her work has been presented as staged readings or productions at Romaeuropa Festival, Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione, Teatro Stabile di Bolzano and Teatro i.
Since 2017, she has worked with director Virginia Landi. Their most recent collaboration, Tristano e Isotta, was written following a playwriting workshop with upper secondary school students and premiered in December 2025 at Teatro delle Passioni in Modena. Alongside her work as a playwright, Motta also writes for cinema. She lives in Rome.
Selected Play: Notte Boanca [White Night], 2019
Synopsis: A Woman and a Man arrive in a city for a short holiday, but their plans are disrupted by the Host of the apartment they rented online. He leads them from the chaotic celebrations of a “white night” in the city centre towards its margins. There they encounter a Girl preparing to leave home, a Mother who has lost a son and Another Man who says he has lost both his documents and his identity. The tourists’ journey becomes an initiation that unsettles their assumptions about who they are and what they want.
MEDUSA relevance: Through a liminal city that is at once welcoming and threatening, the play explores migration, transit, reinvention and the fragility of social, racial and economic identity. Its movement between centre and periphery and its confrontation between tourism and extreme journeys create strong potential for discussion with diverse European audiences.