Actor and director Marco Baliani has a background in theater animation and theater for children. He founded the "Ruotalibera" and "Trickster-Bricconi Divini" companies, and since 1998 has been investigating Teatro di Narrazione (Narrative Theater), a stripped-down style of putting on plays which typically involves just a narrator telling a story without props or costumes. Baliani is also a prominent screen actor.

In conjunction with the African Medical and Research Foundation, Baliani traveled to Kenya to work with street children in 2002, a project which culminated in the children coming to Italy to put on a play called Black Pinocchio. Their story was documented in Angelo Loy's film of the same name.