IN SCENA! ITALIAN THEATER FESTIVAL NY is the first Italian theater Festival to take place in all five NYC boroughs. It was created by KIT - Kairos Italy Theater – and KIT Italia together with Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo’ at NYU in 2013, the official Year of Italian Culture in the United States. In Scena! presents – each year – a survey of the best Italian Theater, from Italy, in New York. It features full productions that have already toured in Italy as well as readings of Italian plays in translation, workshops, lectures and exchanges between Italian and International artists. Its goal is to promote greater awareness of Italian theater and Italian artists among New York theatergoers, and to build a bridge between the artistic scenes in Italy and New York, so that they may each support and inspire the other. Over the years, In Scena! has been supported by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Embassy of Italy in Washington D.C., the Italian Cultural Institute in New York, in Los Angeles, in Toronto, The Consulate General of Italy in Detroit, Bernie Wohl Community Center at Goddard Riverside, the Calandra Institute for Italian American Studies, BAAD-Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Culture Lab LIC, Casa Belvedere Italian Cultural Foundation, Snug Harbor Cultural Center and the College of Staten Island – among many other partners and institutions.
Six Characters in Search of an Author
by Luigi Pirandello
Adapted and Directed by Nick Gabriel, Stage Manager Kevin Wang,
With Meridian Anastasia, Sophia Chacon, Feras Halabi, Finn Mackimmie, Isabella Kaplan, Michael Reese Shald, Sam Trott, Kevin Wang
This original adaptation of Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author was originally conceived by author and director Nick Gabriel at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and further developed in response to the # MeToo movement. Gabriel has recreated a version of this metatheatrical, Existentialist classic that is faithful to Pirandello’s original vision, while contemporizing the circumstances to reflect the current cultural zeitgeist.
SYNOPSIS
SSix Characters in Search of an Author is populated with a group of actors and a director who are rehearsing a play called The Rules Of The Game Just as their rehearsal gets underway, six characters appear at the stage door. The characters that appear at the stage door are not characters in The Rules Of The Game They are characters in a different, unnamed, unfinished dramatic narrative and they demand that their stories be heard.
-In English
Running Time: 75 min
Like an Octopus in a Guitar (Come un Polpo nella Chitarra)
Written by Marco Ziello, Directed by Licia Amarante and Marco Ziello
Performed by Annachiara Castorino, Gerardo D’Amato, Francesco Del Gaudio, Sabrina La Regina, Paola Santamaria & Marco Ziello
Presented by ON Teatro Formazione Cultura
Best Drama 2024 at Roma Comic OFF
SYNOPSIS
When the protagonist of Like an Octopus in a Guitar decides he no longer wants to leave the house, he develops an obsession with Death and begins to spend his days imagining his funeral. A funny and absurd journey inside the mind of an individual who is slowly losing his memories, where the actors’ bodies become a metaphor and instrument for remembering. In this suspended world, in which even the names of the characters have been forgotten, dream and reality merge to tell the story of a man’s internal battle. A battle between the desire to heal and the temptation to remain, forever, playing with Death.
-In Italian with English Supertitles
Running Time: 70 min
NOoSPHERE Arts will host two of the festival performances @ Last Frontier NYC: