2023 IN SCENA! Italian Theater Festival To Run May 1-16 In All Five Boroughs Of NYC

The New York City-based Kairos Italy Theater along with the Italy-based KIT Italia and Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU will present the 10th anniversary season of the In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY, the festival of Italian theater taking place in all five boroughs of NYC (with participating venues to be announced), May 1-16. This year the festival will also return to Boston, while going for the very first time to Los Angeles, Detroit and San Diego. Admission to all shows and events in the festival will be FREE. All shows will be performed in Italian with English subtitles. For more information please visit www.inscenany.com.

Each year In Scena! presents a survey of the best Italian theater from Italy, in New York City. The festival features full productions that have already toured in Italy as well as readings of Italian plays in translation, lectures and exchanges between Italian and International Artists. The 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 the US.

In Scena! 2023 will also present a new mentorship program in collaboration with one of the main Italian Theater Awards, the Hystrio Award, for Italian playwrights who will work in NY on their plays, translated in English, with two Italian American Playwrights based in NY. As every year since 2019, Kairos Italy Theater will present a full showcase production of one Mario Fratti Award-winning play, the annual award given to a new Italian play, at The Tank in NYC.

2023 In Scena! Performances

I AM SO MUCH BETTER LIVE (DAL VIVO SONO MOLTO MEGLIO)

Performed by Paola Minaccioni, Music Dj Coco, Directed by Paola Rota

TV, cinema, radio and theater icon actress Paola Minaccioni's characters appeared first on Italian media, offering an insight into our times. Her show is a surreal sequence of those characters that embody doubts, fears and neuroses of today's world. Paola Minaccioni hides and reveals herself in these characters, guided by the notes of DJ Lady Coco. And yet, describing such a show is truly impossible as she is so much better in person.

ONLY MOZART IS MISSING (MANCA SOLO MOZART)

Based on a true story by Marco Simeoli's grandfather
Written & Directed by Antonio Grosso, Performed by Marco Simeoli

Set Design by Alessandro Chiti, Costume Design by Marco Maria Della Vecchia

Marco Simeoli brings to the stage, with words and music, the many stories from his grandfather, founder of the most important, still open, music store in Naples, Italy, Musica Simeoli. Memories of the Belle Époque, the Second World War, the economic boom of the Sixties and the great illusion of the Eighties come alive together with the many famous clients of Musica Simeoli, such as Totò, Roberto Murolo, Renato Carosone, Riccardo Muti, Pino Daniele and Massimo Troisi.

THE GREAT WAR OF THE GUMMY BEARS (LA GRANDE GUERRA DEGLI ORSETTI GOMMOSI)

Written & Directed by Angelo Trofa

Performed by Valentina Fadda & Leonardo Tomasi

Presented by Batisfera

"Theater on a table", for just 25 audience members per show. The nation of the Gummy Bears starts a war without hope as they attack the neighboring nation of the Dinosaurs. The winner will easily be the Dinosaurs, and the army of the Gummy Bears, and its nation, will be permanently erased. Written in 2018, this show coincidently echoes some of today's worldwide events.

D.D.D! DONNE DONNETTE DONNACCE

Written, Directed and Choreographed by Tiziana Troja

Performed by Tiziana Troja, Michela Sale Musio, Angelo Trofa, Valentina Fadda, Michele Sarti with Original music and arrangement by Davide Sardo

Costume design by Filippo Grandulli Production Manager Federica Troja Production Assistants Carla Collu and Consuelo Melis

Presented by Lucidosottile

Two actresses, a comic duo, are on the verge of a nervous breakdown. To save themselves, they audition for the same show as sisters. Secrets, rivalries, hypocrisy, clichés and low blows typical of the entertainment world will lead to a surprising and unpredictable end.

LUISA

Written & Performed by Bruna Braidotti

Presented by Compagnia di Arti e Mestieri

Luisa is a lonely woman in a bathroom, standing alone on a stool in front of a mirror. She retraces her life and her childhood appears in flashes of memory. The sexual violence by her own father. The ghost of the past in every man she meets. Only the memory of her mother will bring her some relief.

WE, PUPPETS Story of a life shattered by racism

(NOI, PUPAZZI Storia di una vita sconvolta dal razzismo)

Written & Performed by Marco De Simone

Presented by Associazione Campania Danza

The puppeteer Saul makes the inhabitants of his town dream with the fairy tales he invents and stages for them. The advent of the racial laws of '38 upsets his life and the lives of thousands of people, but his puppets continue to tell his stories to the people who flee and hide with him, offering them the opportunity to distract themselves, be moved, and smile. Despite the unacceptable reality that surrounds them.

LITTLE FUNERALS (PICCOLI FUNERALI)

Written by Maurizio Rippa

Performed by Maurizio Rippa (voice) and Amedeo Monda (guitar)

Presented by 369gradi

A dramatic and musical score alternating a small funeral rite with a song dedicated to those who have left. A dedication that is an act of love, a present and a goodbye, an intimate and personal moment, which finds strength in music. Each song brings back a memory. Each funeral is told by those who have left by taking a journey in the life they lived. Little Funerals is a moving and sweet show capable of welcoming pain and turning it into a rebirth.

MUBARAK'S NIECE (LA NIPOTE DI MUBARAK)

Written by Valentina Diana, Directed by Vinicio Marchioni

Performed by Marco Vergani

Presented by Anton

Egypt: a country quite far for politics and traditions from the Western ones. An ordinary person, "invisible to the world", who works as a radio speaker becomes friends with Abdul, an Egyptian who prepares and sells kebabs in his shop full of postcards from his country. In the background is the Tahrir Square Revolution. Slowly their friendship and the events following will show many possible versions of each story. Where is the truth?

In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY In 2013 Kairos Italy Theater, the preeminent Italian theater company in New York City, together with the Italian KIT Italia, created In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY, the first Italian theater festival to take place in all five New York City boroughs and beyond. The festival's first edition was part of the 2013 Year of Italian Culture in the United States and it was supported by the Embassy of Italy in DC and Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo' at NYU that became right after one of the organizers. The festival has since become an annual event.