First Public Screening Announced For TUTTI IN SCENE The Documentary On The Beginning Of Italian Theater In The US

Presented for the first public screening at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo' at NYU (24 W 12 street) on January 30, 2023 at 630PM. Cast and Crew will be in attendance.

The history of Italian American theater is a little known history even though it was well and alive in the US since the 1800's when Lorenzo Da Ponte presented the first Operas in Italian at the Park Theater to go then to create the Teatro Italiano (later The National Theater). Da Ponte even wrote one act plays in Italian for his students at Columbia College.

The documentary begins at NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo' in 2020 when KIT-Kairos Italy Theater in New York, internationally recognized as the Italian Theater Company in New York, celebrated its 20th anniversary. Starting from KIT members and activities, the documentary goes back to the time when Italian American theater started to be prolific in the NY area. While revealing moving and funny aspects related to the Italian American Theater and therefore to the Italian immigration, the film visits some of the NY locations of the Italian theaters and in a flashback narration revisiting those times to arrive at today's Italian theater in NY.

Videos, images, sounds - and plays - from another era and interviews with scholars will bring back the golden age of the Italian American theater while the actors of today's Italian theater close the gap by telling their one stories, presenting the repertory of that time and showing that Italians are still contributing to the culture and the vitality of the United States of America and that many decades later Italian theater is successful and it's still able to talk about everyday life and social and political issues. Tutti in Scena tells the stories of artists such as Antonio Maiori, who even introduced Shakespeare to his immigrant audiences; Francesco Ricciardi considered the Prince of Pulcinellas; Eduardo Migliaccio, known as «Farfariello», who wrote skits in the form of macchietta, comic characters, based on Italian immigrants in NY; Guglielmo Ricciardi, who created "The Italian Comedy Drama Company" and went on to a successful career in theatre and cinema; Antonietta Pisanelli Alessandro, who started in New York City, performed in Chicago and went on to create the biggest Italian-American theater of San Francisco.

Such stories - told by the today Italian Theater company in NY - bring light to the Italian American theater that represents a missing piece of the history of the Italian immigration to the United States. Emelise Aleandri, a fine and brilliant scholar devoted to study Italian-American theatre, published an extensive work about it that it's out of print and almost impossible to find in libraries. At the time of her publications, in the 90s, she noticed that "the Italian American theatre is virtually non-existent today. The Italian Actors' Union still exists, conducts meetings, and functions minimally as a liaison for visiting Italian professional entertainers. But in general, if Italian-Americans today speak the lines of an Italian play on a stage, they are probably college students studying the language of their grandparents, in the tradition started by Lorenzo Da Ponte at Columbia University in 1808".

Produced by Tirilli Productions, Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo' at NYU, Kairos Italy Theater and Secci Films with the contribution of the The Russo Brother Film Forum for Italian American experience, the documentary was written and directed by Laura Caparrotti, from a subject by Laura Caparrotti and Luca Martera. Post Production supervisor and Editor Emanuele Secci, the documentary features Kairos Italy Theater's actors Carlotta Brentan, Laura Caparrotti, Emanuele Capoano, Motl Didner, Alice Lussiana Parente, Francesco Meola, Mario Merone, Caterina Nonis, Giacomo Rocchini, Emanuele Secci, Irene Turri, Massimo Zordan. Special guest: Rocco Sisto. The interviews are with Marcella Bencivenni (CUNY), Joe Sciorra(CUNY), James Perriconi, John La Barbera, Richard Migliaccio, Grandson of Eduardo Migliaccio, Olga Cannolunga, Granddaughter of Antonio Maiori, Nahma Sandrow