Dario D'Ambrosi Of Teatro Patologico Will Address U.N. June 13

Dario D'Ambrosi, founder and president of Italy's Pathological Theater Association, will address the United Nations in New York on June 13 at the Conference for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The event is called: "A Billion Voices: Making the Invisible Visible" and D'Ambrosi will read an address titled "All Mad Free," in which he will share an overview of Italy's leadership in care for the mentally disabled and the radical contribution his Teatro Patologico (Pathological Theater) has made in realizing new theoretical and practical approaches.

The event comes amid increasing worldwide attention for a college course that Teatro Patologico has spawned: "The Integrated Theatre of the Emotions," an accredited college program in theater for students with mental and physical disabilities. The program has been developed by D'Ambrosi in collaboration with the University of Rome "Tor Vergata" and MIUR (the Italian Ministry of University and Research).

Last May, Dario D'Ambrosi's award-winning version of "Medea," performed with a chorus of actors with diverse abilities from his Teatro Patologico di Roma, was presented in Brussels before the European Parliament. It was part of the initiative, "EU: performing arts and disabilities - the Italian Way."

Mr. D'Ambrosi will be in New York and available for interviews from June 10 to 14.

ABOUT DARIO D'AMBROSI

Dario D'Ambrosi is a former professional soccer player, one of Italy's leading performance artists and originator of the theatrical movement called Teatro Patologico. His plays investigate mental illness by grasping its vital artistic and creative aspects with the intention of restoring the "dignity of the fool."

In the '80s and '90s, D'Ambrosi marched irresistibly into the forefront of Italy's theatrical ambassadors, a cohort led by Pirandello, DiFilippo and Dario Fo. In 1994, he received the equivalent of a Tony Award in his country: a prize for lifetime achievement in the theater from the Instituto del Drama Italiano. D'Ambrosi first performed at La MaMa in 1980 and has been in residence there nearly every year thereafter. He has written and directed over 16 plays, acted in 18 major films and TV movies, and written and directed three full-length films. Fifteen of his plays have had their American premieres at La MaMa. In the US, he has also performed at Lincoln Center, Chicago's Organic Theatre, Cleveland's Public Theater and Los Angeles' Stages Theatre, among others.

D'Ambrosi writes, "The emotional states, the tempo and rhythm of great actors are indeed very similar to those who live with intellectual disabilities and this experiment is the confirmation that in order to interpret a character and give it a life of its own what truly matters is the emotion that we live and evoke into others."

Mr. D'Ambrosi is creator of The Integrated Theater of the Emotions, a university program for the differently-abled that was developed by Dario D'Ambrosi's Teatro Patologico in collaboration with the University of Rome "Tor Vergata" and MIUR (the Italian Ministry of University and Research). Now serving more than 60 students each year, its mission is to stimulate the students' creative freedom by giving them theoretical and practical means to express themselves on the stage. Its curriculum (and its final project at the end of the academic year) isn't so much a form of therapy as it is an amazing chance for students to be and feel themselves as principal actors, to manifest themselves artistically and emotionally, and to socialize and form important life skills.

The program includes a compendium of theater-related courses: acting, playwriting, directing, set design, costume design, music therapy, singing and dance. Fifteen teaching artists instruct sixty students, including people of all ages who are schizophrenic, catatonic, manic depressive, autistic, and born with Down Syndrome. The students acquire tools to help them approach the professional world and recover an often denied dignity. Many have broken through their isolation, found self-knowledge and made themselves understood through theater.

The NY Times' D.J.R. Bruckner wrote, "Any piece by Mr. D'Ambrosi is about each member of the audience. A viewer who surrenders disbelief for a moment will be carried away in an unimaginable world of chaos, wit, bewilderment, mirth, anger, disgust and a kind of sweet sadness, and will leave it with a sense of relief and loss." Rosette Lamont wrote in Theater Week, "The yearly appearance of the Italian writer/performer Dario D'Ambrosi at La MaMa is cause for celebration."