In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY 2024

Kairos Italy Theater along with the Italy-based KIT Italia and Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU present the 11th anniversary season of the In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY, New York City’s premiere festival of Italian theater taking place in all five boroughs of NYC. 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 City theatergoers and to build a bridge between the artistic scenes in Italy and the US. 

Partners for the 2024 festival will include CIMA (Center for Italian Modern Art), Culture Lab LIC, BAAD Bronx Academy of Art and Dance, The Tank NYC, The Italian Cultural Institute of Toronto, Villa Charities (Toronto), Hystrio Scritture di Scena Award, Dominio Pubblico, Civica Scuola Interpreti e Traduttori Altiero Spinelli (Milan, Italy) and We The Italians.

Selected events include:
The Great Magic (La Grande Magia)
Adapted from the original play by Eduardo De Filippo and directed by Rosario Sparno
Produced by Casa del Contemporaneo
“Everything that happens before your eyes is just an illusion” On the 40th anniversary of one of the most important Italian playwrights Eduardo De Filippo’s death, Rosario Sparno presents his own adaptation for only three actors of The Great Magic, the 1948 wonderful play by De Filippo about theatrical illusion and obsessional delusion.

The Genesis of Regeneration (Genesi Del Rigenero) 
Written & Performed by Beppe Allocca
Directed by Beppe Allocca and Roberta Provenzani
An exhilarating storytelling that, through biblical stories, fashion writers and artisans, tells the origins of the rag-pickers (cenciaioli), the artisans from Prato (Tuscany) who have been recycling used clothing since 1850.

Sciara – Prima C’Agghiorna
Written by Luana Rondinelli, directed by Giovanni Carta
Produced by I Musicanti
The compelling human and judicial story of Francesca Serio, the first woman to denounce the mafia and mother of Salvatore Carnevale, the trade unionist barbarously killed by the mafia on May 16, 1955.

Help Wanted - Single Feminist Mother of a Teenage Boy Looks For Support (Aaa Cercasi Sostegno Per Madre Single E Femminista Con Figlio Maschio E Adolescente) 
Written & Performed by Monica Faggiani
Using the Stand up style, the protagonist tells her story and her challenges as a feminist and as a mother of her teenage son.

The Visit (Il Colloquio)
Written & Directed by Edoardo Di Pietro
Produced by Collettivo lunAzione
The Visit is inspired by the admission system for weekly meetings with inmates at the Poggioreale prison in Naples. The tragicomic show presents situations experienced by women queuing to enter prison: a perpetual wait in daring and tense conditions, which outlines a symbolic humanity, crushed by the apparent impossibility of change. The actors were an integral part of the creative phase through a stage writing process and by participating in a series of interviews with women who have experienced or are experiencing deep ties with the penal institution.

Like a Grain of Sand (Come Un Granello Di Sabbia)
Written & Directed by Salvatore Arena and Massimo Barilla
Produced by Mana Chuma Teatro 
At the age of 18, Giuseppe Gulotta is forced to confess to the murder of two policemen in a small barracks in Alcamo. The crime hides an unspeakable mystery: statesmen who deal with neo-fascist groups, arms trafficking and drugs. In order to cover up the silence, any scapegoat would do. Through the “human” story of Giuseppe (but also those of Salvatore and Carmine–the other designated scapegoats) the play attempts to give justice to its personal dimension, that of a life nearly entirely taken away for dreadful reasons. The performance is the last chapter of the quadrilogy A Sud della Memoria that Mana Chuma has devoted to the contemporary history of Southern Italy.

The Second Coming of Joan of Arc (Giovanna D'Arco – La rivolta)
Written by Carolyn Cage, Translated by Edy Quaggio
Directed by Ester Tatangelo and Luchino Giordana
Produced by Hermit Crab Production
Giovanna returns to share her story with contemporary women, unmasking through documents the misogyny of the male leaders of the Church, State and Army. A teenager fleeing from a violent and alcoholic father, from a destiny of wife and mother, which had already marked her mother and sister. Giovanna dies for the right to wear men's clothes. She is a rebel, irreverent, more cunning than her judges, unrepentant and unswervingly faithful to her own vision.

Metropolitan Person (Persona Metropolitana)
Written by Annachiara Vispi & Giulia Macrì
Presented in collaboration with Dominio Pubblico
Persona Metropolitana is a monologue/choreography for an actress and a dancer. One the voice, the other the body of the same person, together they dialogue and contaminate each other in a journey between presence and non-presence, individuality and community, thought and action, dream and reality. The story follows the journey of the protagonist, Giulia, as she returns home on the subway: initially overwhelmed by the city, during the journey she questions and re-evaluates her role within it.

Opera Buffa! (di e con Maria Cassi e Leonardo Brizzi)
Produced by Compagnia Maria Cassi 
Presented by Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU
Small "musical" jokes through musical gags, catchphrases, human and non-human tics, passing through musical arrangements ranging from jazz to classical and popular music. An almost mimed performance, as per Maria Cassi’s tradition, assisted for the occasion at the piano by Maestro Brizzi.