Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art" Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written in Sicilian. Pirandello's tragic farces are often seen as forerunners of the Theatre of the Absurd.
Dario Luigi Angelo Fo was an Italian playwright, actor, theatre director, stage designer, songwriter, political campaigner for the Italian left wing and the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature. In his time he was "arguably the most widely performed contemporary playwright in world theatre". Much of his dramatic work depends on improvisation and comprises the recovery of "illegitimate" forms of theatre, such as those performed by giullari and, more famously, the ancient Italian style of commedia dell'arte.
Tony Maimone is a bass guitarist, producer, and recording engineer, who lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Martin Gerald Sherman is an American dramatist and screenwriter best known for his 20 stage plays which have been produced in over 60 countries. He rose to fame in 1979 with the production of his play Bent, which explores the persecution of homosexuals during the Holocaust. Bent was a Tony nominee for Best Play in 1980 and won the Dramatists Guild's Hull-Warriner Award. It was adapted by Sherman for a major motion picture in 1997 and later by independent sources as a ballet in Brazil. Sherman is Jewish and openly gay, and many of his works dramatize "outsiders," dealing with the discrimination and marginalization of minorities whether "gay, female, foreign, disabled, different in religion, class or color." He has lived and worked in London since 1980.
Franca Rame was an Italian theatre actress, playwright and political activist. She was married to Nobel laureate playwright Dario Fo and is the mother of writer Jacopo Fo. Fo dedicated his Nobel Prize to her.
Mel Shapiro is an American theatre director and writer, college professor, and author.
Victory Gardens Theater is a theater company in Chicago, Illinois dedicated to the development and production of new plays and playwrights. The theater company was founded in 1974 when eight Chicago artists, Cecil O'Neal, Warren Casey, Stuart Gordon, Cordis Heard, Roberta Maguire, Mac McGuinnes, June Pyskaček, and David Rasche each fronted $1,000 to start a company outside the Chicago Loop and Gordon donated the light board of his Organic Theater Company. The theater's first production, The Velvet Rose, by Stacy Myatt, premiered on October 9, 1974.
The Undermain Theatre is an 80-seat regional theater, home to the professional theater company, Deep Ellum Theatre Group. It is located in Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas. Deriving its name from the actual location of the basement space "under Main Street", this ensemble group of theatre artists performs new and experimental works throughout Dallas, New York City and Europe and has become known for producing many contemporary writers.
Dario Niccodemi was an Italian novelist and a playwright who was born in Italy.
Marco Paolini is an Italian stage actor, theatre director, dramaturge and author.
The Open Fist Theatre is both a 501(c)(3) non-profit theatre company. Originally operating a 99-seat theatre facility in Theatre Row Hollywood located at 6209 Santa Monica Blvd, it is now in residence at the Atwater Village Theatre. The name of the Open Fist Theatre Company comes from two principles: the notion of an open spirit and the fist - a sign of determination and force.
Studio Festi is an Italian artistic project and production centre bringing into being shows and grand installations. Founded in 1982, by Valerio Festi and Monica Maimone, Studio Festi operates from its main offices in Velate, its workshop in Venegono Superiore (Varese) and, in 2010, it set up a branch in São Paulo, Brazil.
Valerio Festi is an Italian artistic director and producer. He is also the Chief Executive Officer at Studio Festi.
International Sabancı Theater Festival or International Adana Theater Festival, more precisely State Theater-Sabancı International Adana Theater Festival, is a theatre festival held every year in Adana since 1999. It is a joint organization of Turkish State Theatres, the Ministry of Tourism and Culture and the Sabancı Foundation. Many national and international theater groups perform their plays during the festival.
Larissa FastHorse is a Native American playwright and choreographer based in Santa Monica, California. In 2023, she became the first known female Native American playwright produced on Broadway with The Thanksgiving Play at Second Stage’s Hayes Theater. That same year, she joined Arizona State University as a professor of practice in the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and the Department of English with long-time collaborators, Michael John Garcés and Ty Defoe. In 2024, Peter Pan: The Broadway Musical with an adapted book by FastHorse began an international tour.
Joe Martin is a playwright, author, academic and theater director.
The theatre of Italy originates from the Middle Ages, with its background dating back to the times of the ancient Greek colonies of Magna Graecia, in Southern Italy, the theatre of the Italic peoples and the theatre of ancient Rome. It can therefore be assumed that there were two main lines of which the ancient Italian theatre developed in the Middle Ages. The first, consisting of the dramatization of Catholic liturgies and of which more documentation is retained, and the second, formed by pagan forms of spectacle such as the staging for city festivals, the court preparations of the jesters and the songs of the troubadours.
Lorena Luciano is an Italian documentary filmmaker best known for her documentary film It Will Be Chaos, winner of an Emmy Award for Outstanding Current Affairs documentary in 2019. and winner of Best Directing Award at the Taormina International Film Festival. As a director, editor, and writer she has worked on feature documentaries and TV series for national and international cable TV and streamers. She is the recipient of the Sundance Institute/A&E Brave Storyteller Award, and her work has been recognized with art grants from the MacArthur Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Ben & Jerry's Foundation.
Micheline Chevrier is a bilingual Canadian theatre director, artistic director, dramaturge, mentor and teacher in Montreal.
Franco Parenti was an Italian actor and stage director.
