FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ITALIAN PLAYWRIGHT & DIRECTOR,
STEFANO MASSINI (PICCOLO TEATRO DI MILANO-TEATRO D’EUROPA),
ADDRESSES LEHMAN BROTHERS BANKRUPTCY IN NEW PLAY.
READING & CONVERSATION.
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center & UMANISM,
with The Italian Cultural Institute of New York, and in
collaboration with 369gradi, present:
The Italian Playwrights Project
Stefano Massini’s SOMETHING ABOUT THE LEHMANS
Stefano Massini / Piccolo Teatro di Milano-Teatro d’Europa
Monday, December 5, 2016 at 6:30pm.
FREE & open to the public.
First come, first served. thesegalcenter.org
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center
at The Graduate Center, City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue (bet. 34th & 35th), New York, NY 10016
The Italian Playwrights Project presents Something About the Lehmans, a conversation with playwright Stefano Massini about his work as well as the role of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano and contemporary theatre in Europe. At the artist talk, moderated by Dr. Frank Hentschker (The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Executive Director and Director of Programs), Massini will be joined by Valeria Orani (Umanism founder and director), and Giorgio Van Straten (Director of the Italian Cultural Institute of New York).
The event will also feature a reading of an excerpt from Something about the Lehmans, translated by Allison Eikerenkoetter, directed by Marco Calvani, and performed by actor Robert Funaro.
Something About the Lehmans (Mondadori 2016) by Italian playwright Stefano Massini tells the story of the historic rise and fall of the Lehman Brothers investment house. The play premiered at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano-Teatro d’Europa in 2015 and was the last work of legendary Italian theatre director Luca Ronconi. It has since been produced widely in Europe. Oscar Award-winning director Sam Mendes will be staging The Lehman Trilogy.
After the event at The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, the audience is invited to meet the artists and curators of the Italian Playwrights Projects at the Umanism Fundraising After Party to support the Italian Playwrights Project activities. The After Party will take place at The Archive Bar (12E 36th St. New York). Suggested minimum donation of $50 includes VIP Pass with food and drink.
The Italian Playwrights Project was created by Valeria Orani (Umanism NY) and Frank Hentschker (The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center), in collaboration with The Italian Cultural Institute in New York, Giorgio Van Straten, Director. This event is made possible by the generous support of Joseph LoCicero/ The Segal Company.
Event Information:
Monday, December 5, 2016 at 6:30pm
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The Graduate Center, City University of New York,
365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY.
FREE + Open to public. First come, first served.
Info: www.thesegalcenter.org/event/italian-playwrights-project-something-about-the-lehmansitaly-with-stefano-massini
UMANISM Fundraising After Party
From 8:30pm at The Archive Bar (12 E.36th St. New York)
LIMITED ADMISSION
Suggested minimum Donation: $50 (includes VIP Pass with food and drink)
Info: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/italian-playwright-project-stefano-massini-fundraising-after-party-tickets-29061501734
Stefano Massini – Biography
Stefano Massini (Florence, September 22, 1975) is an Italian playwright and director. With a degree in Ancient Literature from the University of Florence, he started his career in theater in 2000 as an assistant of Luca Ronconi at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, and as an assistant to international directors at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Festival. In 2005, with L’odore Assordante del Bianco, he won the Pier Vittorio Tondelli Award, the highest playwriting award in Italy. In 2004, he won the Flaiano Prize, and received a nomination at Vallecorsi Prize with La Fine di Shavuoth. With the 2005-2006 season, he began his collaboration with the Drama Centre “Theatre of Women” at Teatro Manzoni in Calenzano (Florence), developing the project Trittico delle Gabbie, among other productions. Inspired by the events following the 2008 economic crisis, between 2009 and 2012, Massini wrote his most ambitious and successful work, The Lehman Trilogy, translated into 14 languages. Staged for the first time in 2015 in Italy in an extended version by Luca Ronconi, The Lehman Trilogy has gained great success from critics and audiences and numerous prizes, including five Ubu Awards. Since May 2015 Stefano Massini is the new artistic advisor of the Piccolo Teatro of Milan, replacing his master Luca Ronconi, who died three months before.
More about the Italian Playwrights Project: The Segal Center invited Italian Artistic Director Valeria Orani from 369gradi (Italy) and UMANISM (NY) to collaborate on this ambitious new translation, performance and publishing initiative. “Valeria’s initiative is the most significant Italian playwright project in the last two decades in the Americas, and we are honored to be able to support this project,” says Segal Center Executive Director Dr. Frank Hentschker. Valeria Orani adds: “We have a truly fantastic selection of some of the most significant contemporary Italian playwrights working today and we believe that American audiences will connect with the themes in their works.”
Italian Playwrights Project has three principal goals:
- To raise the awareness of contemporary Italian writing for the stage in the Americas and to foster the development of collaborative relationships between playwrights from Italy and American theatre artists.
- After the December 2015 readings and other events, the launch of a contemporary Italian theatre festival in New York with fully staged productions of selected plays.
- The publication of a translated anthology of the selected Italian plays.
About the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center: The Segal Center bridges the gap between the academic and performing arts communities through dynamic public programs and digital initiatives that are free and open to all. Home to theatre artists, scholars, students, performing arts managers, and the local and international performance communities, the Segal Center provides a supportive environment for conversation, open exchange, and the development of new ideas and new work. Year round, the Center presents a wide variety of FREE public programs which feature leading national and international artists, scholars, and arts professionals in conversation about theatre and performance. Programs include staged readings to further the development of new and classic plays, festivals celebrating New York performance (PRELUDE) and international plays (PEN World Voices), screenings of performance works on film, artists in conversation, academic lecture series, televised seminars, symposia, and arts in education programs. In addition, the Center maintains its long-standing visiting-scholars-from-abroad program, publishes a series of highly regarded academic journals, as well as single volumes of importance (including plays in translation), all written and edited by renowned scholars. www.theSegalCenter.org
About UMANISM NYC: UMANISM is a company dedicated to the promotion and support of contemporary Italian culture and its professionals in New York. A movement, an open platform connecting Italy to the USA recognizing and expanding the creative potential of projects by Italian artists, supporting them in each step of the production and communication in the larger and more challenging context of New York www.UMANISM.com
###
For more info:
UMANISM Press Office
Alessia Meloni
+1 646-579-4589
E: info@UMANISM.com
Stefano Massini’s SOMETHING ABOUT THE LEHMANS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ITALIAN PLAYWRIGHT & DIRECTOR,
STEFANO MASSINI (PICCOLO TEATRO DI MILANO-TEATRO D’EUROPA),
ADDRESSES LEHMAN BROTHERS BANKRUPTCY IN NEW PLAY.
READING & CONVERSATION.
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center & UMANISM,
with The Italian Cultural Institute of New York, and in
collaboration with 369gradi, present:
The Italian Playwrights Project
Stefano Massini’s SOMETHING ABOUT THE LEHMANS
Stefano Massini / Piccolo Teatro di Milano-Teatro d’Europa
Monday, December 5, 2016 at 6:30pm.
FREE & open to the public.
First come, first served. thesegalcenter.org
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center
at The Graduate Center, City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue (bet. 34th & 35th), New York, NY 10016
The Italian Playwrights Project presents Something About the Lehmans, a conversation with playwright Stefano Massini about his work as well as the role of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano and contemporary theatre in Europe. At the artist talk, moderated by Dr. Frank Hentschker (The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Executive Director and Director of Programs), Massini will be joined by Valeria Orani (Umanism founder and director), and Giorgio Van Straten (Director of the Italian Cultural Institute of New York).
The event will also feature a reading of an excerpt from Something about the Lehmans, translated by Allison Eikerenkoetter, directed by Marco Calvani, and performed by actor Robert Funaro.
Something About the Lehmans (Mondadori 2016) by Italian playwright Stefano Massini tells the story of the historic rise and fall of the Lehman Brothers investment house. The play premiered at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano-Teatro d’Europa in 2015 and was the last work of legendary Italian theatre director Luca Ronconi. It has since been produced widely in Europe. Oscar Award-winning director Sam Mendes will be staging The Lehman Trilogy.
After the event at The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, the audience is invited to meet the artists and curators of the Italian Playwrights Projects at the Umanism Fundraising After Party to support the Italian Playwrights Project activities. The After Party will take place at The Archive Bar (12E 36th St. New York). Suggested minimum donation of $50 includes VIP Pass with food and drink.
The Italian Playwrights Project was created by Valeria Orani (Umanism NY) and Frank Hentschker (The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center), in collaboration with The Italian Cultural Institute in New York, Giorgio Van Straten, Director. This event is made possible by the generous support of Joseph LoCicero/ The Segal Company.
Event Information:
Monday, December 5, 2016 at 6:30pm
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The Graduate Center, City University of New York,
365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY.
FREE + Open to public. First come, first served.
Info: www.thesegalcenter.org/event/italian-playwrights-project-something-about-the-lehmansitaly-with-stefano-massini
UMANISM Fundraising After Party
From 8:30pm at The Archive Bar (12 E.36th St. New York)
LIMITED ADMISSION
Suggested minimum Donation: $50 (includes VIP Pass with food and drink)
Info: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/italian-playwright-project-stefano-massini-fundraising-after-party-tickets-29061501734
Stefano Massini – Biography
Stefano Massini (Florence, September 22, 1975) is an Italian playwright and director. With a degree in Ancient Literature from the University of Florence, he started his career in theater in 2000 as an assistant of Luca Ronconi at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, and as an assistant to international directors at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Festival. In 2005, with L’odore Assordante del Bianco, he won the Pier Vittorio Tondelli Award, the highest playwriting award in Italy. In 2004, he won the Flaiano Prize, and received a nomination at Vallecorsi Prize with La Fine di Shavuoth. With the 2005-2006 season, he began his collaboration with the Drama Centre “Theatre of Women” at Teatro Manzoni in Calenzano (Florence), developing the project Trittico delle Gabbie, among other productions. Inspired by the events following the 2008 economic crisis, between 2009 and 2012, Massini wrote his most ambitious and successful work, The Lehman Trilogy, translated into 14 languages. Staged for the first time in 2015 in Italy in an extended version by Luca Ronconi, The Lehman Trilogy has gained great success from critics and audiences and numerous prizes, including five Ubu Awards. Since May 2015 Stefano Massini is the new artistic advisor of the Piccolo Teatro of Milan, replacing his master Luca Ronconi, who died three months before.
More about the Italian Playwrights Project: The Segal Center invited Italian Artistic Director Valeria Orani from 369gradi (Italy) and UMANISM (NY) to collaborate on this ambitious new translation, performance and publishing initiative. “Valeria’s initiative is the most significant Italian playwright project in the last two decades in the Americas, and we are honored to be able to support this project,” says Segal Center Executive Director Dr. Frank Hentschker. Valeria Orani adds: “We have a truly fantastic selection of some of the most significant contemporary Italian playwrights working today and we believe that American audiences will connect with the themes in their works.”
Italian Playwrights Project has three principal goals:
About the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center: The Segal Center bridges the gap between the academic and performing arts communities through dynamic public programs and digital initiatives that are free and open to all. Home to theatre artists, scholars, students, performing arts managers, and the local and international performance communities, the Segal Center provides a supportive environment for conversation, open exchange, and the development of new ideas and new work. Year round, the Center presents a wide variety of FREE public programs which feature leading national and international artists, scholars, and arts professionals in conversation about theatre and performance. Programs include staged readings to further the development of new and classic plays, festivals celebrating New York performance (PRELUDE) and international plays (PEN World Voices), screenings of performance works on film, artists in conversation, academic lecture series, televised seminars, symposia, and arts in education programs. In addition, the Center maintains its long-standing visiting-scholars-from-abroad program, publishes a series of highly regarded academic journals, as well as single volumes of importance (including plays in translation), all written and edited by renowned scholars. www.theSegalCenter.org
About UMANISM NYC: UMANISM is a company dedicated to the promotion and support of contemporary Italian culture and its professionals in New York. A movement, an open platform connecting Italy to the USA recognizing and expanding the creative potential of projects by Italian artists, supporting them in each step of the production and communication in the larger and more challenging context of New York www.UMANISM.com
###
For more info:
UMANISM Press Office
Alessia Meloni
+1 646-579-4589
E: info@UMANISM.com