The Two Gentlemen of Verona (from Shakespeare)

The Two Gentlemen of Verona (from Shakespeare)

I was called by Numeriprimi  who wanted to stage a Shakespearean play in an imaginative way at the Teatro del Tempo in Parma, Italy. For this company of young actors, who had just graduated from a professional course supported by the European Union, I chose The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

In addition to providing an original translation, I dramaturged the script in several directions:

  • I substituted several scenes with speechless actions to take advantage of opportunities for physical theatre;
  • to better employ one of Numeriprimi’s performers, I substituted the clown character with a winged Cupid on roller skates who recited aphorisms from the humorous Murphy’s Law of Love, a prominent theme in the play;
  • finally, I added several songs, each in fact a Shakespearean sonnet, translated into Italian and set to original music by Marco Caronna.

With the tunes played by Luca Savazzi and sung by a gifted vocalist and company member, the show came to resemble a musical.

Below you find both an 8 minute promo video and the two parts of the full show:

Promo

Part 1

Part 2

Stebos

Stebos is a stage director, producer, and dramaturg, based in Las Vegas and New York City in the United States.

Stebos has 40 posts and counting. See all posts by Stebos

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