DOPO IL SILENZIO

After the significant experience of Per non morire di mafia, based on the book of the same name, which after its successful Spoleto baptism was present on Italian stages for two seasons, sees life at the 2013 Spoleto Festival Dopo il Silenzio. A new theatrical adventure, this, an autonomous writing that sees the collaboration between a figure like Pietro Grasso and one of the most interesting Italian playwrights, Francesco Niccolini. A text this one that sees the light, moreover, in a political and social scenario, compared to two years ago, more and more constantly disorienting in which with an astonishing speed everything is devoured: from cultural content, up to scientific and technological information.

to In the face of so much mass media speed, so much shouting, so much emotional and material distress overwhelming the citizens of this beloved and wounded country of ours, theater can be more and more the bearer of stories, creating the conditions for knowing and thus being able to decide on one's social and private destiny.

That is why it seemed important to me to accept the invitation of Sebastiano Lo Monaco and Margherita Rubino, the inexhaustible source of energy and architect of the project, to to continue on a theatrical path that would see us artistically together in pursuing an organic reasoning around the words and thought of Pietro Grasso.

In this case the stage is the place of History, of a collective history that runs through the small personal stories of each of us and thus may in itself contain the foundations of a possible national reorientation.

With this in mind, also in Dopo il Silenzio the theatrical word becomes a tool for investigating a History of a country, Italy, that coincides, sometimes clashes, diverges and then finds points of contact with the history of the Mafia with its political/economic entanglements, with its overturning of values that has combined with a barbarism of customs and public life.

This certainly represents the narrative focus of this new, show, as it was also in the first one but this time transcending Grasso's individual to autobiographical experience, positing elements of a stage narrative that, not reducing itself to a chronicle or denunciation dimension, seems to me to go toward the forms of ancient Tragedy by addressing the great themes of conscience struggling with justice and death as an extreme horizon.

Grasso's writing and Niccolini's dramaturgy project us into a communicative necessity that urges, intrigues and places the viewer in deep attention to the human experience with all its contradictions and with that necessary capacity for understanding and suspension of judgment.

The theater from always a source of spiritual salvation and a mirror of the collective, it allows us to travel among the images, memories, and fragments of a whole that was broken between intimidation, bombs, and death brought to the public squares.

Generations and the dialogue between them, becomes the axis around to which the stage writing of After Silence revolves. The duty that Pietro Grasso gives himself is to pass on history, to make it known to young people. The image is that of a Silence that speaks, opposed to an omertous silence that we want to erase and build on that "After" our future.

A heated and vibrant dialogue then this show, which confronts two generations, two totally opposite points of view of reading life.

In a place of waiting, in a purgatory of the soul, in a condition outside of time and space where the great story with its events breaks through, the destinies of this young man and man meet to come to terms with their conscience. On the edge of a time that is expiring the young man and the man make an inner journey that is meant to be a conscious re-discussion of the motives of their lives of the choices more or less ethically lived.

Those two men, so different from each other, compare their lives in a face to face that starts from the mafia as an external phenomenon to itself to arrive at a definition of mafia as an inner condition of man, as a reaction to social problems, as a wrong response to unexpressed needs, as a product of a complicit Silence ; a mafia that is born in everyone when the dialogue with one's own values is not open and fair.

In that place, as if from always there, a public man, who from always fought for his ideas, for justice, who has gone through the history of Italy for the last thirty years and more, with his disappointments and defeats but also hopes and victories, waits for that young man to arrive. A man who carries with him the history, the dramatic history of this second republic, a man with his choices always bravely and honestly faced with equal consistency faces the young man who questions, demands and judges. A young man who does not know that history except through television, a young man who has sold himself and his freedom, a young man without words to build his future. Facing to him that grown man feels the duty to bring his words, his thoughts, his experiences so that all this becomes a shared heritage.

Between those two men of different ages and experience, an understanding is gradually created, an ideal embrace, an ethical and moral reunion that can symbolically found a more civilized Nation, capable of a moral revolt and of saying "We don't!"

In the face of the sacredness of death, at the limit that even ancient Greek tragedy marked as the turning point and transformation of man, mutual pietas finds a gesture with which to realize itself, and that ethical dimension of political action becomes understanding of the other, listening to the other, and a concrete act.

That boy and that man are two sides of us: the awareness of degradation, the perception of the deep root of it of which the Mafia is only the most immediately readable tip, and on the other side we find the unawareness of not knowing, not wanting to understand and not wanting to read the reality around us with new eyes.

Between those two men, in that metaphysical space of memory, in that sort of archive of the mind, made up of faces, names, places, there is a woman, a feminine thought that poses the hope of transformation and imposes knowledge and knowledge as roads to the future.

The emergence of a figure of a woman who stands beside the man as an educator, ethically turned toward the young, seems to me the important datum of this new theatrical tale. In this text, therefore, we want to talk about a collective History of men but also of women who have naturally experienced important choices, who have carried deep mourning but who, with that capacity for acceptance that the feminine brings, have overcome important and decisive trials.

In short, that woman acts the unfolding of the dialogue between the two and when she intervenes it is to bring a "wind" that opens windows, opens doors wide to bring out a truth, an honesty that is there in every action that can save a young person! That woman embodies the future, the possibility of transformation, a new dawn possible for the broken and torn city.

That woman opposes the culture of blood, the culture of love and like the ancient Trojan women defends those family values deposited in the secret of the marriage experience.

That man and woman, with to the young man beside them, with their faces brushed by the wind, can thus finally celebrate those who are gone, those who gave their lives to defend and build democracy, and on the earth thus kneel and feel the warmth of the sun.

Alessio Pizzech

‍PIETROGRASSO‍

Pietro Grasso, originally from Lycia (Ag), began his cursus honorum in 1969, when he entered the judiciary. In 1984 he served as judge to latere in the first maxiprocesso to Cosa Nostra (Feb. 10, 1986-Dec. 10, 1987), 475 defendants. In this context, to side by side with President Alfonso Giordano he was the draftsman of the sentence (more than 8,000 pages) that imposed 19 life sentences and more than 2,500 years of imprisonment. Subsequently, Grasso was an adviser to the Ministry of Grace and Justice (Guardasigilli was Claudio Martelli), when Giovanni Falcone was at the Directorate of Criminal Affairs. As assistant prosecutor at the National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor's Office (led from Pier Luigi Vigna), he oversaw and coordinated the investigations into the 1992 and 1993 massacres. From October 11, 2005 to end of 2012 he held the post of National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor. On March 16, 2013, he was elected President of the Senate of the Italian Republic.

FRANCESCO NICCOLINI

Born in Arezzo in 1965, he collaborated with Marco Paolini from the TV version of Vajont to to ITISGalileo. He has written documentaries for radio and television in Italy and Switzerland, and texts for many Italian theater actors, from Sandro Lombardi to Banda Osiris, from Arnoldo Foà to Massimo Schuster, from Anna Bonaiuto to Sebastiano Lo Monaco. With Alessio Pizzech he has undertaken a series of artistic collaborations on special projects, which have ranged from Giorgio Caproni to seafarers' stories, up to to this work, the result of long conversations with Piero Grasso. from some years, together to a Brindisi storyteller, Luigi D'Elia, is working to a project of forestation of a forest in a land confiscated from the mafia, in the Paradiso neighborhood of Brindisi, through the contribution of the shows.

DAISY RUBY

Associate professor of "Theater and Dramaturgy of Antiquity" and "Traditions of Greek and Latin Theater," editor of the journal "Dionysus," she is the author of some fifty articles on ancient theater and its fortunes in the modern age, up to the new dissemination by computer and the ongoing 'globalization' of the heritage of the ancients. Her books and editorships include Contemporary Medea (2001), Verdi and the Classical Tradition (2002), Antigone. Myth, Law, Performance (2005), Phaedra. By a Woman's Hand (2009). She has been Dramaturg for INDA in Syracuse in 2009 and 2010 for Medea and Phaedra, author of the theatrical reduction Per non morire di mafia, from the book of the same name by Piero Grasso (2010), of Le ribelli, from the book of the same name by Nando dalla Chiesa, of Le cattive from Aeschylus, Euripides, Seneca, Ibsen (2012) and of Medea from Euripides for actress Lunetta Savino (2013). She was a cultural promoter for the City of Genoa (2010-2012) and is a theater critic for "Il Secolo XIX."

ALEXIS PIZZECK

Alessio Pizzech, was born to Livorno in 1972. While still a child he devoted himself to singing, worked in a circus until to 18 years old and in no time, from promise of the theater, critics define him as one of the most significant Italian directors. With extraordinary energy he stages about 120 shows between prose and opera, collaborating with all major Italian theaters and festivals. Among his most significant works in recent years we mention the direction of Ascent to fall of the city of Mahagonny and Haende's Julius Caesar for opera direction, thus ranging from the twentieth-century repertoire to the baroque one passing through the great Italian repertoire. For prose we recall the direction of Per non morire di Mafia where he began his artistic collaboration with Sebastiano Lo Monaco and the direction of several works by Bernard Marie Koltès among which we recall L'Eredità and Coco. He has been professor of Scenic Art at the Conservatorio Giordano in Foggia. Of particular note is his activity as a trainer implemented since '93 in Italy and abroad. He has to his credit a contribution to the publication "I Teatri della scuola" published by the Province of Pisa.

SEBASTIANO LO MONACO

Floridia (SR) 1958, classical studies and Accademia d'Arte Drammatica Silvio d'Amico, debuts with Enrico Maria Salerno in 1979, meets Adriana Asti in Pirandello's Come Tu Mi Vuoi produced by the Teatro Stabile di Torino under the direction of Susan Sontag, in the 80s works with Salvo Randone, Anna Miserocchi, Anna Maria Guarnieri, Mario Missiroli, Roberto Guicciardini, Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, Paola Borboni. In the early 1990s, together with other young actors and directors from Syracuse, he created the theater group SiciliaTeatro and continued his countercurrent path of innovation in the sign of the best tradition; he intertwined long and fruitful artistic relationships with Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, Roberto Guicciardini, Mauro Bolognini, Alida Valli and again Paola Borboni; the fruits of those years will be performances still remembered by the passionate theatergoers: Il Berretto to Sonagli, Questa Sera Si Recita to Soggetto, Sei Personaggi in Cerca d'Autore, Cirano, Tartufo, Enrico IV, Uno Sguardo dal Ponte, Otello. His love for Classical Theater led him in 2004 to accept the role of Oedipus in Sophocles'Oedipus the King for the National Institute of Ancient Drama and to perform in the historic Greek Theater of Syracuse where he later donned the guise of Heracles and Philoctetes. For the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza he was Prometheus in Aeschylus's Prometheus Unchained directed by Roberto Guicciardini, and for the San Miniato Institute of Popular Drama he staged the most atypical character created from J.P. Sartre, Bariona, the Son of Thunder. Sebastiano Lo Monaco's acting career has always been characterized by a continuous challenge to dominant working models in the stubborn search for the new tradition. In the last two years he has staged, with great personal success, Pietro Grasso's text "Per Non Morire di Mafia" directed by Alessio Pizzech, which after its successful debut at the Spoleto Festival in 2010 had 220 performances in the major Theaters of our peninsula.

MARIANGELA D'ABBRACCIO

Neapolitan, she made her theater debut directed from Eduardo De Filippo. She became a protagonist of our theater working with, among others, Giorgio Albertazzi in Il ritorno di Casanova by to. Schnitzler, Luca De Filippo in Eduardo's Napoli milionaria directed from F. Rosi - Persephone Award 2004 - best play, Arturo Brachetti, Valeria Moriconi in Filumena Marturano. She often plays characters of strong and passionate women: she is Maria Stuarda in F. Tavassi's direction, Camille Claudel by D. Maraini, Sunshine by W. Mastrosimone directed by M. Mattolini at Festival dei due Mondi; she is the cat on the burning roof and Serafina in T . Williams, she is Anna of Miracles by W. Gibson directed by F. Tavassi, Lady Macbeth, Gertrude, the queen in Hamlet by W. Shakespeare, Beatrice in Much Noise for Nothing, the Duchess of Amalfi by Webster. She won the Flaiano Award as best actress for Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore by L. Pirandello directed by Giuseppe Patroni Griffi. In film she is directed from Zeffirelli, Benigni, Veronesi, Del Monte, Vanzina, Greco.

For Sony music he records the CD Il Cuore di Totò. She dedicates the concert-show Amarafemmena to Neapolitan song, while with the concert-show Anima latina she is touring from Argentina to Chile to Portugal to Naples. With Napoletana new concert-show is to London for the 2012 Olympics. For Asti teatro and Taormina Arte 2011 she is the protagonist of Teresa la ladra by D. Maraini with original music and songs by S. Cammariere and directed by F. Tavassi, Persephone Award 2012 as best female performer - Teatro canzone. She is 2010 Gassman Award - best performance - for La Strana Coppia by N. Simon, directed by F. Tavassi. Directed from to . Pugliese performs a play by W. Allen, The Floating Light Bulb. For the 2012 season she brings Monroe's private diaries to the stage in Marilyn Monroe Fragments, directed by C. Giordano.

TURI MORICCA

Born to Syracuse in 1985, he attended the T. Gargallo classical high school, where he took his first steps in the world of theater and went on stage as a leading actor at the Youth Festival at the Greek theater in Palazzolo Acreide (SR) in Euripides' Hippolytus. She enrolls in the faculty of literature music and performing arts at the University of Catania and in the same year joins the cultural and theatrical association La nuova scena. to Rome graduates from the Academy of Dramatic Art "Silvio D'amico," studying with Lorenzo Salveti, Anna Marchesini, Massimiliano Farau, Mario Ferrero,Valentino Villa, Lilo Baur, Walter Pagliaro. In 2011 he won the Siae prize by bringing to the stage the monologue L'uomo bomba e la donna cannone by Antonio Albanese. Under Arturo Cirillo he is Settebellezze in Eduardo De filippo's Napoli milionaria. In the summer of 2012 he is chosen from Luca Ronconi for the seminar "Studio su Questa sera si recita to soggetto" at the "Santa Cristina" theater center.

GIACOMO TRINGALI

A sculptor, he studied at the International School of Engraving in Rome, the International School of Engraving in Urbino, the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and graduated in Landscape Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture "L. Quaroni" in Rome. He works at Studio Tringali Architettura in Rome and founded the artistic research association OZU (Officine Zone Umane) based in Sabina. As a sculptor, in addition to solo exhibitions, he participates to several international sculpture symposia and to group exhibitions. He is the winner of the competitions for public works to Rome and Cles (Tn). As a set designer he collaborates to extensively as an assistant for Giuseppe Patroni Griffi and Carlo Giuffrè, signing the sets for: Disco Risorgimento, directed by to. D'Alatri; Clitennestra by M. Yourcenar, directed by I. Mattei; Cecchini by M. Bavastro, directed by D. de Plano; Carmen by G. Bizet, directed by M.Furlani; Il calapranzi by H.Pinter, directed by D.Nigrelli; Per non morire di mafia by P.Grasso, directed by to. Pizzech; Non si sa come by L.Pirandello, directed by S.Lo Monaco.

CHRISTINE FROM ROLD

Born to Turin, she graduated in set design from the Academy of Fine Arts in Turin and graduated from the Experimental Center of Cinematography as a costume designer. She is a student of Piero Tosi. She collaborates with many costume designers including: Gabriella Pescucci, Aldo Terlizzi, Gianna Gissi, Florance Emir, Patrizia Chiericoni, Carolina Olcese. She works for drama and opera as well as in advertising, television and film. She creates costumes for shows by numerous directors: Patroni Griffi, Bolognini, Amelio, Garrone, Piva, Salvatores, Latella, Giuffrè, Pezzoli, Binasco and Pizzech. She works in numerous opera shows, Italian and foreign productions, collaborating with Jean-Michel Folon in Boheme directed by Scaparro, Mitoraj in Tosca and Manon Lescaut. In 2010 she signed the costumes for the show Per non morire di mafia directed by Alessio Pizzech. from 14 years she is the head of tailoring for the opera festival Puccini Festival and collaborates as a teacher at the Maggio Fiorentino training courses.

DARIUS ARCHDEACONUS

He devoted himself very early on to composition for theater and television, extending his artistic interests to arranging and record production. Particularly attracted to the mythological and emotional power of the "sounds" of the world, his research tends to to explore the immense web of sound that holds together archaic liturgies and modern technology and generates a multifaceted and multiform musical fabric. He has curated the stage music for numerous shows including Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, directed by Roberto Guicciardini for the National Institute of Ancient Drama, William Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus for Mariano Rigillo's company, Aeschylus' Prometheus Unchained for the Teatro Stabile del Veneto, J.P. Sartre's Bariona for the San Miniato People's Drama, Pietro Grasso's Per non morire di mafia for The Spoleto Festival. For cinema he composed the music for the film Riparo by Marco Puccioni presented at the Berlin Film Festival in 2007; he also composed the music for the medium-length film Fedra presented at the Miami Film Festival in May 2007, a film that won the award for Best Original Score.

LUIGI ASCIONE

Born to Portici (Naples), a recognized master among Italian light designers, he began his career in the 1975/1976 theater season as assistant lighting technician. After years of apprenticeship, he devoted himself to and deepened his study of light, following a path that would lead him to to develop his own particular style in the field of lighting design. He taught as a teacher of lighting engineering in the juvenile prison of Nisida for a project wanted and curated from Eduardo De Filippo and at the Fondazione Campania dei Festival. His experience as a light designer spans various fields: fashion, dance, opera, television, events, musicals and theater. Among hundreds of collaborations, he has created lights for shows by Eduardo De Filippo, Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, Roberto Guicciardini, Giancarlo Cobelli, Roberto De Simone, Maurizio Scaparro, Ugu Gregoretti, Luigi Squarzina, Mario Missiroli, Jerome Savary, Michele Mirabella, Julia Varley, and Krzysztof Zanussi.

JAMACOME GREEN.

Giacomo Verde has been involved in theater and visual arts since the 1970s. Since the 1980s he has been carrying out operations related to the creative use of "poor" technology: video art, techno-performances, theatrical performances, installations, educational workshops... He is the inventor of the "tele-storytelling" - theatrical performance that combines storytelling, micro-theater and live macro shooting - a technique also used for video-fundamentals - live in concerts, poetry recitals and theatrical performances. He is among the first Italians to making interactive and net-art works. He has collaborated with different formations as actor, author, musician, video set designer or director and has exhibited his works in many national and international reviews and exhibitions. Reflecting by playfully experimenting on the ongoing techno-anthropo-logical mutations and creating connections between different artistic genres is his constant.

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