They came from Italy for a better life bringing their artistic talents and their passion: THEATER.
“Antonio Maiori is the bright particular star, and he began his season with a performance of “The Merchant of Venice” which, if it does not eclipse the recent Mansfield and Adler productions, apparently serves its purpose in giving younger Italy some sort of a perspective on English drama.
We are not prepared to admit that Signor Maiori reminds us in any way of his brilliant countryman Salvini, but that he has a following of his own was demonstrated pretty clearly last night. The theatre was filled, all the boxes being occupied by black-eyed beauties, who showered bouquets upon the stage just about the time that poor Shylock was most in need of consolation. For he had been roundly hissed by the Gallery, one auditor remarking quite audibly that it “serva him rights-he wassa badda fell”.
NYTIMES MAY 30 1905
Today’s main Italian Theater Company in NY
KIT-Kairos Italy Theater is internationally recognized as the Italian Theater Company in NY. KIT’s mission is to spread Italian Culture and to create an Italian Culture Network to maintain the knowledge of Italy in the United States. KIT offers never-before-translated works by major Italian playwrights, the Double Theatre Experience (One-Act plays performed in English and then in Italian in the same evening, by different casts), and workshops. KIT is the creator of In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY, the first Italian Theater festival to take place in all 5 New York City Boroughs and partner of OnStage! the first American Theater Festival in Rome, Italy. KIT is the Theater Company in residence at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo’ at NYU. www.kitheater.com
About the documentary and Italian Theater in the US
Tutti In Scena is a one of a kind documentary as it tells a story that has been told for a long time. While the documentary is an overview of the many talents that filled the NYC stages to then go to Hollywood or to establish other theaters all over the United States, this website would like to gather as much as information possible about the history of Italian theater artists in NYC and in the United States . Stay tuned for updates coming up day by day.
Finalists at the Russo Brothers Film Forum
Great Writers
A great number of writers, playwrights, poets, thinkers moved to the United States to help new ideas to become reality. They wrote beautiful plays and solo shows about what they were seeing and experiencing in Italy and in the Little Italy they lived in.
Theaters
Between the end of 1800 and beginning of 1900, there were so many theaters offering Italian plays in New York, especially in the Lower East Side, Little Italy and Harlem in Manhattan and in the Atlantic Avenue area in Brooklyn.
Women
Women had a primary role in the Italian theater in the United States. They were actresses, directors, producers, administrators while of course wives and mothers. They raised money for political ideas,tu support the Italian population in Italy and in the US and helped other talents to become famous.
A Virtual Museum of Italian Theater in the United States
We are working to give you a Virtual Museum of Italian Theater in the United States. Stay tuned for material, videos, audios and a lot of images!