WHAT: Actor Mario Pirovano, the premier interpreter of Nobel Prize-winner Dario Fo's plays, will conduct a workshop on the art of storytelling and perform the play, Francis, The Holy Jester at the University of Rochester. This is the first time that this play will be presented to an American audience.
TIME, DATE, PLACE: The workshop will take place from noon. until 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct.10, in the Drama House on the Eastman Quadrangle of the University of Rochester's River Campus. Pirovano will conduct the first two hours of the workshop in English, and the third hour in Italian. The workshop is for both experienced and amateur thespians. The play will be performed in the sanctuary of the Interfaith Chapel at 7:30 p.m. on the same day. Both events are located on the River Campus, and are free and open to the public.
WHO: Mario Pirovano is an Italian actor and translator. He has been a long-time collaborator with Dario Fo, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997. Pirovano's visit is part of this year's programming for The Humanities Project, a UR interdepartmental endeavor to designed to support work from Rochester faculty in all areas of humanistic inquiry.
According to the Nobel Prize awarding committee, Dario Fo "emulates the jesters in the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden." Pirovano will perform Fo's play, Francis, the Holy Jester, an unconventional and provocative portrait of Francis of Assisi.
Pirovano will be available for a book-signing after the play. For additional information or to register for the workshop, email Donatella Stocchi-Perucchio at donatella.stocchi-perucchio@rochester.edu.