TEATRO KISMET

From small co-operative to international touring company

Founded as a co-operative in 1981, Teatro Kismet has grown to become one of Italy's leading theatre companies, producing innovative work for its own cultural centre in Bari, southern Italy, as well as touring internationally. The company now programmes and manages two theatres in Puglia, runs a successful annual children's theatre festival, Maggio all' Infanzia, and is dedicated to research and development as well as creating new work for national and international touring.

The company has won many awards for its high quality theatre for young and adult audiences, often working with fairy tales, classic myths and legends and specialising in work which has cross generational appeal.

Social programme

A strong social programme includes 20 years working with learning disabled artists and 11 years of work with young prisoners. Kismet has created a theatre in a prison for young offenders where prisoners have the opportunity to create and present theatre with professional artists. MOMArt is a groundbreaking project which sees the company working with Libera, a national umbrella organization of anti mafia associations, to transform a mafia run nightclub on the outskirts of Bari into a cultural hub dedicated to young people, specializing in artistic residences, workshops, and projects of regional, national and international cultural exchange.

Productions for young people

2009 will mark 15 years of the company's much anticipated visits to the UK. Teatro Kismet has previously toured the UK with acclaimed productions of Little Red Riding Hood (1994), Pinocchio (1996), Beauty and The Beast (2002), and The Snow Queen (2007), and featured in Brighton Festival with a new production of Gilgamesh (2004). The company has also been one of Europe's leading practitioners of theatre for early years with the award-winning Little Mysteries and Che Accada! by Rossana Farinati, a director and performer who is now exploring the nature of adolescence in a new production, In Turmoil.

European projects

Several European projects include Broken Spaces, an international project using theatre, creative writing and web technology to explore the themes of immigration and emigration. Through the Woods was a collaboration with the Comédie de Valence and Birmingham REP to devise an original new work for children themed on the relationship between children and the generation of their grandparents as well as issues around cultural diversity. Teatro Kismet is currently working with the Alliance Française to introduce contemporary French writers in Italy. University students will work with writer Teresa Ludovico on a translation of Marie Ndiaye's Rien d'Humaine which will then be performed by professional Italian actors.

Recent projects

Other recent projects include a new adaptation of The Iliad directed by Lello Tedeschi; three small scale storytelling productions by Monica Contini and Lucia Zotti, Quicha, Stories of Witches and Puss in Boots; a production of Andersen's The Traveller's Companion adapted and directed for a cast of 30 learning disabled artists; and a collaboration with the Fondazione Petruzzelli of Bari and the Conservatoire Niccolò Picinni to produce the first full theatrical production of Nino Rota's opera for children The Swineherd Prince, presented at Birmingham REP in collaboration with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO).

Teresa Ludovico: exploring fairy tales in Europe and Japan

Teresa Ludovico's earthy, visual, poetic and physical style has been embraced equally by artists and audiences in both Europe and Japan, now considered by Ludovico to be her second home. Indeed her work in Japanese culture has nourished and inspired her work in Italy and vice versa creating a fascinating dialogue which is pursued in each new production. Teresa first visited Japan with the landmark Italian production for Kismet, Beauty and the Beast, an earthy and sexy Mediterranean production which caused a sensation among Japanese audiences and toured twice there successfully. She was then commissioned to write and direct a new adaptation of Andersen's The Snow Queen by Setagaya Public Theatre, Tokyo, featuring a Japanese cast. A European version was subsequently created in co-production with Athens Festival where it premiered in June 2006.

Teresa has recently created The Mermaid Princess, an adaptation of Andersen's The Little Mermaid, for Setagaya Public Theatre and is currently working with Teatro Kismet to prepare a European version of this production for touring in 2010. At the same time she is creating a new adaptation of Andersen's The Travelling Companion for a brand new theatre in Tokyo, Za Koenji Public Theatre. The production will open In September 09 with the new The Mermaid Princess opening in Bari just a month later. Aside from her exploration of fairy tales concerned with the journey of initiation from childhood to adulthood, Teresa is also adapting and directing a new production of Molière's The Hypochondriac produced by Kismet, which will premiere at the Teatro Piccinni in Bari in February 09, featuring the company's president-actor and founder member Augusto Masiello in the title role.

Teatro Kismet OperA, Strada S. Giorgio Martire 22/F, 70123 Bari, Italy
www.teatrokismet.org
info@teatrokismet.org
for information in English contact: judyowenltd@googlemail.com

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