L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 2023 www.italoamericano.org 28 L'Italo-Americano T he Adventures of Pinocchio is n o t o n l y a c h i l - dren's fairy tale b u t a l s o a coming-of-age novel that has become a timeless clas- sic. Known to all as a brat who tells lies and grows a nose, Pinocchio is a naive and gullible but good-hear- ted puppet who, after getting into a thousand troubles, understands the importance of telling the truth. Thanks to the Rebelòt Theater, founded in Los Angeles by Italian actress Silvia Bottini, the charac- ter of Pinocchio returns to the stage and becomes the p r o t a g o n i s t o f t h e s h o w Pinocchio, the Wooden Boy. After debuting last April at the IAMLA Museum in Los A n g e l e s , P i n o c c h i o , t h e Wooden Boy has become a traveling show. H o w d i d R e b e l ò t Theater come about? It all started in 2018 when Fondazione Italia offered me to create a cycle of perfor- m a n c e s i n I t a l i a n f o r t h e l a n g u a g e p r o g r a m a t t h e Benjamin Franklin Elemen- t a r y a n d C H A M P S H i g h School. The project, suppor- ted by the Italian Consulate a n d t h e I t a l i a n C u l t u r a l Institute, went very well. Five years and a pandemic later, the Italian American Museum of LA asked me to prepare a show to complete the temporary exhibit on P i n o c c h i o , t h i s t i m e i n English. As I was making masks and sewing costumes, I realized that so much work and dedication would only live on in front of an audien- ce twice, for replicas at the m u s e u m . S o I d e c i d e d t o start my own theater com- p a n y , c h o o s i n g t o o f f e r c u s t o m i z e d , s i t e - s p e c i f i c p e r f o r m a n c e s f o r p r i v a t e events, where the offerings range from the actual show to a murder mystery dinner written especially for the participants. How did the choice of its name come about? Rebelòt is a word from t h e M i l a n e s e d i a l e c t t h a t means mess. It is what my f a t h e r u s e d t o s a y t o m e when I was playing, "Varda chï che rebelòt!" For me, it w a s a c o m p l i m e n t a n d a source of pride that my ima- gination and joy had created a rebelòt. Only as an adult did I discover that rebelòt means confusion, disorder. Again as an adult, I learned t h a t , a s N i e t z s c h e a l s o argued, it is precisely from chaos that art is born. We can say that my vocation and this young theater company w e r e b o t h b o r n f r o m m y passion for rebelòt. In writing the play, were you more inspired by the classic Disney film or Collo- di's book? Disney created a beautiful reinterpretation of the text. Very different from Collodi's book which, although it has fantastic elements and can be considered a coming-of- age novel, is certainly not a children's book, at least for our times. My play had bud- g e t a n d f r u i t i o n r e q u i r e - ments, which led me to focus mainly on language but I tried to keep the teachings a n d t h e m o s t i m p o r t a n t events of the original intact. Can you give us some details about the play? The play lasts 45', is for c h i l d r e n o f a l l a g e s , a n d keeps parts of the original text intact. I have added the character of the Storyteller, who has the didactic func- tion of explaining to chil- dren how to follow the play, but also a playful function, that is, to engage the audien- c e a c t i v e l y i n l i s t e n i n g . I have included stop-motion a n i m a t i o n s t h a t I m a d e myself, to introduce diffe- rent ways of communication and to show scenes difficult to transpose, such as the one in which Pinocchio and Gep- petto are swallowed by the whale. Will you be alone on stage? With me on stage, there is also an American actor, Mit- chell Lam Hau. Pinocchio, the Woo- den Boy was created in c o l l a b o r a t i o n w i t h IAMLA, but is the goal to transform it into an iti- nerant show? Y e s , w e b r o u g h t i t , t o being with, to a very special l o c a t i o n , t h e R e p t a c u l a r R a n c h i n S y l m a r . T h i s demonstrates how we can adapt a show to the location (site-specific), enhancing both. In fact, we go from a classical theater with a tech- n i c a l f a c i l i t y , t o a n o p e n space under millions of stars in the heart of the Los Ange- les National Forest. Did this show differ from the other? Since the ranch is run by t w o v e t e r i n a r y b i o l o g i s t s who offer guided tours, I thought of creating, for the young audience, a special experience. Before the show, children met many of the animals featured in Collodi's book. I prepared an interac- tive tour in which each ani- mal conveyed the advice that was also given to Pinocchio. At the end of the show, they had the chance to be immor- talized with Lupita, the little donkey from Toyland in the Playland Photo Booth. Why are you so pas- sionate about theater? I a c t e d f o r 1 5 y e a r s i n Italy, I won a scholarship and two national awards, but my dream has always b e e n t o d o c i n e m a . M y parents didn't have time to take me to the theater and I grew up watching movies. However, now that I've been studying and working in the Mecca of Cinema for about eight years, I feel a physical longing for those dusty sta- ges, for the silence that fol- lows the who's who of the stage, for the little artistic licenses one takes when the director is not in the room, f o r t h e d r e s s i n g r o o m rituals, for the reassuring constant repetition of the script, even offstage, when suddenly memory connects life with fiction. I s i t p o s s i b l e , f r o m y o u r p o i n t o f v i e w , t o increase the promotion o f p l a y s b y I t a l i a n authors in a city like Los Angeles, which is histo- rically linked to cinema? The theatrical reality in Los Angeles is certainly not t h r i v i n g . T h e r e a r e m a n y reasons for this. Certainly, at the time of production, one must take into account the needs of the audience, and the Los Angeles spectator is more accustomed to enter- t a i n m e n t t h a n c u l t u r e o r introspection, the real kind, not the rehabilitative kind of the new radical chic gurus. Los Angeles is a beautiful h o t e l w h e r e e x p e r i e n c e s d e p e n d o n t h e r e a s o n b e h i n d t h e t r i p . F e w a r e those who stay, who build. The social fabric is complex. I think that beyond under- standing what can be built in the future, the Italian com- munity should have a thea- t e r t o r e p r e s e n t i t i n L o s Angeles, today. Not only to keep our cultural identity a l i v e b u t t o n u r t u r e o u r natural inclination for social sharing and analysis. Becau- se we Italians are definitely m u c h m o r e t h a n p i z z a , mafia, and mandolin. So the goal is to conti- nue to promote Italian culture in theaters? Yes. I won a call for pro- posals issued by the Italian Cultural Institute with an idea to do a show to celebra- te the centenary of Italo Cal- vino's birth. It will be called Buon Compleanno Italo! and it will be in Italian. A dream of yours? M a k i n g a s h o w a b o u t Eleonora Duse SILVIA NITTOLI Pinocchio, the Wooden Boy becomes an itinerant show Silvia Bottini on stage (Photo: Matteo Ghidoni and Lex Ryan) LOS ANGELES ITALIAN COMMUNITY

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