Workshops

The ,,Ion Sava” Centre for Research and Theatrical Creation, in partnership with Piccolo Teatro di Milano and with the “I.L. Caragiale” National Theatre of Bucharest organises, in the time frame 21 – 31 March 2018, a masterclass on Commedia dell`arte given by Italian actor and director Stefano de Luca. The masterclass shall occur daily, from 10.00 – 14.00, respectively 15.00 – 17.00 in the Media Hall of the ,,I.L. Caragiale” National Theatre of Bucharest and aims at initiating and training actors in the commedia dell`arte.

Stefano de Luca has graduated from the Piccolo Teatro di Milano Theatre Academy, under the guidance of Giorgio Strehler. Together with Ferruccio Soleri, he reconstituted the show Harlequin, Servant of Two Masters in the last vision for the stage, signed by Strehler. He was, furthermore, deputy manager of the International Commedia dell'Arte Academy at the famous Piccolo Teatro.

The ,,Ion Sava” Centre for Research and Theatrical Creation is at its 11^th workshop on the Art of the Actor, the first of this kind being held in 2006, through the presence of Ferruccio Soleri, who worked with actors on the methods of commedia dell`arte.

Thus, the “Ion Sava” Centre had, as guests, throughout time: Ferruccio Soleri – The Masks of Commedia dell'arte, 2006, Radu Penciulescu - Shakespeare, 2007 and 2008, Yaemon Yamashina, Yoshito Sekine,Takashi Zenchiku, Noriyoshi Okura and Ryuhei Zenchiku - Japanese Nō Theatre, 2009, Andrei Șerban - The Itinerant Academies from Ipotești, 2011; Mogoșoaia, 2013; Arad, 2016; ARCUB, 2017, Yuri Kordonsky – Chekhov Workshop, 2017. At the end of 2017, the Centre has organized a meeting of the Theatre Academies of Romania – Around the Art of the Actor. Seven Days, Seven Lessons on Theatre, the workshop being a good opportunity for study and debate of the working method in the Art of the Actor.

Invited for 10 days, Stefano de Luca shall work at a sustained pace with the participating actors, in order to deepen the notions of commedia dell’arte. The masterclass is, thus, a tribute paid by the ,,Ion Sava” Centre to the great artist Giorgio Strehler.

Graduate from the Theatre Academy of Piccolo Teatro din Milano, under the guidance of Giorgio Strehler, he finished his studies in 1990, earning the degree in acting and then direction. He participates in seminars held by Peter Brook, Ian McKellen, Cicely Berry (Royal Shakespeare Company), Carolyn Carlson (Piccolo Teatro) and Lev Dodin (Malîi Teatr, Sankt Petersburg).

From 1995 to 1998, he is the directing assistant of Strehler at a series of shows, such as The Island of Slaves by Pierre de Marivaux, The Good Person of Szechwanby Bertolt Brecht, Harlequin, Servant of Two Mastersby Carlo Goldoni and La Grande Magia by Eduardo De Filippo. He further collaborates with Lamberto Puggelli, Carlo Battistoni, Guido Ceronetti.

Together with Ferruccio Soleri, he reconstituted the show Harlequin, Servant of Two Masters in the last vision for the stage by Strehler.                                                                                             He was a deputy manager of the International Commedia dell'Arte Academy at the famous Piccolo Teatro.  The shows directed at Piccolo Teatro include: „Pinocchio, the Story of a Puppet” by Carlo Collodi; „Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry; „Darwin...in the Clouds” by Luca Boschi, Stefano De Luca, Giulio Giorello; La Barca dei Comici by Carlo Goldoni. Other shows include: Platonov (Untitled play) by A. P. Chekhov, presented at the 8th edition of the UTE Festival; Orestes by Vittorio Alfieri, with Massimo Popolizio and Laura Marinoni, for Olimpico Teatro di Vicenza; Ubu King by Alfred Jarry, for the National Theatre of Timișoara, 1999 (in Romanian), where he also directed in 2014 White Nights after F. M. Dostoyevsky; The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie, with Adriana Innocenti; Alcestis by Euripides (in Hungarian), for the Odry Theatre (within the framework of the Theatrical Arts and Film University) from Budapest; Oh, These Ghosts! by Eduardo De Filippo and Henry IV by Luigi Pirandello, at the Radnoti Theatre of Budapest;Baal by Bertolt Brecht and Three Sisters by A. P. Chekhov (in German), produced by the Wilhelma Theatre of Stuttgart.

He founded the independent theatre company Lupusagnus, with whom he enacted the Family Trilogy of Italian playwright Aquilino, Mamma Mammazza (Ringhiera di Milano Theatre), Verginella (Filodrammatici Theatre, Milan), Canicani (Binario 7 di Monza Theatre, Teatro della Cooperativa di Milano).  At Piccolo Teatro, on the occasion of the Goldonian tricentenary, he stages in 2007, La Barca dei Comici and Darwin… in the Clouds, in 2009, a show for children created together with Giulio Giorello and Luca Boschi, in order to celebrate two hundred years since the birth of the English scientist.

His most recent creations include Don Giovanni by Mozart, produced by the Social Theatre of Como and the As.Li.Co Association; the great success from the spring of 2010, The Lovers by Goldoni at Malîi Teatr (Moscow) and at the Piccolo Theatre (Strehler). Still at Malîi in Moscow he enacts, with equal success, Filumena Marturano by Eduardo De Filippo and The Slave of Two Masters by Goldoni.

In 2013, he enacts Othello, created on the occasion of the bicentenary of Giuseppe Verdi, within the framework of As.Li.Co. (Pomeriggi Musicali), performed at Teatro degli Arcimboldi di Milano.

He taught acting and direction classes at the universities of Moscow, Budapest, Stoccarda, Shanghai, as well Scala from Milan. He held courses of commedia dell’arte within the Berkeley, UCLA and GITIS (Moscow) Universities.

Translated by Simona Nichiteanu