by Marco Martinelli

One of the most innovative contemporary Italian playwrights, Marco Martinelli is quickly changing the face of Italian theater. Born August 14, 1956, in Reggio Emilia, Martinelli has been involved in theater since 1977 as actor, director, and playwright. In 1983 Martinelli founded Teatro delle Albe, now known as Ravenna Teatro, along with his wife Ermanna Montanari, Luigi Dadina, and Marcella Nonni. Eight years later Martinelli became Artistic Director, a position he still holds today. He has written close to 20 plays, all produced and performed by Ravenna Teatro. One of twenty Italian theater companies the Italian government considers nationally important, the Ravenna Theater is an interethnic community-based theater committed to cross-cultural performance, a commitment best expressed in Martinelli’s oft-quoted “manifesto”: “Give me a theater that is tall and short, philosophy and laughs, tradition and the off-beat, feminine and masculine, white and...